Business is blooming: Love of flowers inspires sisters to set up shop at Fishers’ Hub & Spoke

0

A love of wildflowers inspired two young entrepreneurs who now operate their own flourishing flower-cart business at Hub & Spoke in Fishers.

Reece Dunkin, 12, and Piper Dunkin, 11, said they really love flowers, and every night they would go out with their family to pick wildflowers on their property in Cicero.

“And it was really fun, and we loved it,” Reece said. “And we wanted to share that.”

Piper agreed with her big sister and business partner.

“We just went out every night and picked flowers, and I wanted to share the joy with everyone else,” she said.

The girls also had an interest in learning business skills, they said, and so they decided with their parents to combine those interests. They reached out to Hub & Spoke.

“I had the contact information of David Decker, the owner of Hub & Spoke,” Reece said. “I basically asked him, ‘Hey, can I put this cart here?’ And he loved our idea.”

It was a little more complicated than that. They wrote up a business plan and submitted a drawing of the cart with detailed dimensions. They named their fledgling business Wispy Willow Flower Farm.

Decker said he was excited about the girls’ proposal when he first received an email from them.

“I thought their idea was passion-driven, showed creativity, work ethic, and had a great mission in bringing joy to others,” he said. “I am excited for Reece and Piper to continue to hone their passions and entrepreneurial skills. I’m certain they will look back from a successful future and reminisce of their younger entrepreneurial experiences and what they learned on the journey. At Hub & Spoke, we are happy to help foster growth and development within the community.”

Reece said they ordered 6,000 tulip bulbs to kick off their new business.

“We planted them in our garden beds, and they grew into what we have,” Reece said. “They’re really an Easter flower, so we figured they’d be nice to sell at Easter time.”

Cultivating tulip bulbs for sale requires a different strategy from growing them in a personal garden. For example, when a bloom is almost ready to open, they dig up the entire plant, bulb included, and store it in a cold place. Reece said that the energy in the bulb helps preserve the flower for a longer time. That way, as they need to refresh the flower cart display, they have a stock of flowers ready to cut and arrange.

But, she said, they’ll have to buy more bulbs next year.

“You can’t keep the bulb after you cut (it off the stem) to make your bouquets because there will be no energy stored up,” she said.

Piper said they spend a lot of time in the garden, especially when the weather warms up.

“Because when it gets warm, they all just kind of go at the same time,” she said, adding that although the work is fun, it does get a little repetitive after a while.

The sisters have sold about 80 bouquets, most in the first couple of weeks. Reece said their tulips were especially popular around the Easter holiday.

“We basically leave a cart here all day and restock flowers every day,” she said. “And when they die, we just replace them with new ones.”

They don’t have far to go. The girls attend Acton Academy, which meets at the multi-use Hub & Spoke development.

The cart is not monitored. It operates on an honor system, and customers pay for flowers using Venmo or PayPal. There’s also a money slot on the cart for those who prefer to pay in cash. If a customer wants to special-order a bouquet, they can send a message through the business’ Instagram account, @wispywillowflowerfarm.

With tulip season ending, the sisters are looking ahead to different flowers for their cart, such as cosmos, freesia, dahlia and more. Piper said her favorite are sunflowers, because they’re so big and beautiful, and Reece said she likes black-eyed Susans.

The young businesswomen also will be providing flowers for three events over the summer. One is a flower bar for a bridal shower, another is flowers for a wedding, and the third is a business event.

Briana Dunkin is their mother, and she said they wanted to encourage the girls, who were eager to learn new skills and earn some money, but with a home-based business because of their young ages.

“They could learn things and then also apply that information to business interactions here and earn money for their future,” Briana Dunkin’ said, “So it was kind of all-encompassing — to teach them entrepreneurial skills and just how to how to grow a garden, how to grow flowers. And it’s really reconnected them with some of their friends from other schools too, because their parents will reach out. So that’s been a nice surprise out of it.”

CIF COM Cover FlowerGirls 040923 5 copy
Piper Dunkin (left) and Reece Dunkin ordered thousands of tulip bulbs to kickstart their new business. (Photo courtesy of Briana Dunkin)

About Hub & Spoke

Hub & Spoke is a multi-use development with retail, recreational, educational and co-working opportunities.

The center was developed through a partnership between Hub & Spoke, the City of Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern Schools and Purdue Polytechnic High School, according to Hub & Spoke. Its 94,000 square feet includes a design center with retail showrooms, the “Community Connect” co-working space, and a makerspace for project and work-based learning.

The Community Connect space also is available for events, with indoor-outdoor connections and easy access to the Nickel Plate Trail.

The Makerspace, run in conjunction with the City of Fishers Parks Dept., offers equipment, tools and technology, including 3-D printers, metalworking tools and more. It also offers classes and workshops.

The Hub & Spoke Institute is the educational component to the development. The partnership between the developer, the city, the school district and Purdue Polytechnic provides hands-on technical career training along with the required curriculum to high school students who then graduate with college credits, or with the skills and certificates needed to successfully enter a career of their choice.

For more, go to hubandspoke.works.


Current Morning Briefing Logo

Stay CURRENT with our daily newsletter (M-F) and breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox for free!

Select list(s) to subscribe to



By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Share.

Current Morning Briefing Logo

Stay CURRENT with our daily newsletter (M-F) and breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox for free!

Select list(s) to subscribe to



By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact