Ep. 99: Sustainable Floristry and Foam Free Design with T.J. McGrath
About this episode
T.J. McGrath discusses his journey to sustainable floristry and the importance of foam free design in the floral industry.
T.J. McGrath spent years in advertising, marketing, and retail before he ever touched a flower professionally. He was one of nine kids and never had a garden growing up. Then his partner told him he was miserable, pointed him toward a little shop with a flower cooler two towns over, and everything changed. Today T.J. runs an entirely foam free studio in New Jersey, grows his own flowers at a cutting garden called Jardin de Buis, and teaches designers around the world how to work without single use plastic. In this conversation he is honest about all of it, including the part where he was the one who brought floral foam into the shop in the first place. In this episode: * Why T.J. walked away from a job offer with medical benefits in the middle of a pandemic, and what his partner said that made the decision for him * The real reason floral foam is only a small piece of the sustainability picture, and what the industry keeps missing * What he tells students who freeze at the design bench because they are afraid of doing it wrong * The single most powerful thing a flower lover can do to change the floral industry, and it takes about thirty seconds If this conversation moves…
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