It’s been a big year for Miriam Housley. At the beginning of this year, she opened a second shop location for Foxglove Flowers. Then, in the spring, her shop was featured not once, but twice on the popular Hulu show “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
Housley has been at the helm of Foxglove Flowers for seven years. For those who know her, it’s unsurprising that she has made it a success. But owning a business was never Housley’s plan.
The woman who changed her life
Housley has always had a creative mind and a passion for the arts. After taking a floriculture class in high school, she liked it enough to begin working at the Flower Basket Boutique in Provo while studying illustration at Brigham Young University. That’s where she met Courtney Carnell.
Carnell worked as Housley’s manager. A few years later, when Carnell decided to open her own shop, she knew she wanted Housley on board.
“Miriam is special,” Carnell says. “[The] one person … that I have ever worked with that I will pound down her door to get her to come back and work with me.”
Carnell hired Housley as the first employee of the brand-new Foxglove Flowers — Foxglove for short. Housley recalls helping with many of the details, such as painting shelves, building the flower cooler, planting succulents in little pots and helping with the Foxglove’s wedding “menu” design.
“Foxglove would never have been Foxglove without her, in terms of the original conception,” Carnell says. “It most definitely is what it is today because of her.”
Housley even helped facilitate conversations with the owner of Flower Basket Boutique, which Carnell bought and closed.
Carnell knew she wanted Foxglove to be different from other flower shops. Instead of offering pre-designed floral arrangements, she established a “flower bar,” where anyone can come in and explain their personal style to the florist behind the counter. The florist then curates a one-of-a-kind bouquet unique to the style described.
“We wanted the process of purchasing flowers to be a very custom and very curated experience where people would have an actual interaction with the process of the flowers. Because buying flowers is always an emotional purchase. Always,” Carnell says. “So we really made the process … a unique experience that was curated to a person’s specific needs and wants, key.”
Carnell’s husband, Ryan, likened the experience to a scene that plays out in many idyllic movies. Someone sits at a bar, shares their life story and is greeted with compassion, wisdom and advice. Both Ryan and Courtney Carnell say Housley is the flower shop owner who really connects with the people who come through the door.
“Miriam is the person behind the flowers, and [people] keep coming back because they see her as that ear of wisdom and love that creates that experience for them,” Ryan says.
When Housley graduated in 2016 with a degree in illustration and got a 9-5 job as a graphic designer, it was a bittersweet goodbye for Courtney.
“It was so hard to lose her, not only from a work and scheduling [standpoint] and having someone that’s so capable and reliable, but also she’s my friend,” Courtney says.
Then, Courtney gave birth to her son.
After years of struggling with fertility issues and enduring a dangerous and complicated pregnancy, Courtney gave birth to Dean Carnell, who was born three months premature and weighed a mere 1 lb 14 oz. Housley, who remained close with the Carnells and continued to freelance as a florist for Foxglove, remembers thinking he looked as small as a dollar bill.
Courtney describes Dean — now 8 years old — as a “beautiful and thriving ball of energy.” But when he was born, he required a high level of medical care and intervention — so much so that Courtney and Ryan Carnell realized they couldn’t take care of both their flower shop and their son.
As they deliberated over what to do with Foxglove, one name kept coming up in conversation: Miriam Housley.
“Miriam is one of the only people who is not only capable [but] can keep the vision going, expound it and make it bloom,” Courtney says.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
As much as she loved flower arranging, working with weddings and the day-to-day aspect of working in a flower shop, Housley says she never imagined doing it forever. It was physically challenging and could lead to burnout. As for owning her own business, that was never her plan.
“I [studied] illustration in school, and I ended up at the end of school actually pivoting and just finding a graphic design job because I ironically didn’t want to work for myself,” Housley says.
When the Carnells sat down with her to discuss her buying Foxglove, it was a bit of a shock. However, the more Housley spoke with people, the more she heard stories about people who had the opportunity to start a business or buy a business but didn’t take it. Those stories of regret inspired her to take the leap.
Luckily, Housley wasn’t starting entirely from scratch. Foxglove had been in business for two years and was doing well — well enough that the Carnells admit they could have gone a more lucrative route, but it wasn’t just about the money.
“We cared more about making sure that Foxglove survived as Foxglove,” Ryan says.
Courtney adds, “Not just survive, but thrive. That was far more important to us than monetary gain.”
“I was not the poster girl for wanting to be a business owner. But after you get into it and you sort of get into the lifestyle and that ambitiousness gets fed, it’s kind of hard to stop.”
— Miriam Housley
Despite Foxglove’s success, business ownership wasn’t an easy transition for Housley. Her first year owning the shop was full of personal highs and lows, including marrying her husband and then mourning the death of her father, as well as professional highs and lows.
“There was a day that I … slept on the couch in the shop because I was learning how to manage people, and learning how to schedule people and learning how much I could take,” Housley says. “But it got easier and easier. I love it now.”
Make it Foxglove-y
Housley has maintained the Carnells’ original vision that Foxglove Flowers would never be a wire service florist offering specific, pre-made arrangements. It’s not the place you go to buy a dozen red roses. It doesn’t even carry red roses. Instead, customers find unique — even “weird” — flowers they won’t find anywhere else.
“I think some [florists] are scared to get stuff that they don’t know how to use or they’re afraid the customers won’t like it,” Housley says.“People come to us because we have the weird stuff and they trust us to do it.”
It can be scary to go against expectations, but Housley’s commitment to keeping Foxglove unique is part of what’s made it a success.
“We have people say … ‘Make it Foxglove-y,’” Housley says. “It’s kind of become a catchphrase for our style.”
From providing flowers for a Ferrari event to building a mossy pond, it seems like there isn’t anything Housley can’t, or won’t, do.
“I like being a place [where] we kind of do everything,” she says.
Learning to be a business owner certainly came with a steep learning curve. Housley admits one of the hardest lessons she had to learn was how to delegate tasks, a lesson she’s had to put into practice even more with the opening of Foxglove’s second location in Murray.
“It is scary, but it is worth it to delegate enough [so] you can work on other projects,” Housley says. “It’s made more things possible for us.”
Making genuine connections
Housley cares about her clients and customers in a way that turns many of them into lifelong friends, like Christopher Jones and his daughter Sofia.
Jones moved to Provo with his family in 2016 to teach history at BYU. After visiting Foxglove to purchase a bouquet of flowers for his wife’s birthday, and getting to know Housley a bit, Jones knew it was the perfect place to bring his then 6-year-old daughter for their annual Valentine’s Day date. Understandably, Jones says, the flower shop was incredibly chaotic.
“Despite that, [Miriam] set everything aside and she took Sofia back into the refrigerator where they keep the flowers and let her pick out each and every flower to put into a small bouquet,” Jones says. “Sofia just thought it was the greatest experience.”
Jones says Sofia talked about the experience for weeks. The following year, when it came time for their traditional daddy-daughter date, she wanted to know if they would return to Foxglove and see Housley. Jones says he first checked in with Housley to make sure it would be okay, and also asked if there was a better time for them to come by.
“[Housley] said, it doesn’t matter if we’re busy. I’ll take the time for you,” Jones says.
Sofia is 13 now, and she’s visited Foxglove with her dad for seven years running. Jones says the one-on-one time he gets with his daughter is special, but he also values the time Sofia gets to interact with Housley.
“Sofia has her own professional ambitions and seeing a smart, capable, independent business owner like Miriam has been really inspiring to her,” Jones says. “It’s not just that she prepares awesome flowers and takes time for us, it’s also that [she’s] another female role model that my daughter can look up to.”
It seems like Housley is just getting started. While there are no current plans for future Foxglove locations, Housley’s new projects include mentoring other flower shops and hosting pop-up events with other small business owners. Housley says that someday, maybe she’ll even branch out from flowers and own another type of business.
“I was not the poster girl for wanting to be a business owner,” she says. “But after you get into it and you sort of get into the lifestyle and that ambitiousness gets fed, it’s kind of hard to stop.”
One thing is for sure: as Housley’s ambitions grow, so will her community. Her genuine interactions with customers and clients have led to numerous lifelong friendships.
“Sometimes, I think about my funeral someday, and I hope that my customers — or people who I met through work — will come to my funeral and share memories,” Housley says. “It’s a nice thought to be able to be involved in that way.”
It’s safe to say that the distant event will be extremely well attended. And I bet the flowers will be beautiful.