As I was growing up, my parents wanted to have a vegetable garden so that we could learn to grow our own food and to save on groceries. We were a large family with 6 kids. I have fond memories of sitting on the porch with my family while snapping the ends of green beans and giggling over events that happened that week. That homegrown food always tasted more delicious.

As the kids grew older and moved out, the vegetable garden became smaller and my mother started to focus more on growing flowers. Since I am the youngest, I had plenty of alone time with my mother. The flowers that I enjoyed the most were her peonies. I remember harvesting the peonies for Memorial Day and placing them on the graves of our loved ones. After I moved away, my mother would give me flower roots and bulbs to place in my own yard and some of them came from my grandmother's garden too.

As my mother's health began to deteriorate, I spent a lot of time helping her, some of which was to help her go outside to enjoy her flowers. There were days that she could not get out of bed, then I would open the curtains for her to see her garden. Looking over the flowers always brought my mother peace.

When she passed in the year 2020, I felt the urge to carry on her love for gardening in my own way. I bought 10 acres of land and started experimenting on what flowers I would want to grow. Then I remembered the peonies that I loved so much. It was like my mother was guiding me in that direction and I chose to name my flower business Blooming Joy because her middle name is Joy.