Flowers are everywhere — graduations, birthday parties, funerals, anniversaries. Though they serve the primary purpose of bringing beauty to every situation, they also have the power to uplift people in bleak moments, and that’s what Adanna Omeni hopes to promote through her business, 1 Blossom 2 Bloom.

Omeni started floral arranging when she was going through postpartum after the birth of her child. She would receive flowers and be unimpressed with the way they were arranged, wanting to do better. She realized it was the creative outlet she needed to bring light to her life during this difficult experience in her life.

Omeni’s first official sale of her arrangements didn’t come until some time later, but when it happened Omeni knew she could expand the craft into more than just a hobby.

“Flowers became like a healing space,” Omeni said. “And I was like, ‘I can help other people with that.’”

At the beginning of her career, Omeni primarily created arrangements at local markets and small weddings, until she got the opportunity to participate at Art in Bloom, the North Carolina Museum of Art’s five-day floral fundraiser.

She was assigned to create a “floral flash” for the event, which is when a trash can is filled and designed with flowers. Omeni’s theme was Boxyard, paying homage to the 15,000 square-foot space in the Research Triangle Park where startups in the area can build their brand in the unique space filled with upcycled shipping containers.

Omeni created her floral flash with inspiration from the flower mural Boxyard has on the side of their building. When she was observing the mural, she met someone who informed her that she could have her own business in the space.

Inspired by the possibility of owning her own space to house her floral creatives, Omeni applied for a space at Boxyard. On her fourth application, everything fell into place, and Omeni finally found the place to expand her business and share her creations with more people.

“It’s propelling us forward, but it’s at a pace we want to be at,” she said.

Omeni, along with her managing partner Aaron “AJ” Walton, has been at Boxyard RTP since September and will remain in the space until February.

Walton was initially asked to join Omeni’s business in the spring of 2024 to help with her pop-up at this year’s Art in Bloom Festival. He officially joined the business after moving back to North Carolina, where he grew up and went to college, from New York, where he was working in a corporate PR-centered job.

The partnership came naturally, both because of Omeni and Walton’s existing relationship that developed from being childhood neighbors in Gates County and because of Walton’s ownership of a flower farm in Sanford.

One of the most important things to Omeni is ensuring — to the best of her ability — that the flowers she sells are local. Walton’s co-ownership of a flower farm made the process a little easier and helped Walton to transition into the creative space working at 1 Blossom 2 Bloom more seamlessly.

“And so what’s been really cool for me is that I get to see the farm to table, if you will,” Walton said. “Seeing the process of here’s what’s happening with the process of growing and here’s what happens when it actually comes to the flower shop.”

1 Blossom 2 Bloom also means more than just its existence as a business to Walton, and especially Omeni as the main florist, because less than 3 percent of florists in the United States are Black.

When customers visit 1 Blossom 2 Bloom or purchase flowers at a pop-up, they often assume Walton is the owner of the business, which speaks to how people see Black women in society, Walton said. Continuing to grow and build 1 Blossom 2 Bloom uplifts Omeni’s self-image and cements her position within society and in her own mind.

“I’ve always been something to someone else,” she said. “1 Blossom 2 Bloom is mine and it’s something I created in this world just for me.”

Through her work, Omeni wants to uplift the Durham community and those around her, especially in difficult times.

After the election results, Omeni and Walton said they felt hopeless existing as minorities in the United States. Walton then noticed a bunch of marigolds in the store that hadn’t been designated to be sold yet. Rather than wasting the flowers or simply selling them, Walton gathered the flowers and placed them in various buckets around the city with the sign “Life is hard, take a stem,” attempting to brighten Durham residents’ spirits after the election through a simple gesture.

“In a moment where I felt powerless, I thought maybe I can offer a glimmer of hope on a day that felt kind of bleak,” Walton said. “And I love the way that flowers have the power to do that.”

Flowers can be present at almost any occasion in one’s life, and their purpose is so much deeper than what it appears on the surface. The light they shine in every moment is what Omeni hopes to promote through her art and business.

She plans to continue to bring brightness to those dark moments or to enhance the beauty of the already exciting ones, despite how she and her practice can often be overlooked by society. Omeni powers through, propelling the concept of living life the way that she wants to, despite outside opinions.

“When I started 1 Blossom 2 Bloom, it was definitely about living life to its fullest extent and realizing that in this moment, just like a flower, this is your opportunity to bloom without question, without judgment, without anything,” she said. “And that’s what I hope I express to people as a Black florist that you get to be.”

 

Edited by Emily Gessner and Olivia Gschwind