Ep. 146: How Colleen Raney is Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand

Ep. 146: How Colleen Raney is Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand

From Botanical Brouhaha Podcast by Amy McGee

March 18, 2026 · 1h 5m · Season 10 · Episode 146

About this episode

Colleen Raney shares her unconventional journey from aerospace engineering to founding a sweet pea seed company.

Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand In this episode (Ep. 146), we sit down with Colleen Raney, founder of Songbird Seed Co and Diadem Flower Co. If you love a great story, this one's for you. Colleen's path into the flower world is anything but conventional. From studying aerospace engineering and training as a professional actor, to performing Irish music internationally, to building a flower farm in Maine, to moving the farm to Washington—and ultimately launching a specialty sweet pea seed company—Colleen's story is full of pivots, curiosity, and entrepreneurial strategy. And don't even get us started on her sense of humor! Colleen shares how a season of burnout and big life shifts led her to the garden—and how a simple fascination with sweet peas slowly grew into a thoughtfully built seed company. Our conversation wanders through topics like creativity, business strategy, and the realities of building something in the floral world, all anchored by the sense of wonder that keeps pulling us back to flowers. Join us as we chat with Colleen about: Starting a flower farm in Maine and building a thriving local floral business Moving back to the West Coast and adapting to a different…

People in this episode

Host: Amy McGee

Guest: Colleen Raney

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Songbird Seed Co, Diadem Flower Co

Places: Maine, Washington

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