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Jan 06, 2024

Brenda Shinn's business is blooming with joy

PennyGem’s Chloe Hurst helps you to shop small and support local businesses.

PennyGem's Chloe Hurst helps you to shop small and support local businesses.

KEARNEY – If you have a passion, roll up your sleeves and dig in.

That's the advice of Brenda Shinn, 63, a retired licensed practical nurse. Her two-year-old My Bloomin’ Joy business is blossoming, and so is she. "I just love it," she said.

She grows flowers in her yard, cuts them, creates bouquets in her basement and sells the bouquets in her Bloom Box in her front yard.

"My flowers are cut straight from the garden, ready to put on a table or give to a friend. Flowers are beautiful. The response you get from people who receive flowers is a joy," she said.

Her zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers, salvia and cosmos grow in a garden of 1,800 square feet behind her Kearney home. Between the flowers, she grows greenery such as feverfew, buplerum and spiky bells-of-Ireland. "It was a favorite last year, so I hope I’m able to grow it this year," she said.

Brenda Shinn arranges each bouquet herself, so each is unique.

Shinn, the grandmother of 12, has happily grown "lots and lots" of flowers for years. "My mother-in-law taught me everything I know. She always had beautiful flower beds," she said.

She was inspired to try her hand at selling her flowers by a Michigan flower grower she follows on Instagram, who posted, "Turn your passion into something you love to do. Spread the joy of flowers."

Shinn didn't think she had adequate space for a sprawling flower garden, "but because of that grower's encouragement, I thought, ‘I’m going to try this,’" she said.

The creative Shinn arranges flowers in vases, recycled jars and anything else she can find.

She had no idea what she was doing, but in 2021, she plunged ahead. She planted flowers in the spring. By early July, her zinnias and dahlias were ready, so she cut them and arranged bouquets on a six-foot-long folding table in her laundry room.

She sold them at her home on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings from mid-July until early September. She advertised on Instagram (she's not on Facebook) and put signs in a few intersections in Kearney.

That venture was successful, "but it tied me down a lot, so I wondered, ‘How else can I sell flowers?’" she said.

She came up with The Bloom Box. Built by her husband, it is six feet tall, four feet wide and three feet deep. It's on casters, so on weekends, she places it on her driveway near a cheerful homemade sign that says "self-serve honor system flower stand." She places her bouquets on shelves behind the clear glass doors of The Bloom Box so that they are clearly visible to customers.

"You can look in, see the flowers, open the doors and select a bouquet," she said. She attaches a small instruction card to each bouquet so recipients know how to care for it.

Customers pay through Venmo or put money in a locked drop-box. "Only one time did somebody take a bouquet without paying for it," she said.

Shinn displays her available bouquets in The Bloom Box on her driveway.

Shinn does nearly all the gardening and planting herself. Her first year, she hauled compost uphill, one wheelbarrow at a time, from her driveway to her gardens. "It took me two days. My husband said, ‘Hire somebody,’ so I did. The kids did it in two hours," she said.

Last summer, her husband Mike retired, "so I put him to work helping me cut flowers and harvesting. That takes time," she said.

Shinn said her garden has been "trial and error, like with anything. I figured out what flowers work well in bouquets, and what don't."

She keeps her prices "affordable." "Who wants to go to a grocery store and spend $50 for flowers? I want to keep my prices as reasonable as I can, and just have fun," she said.

This sign tells customers that fresh flowers are ready in The Bloom Box. Shinn sells them on Friday evenings and Saturdays.

Shinn uses no insecticides or pesticides. Her vases are recycled vases, recycled jars, spaghetti jars or "any quart-size jar." Friends often return her vases after they are finished with them.

She also takes orders for bouquets from people who call or text. For a small fee, she will deliver.

Last year, an acquaintance asked her to provide a dozen bouquets for a conference at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She enjoyed doing that, but "I can't get too big. I can't do weddings or funerals, but if someone is having a dinner party and asks me to make up a bouquet, I can do that. I don't want to get too big because I have limited space, but I can grow a lot of flowers in the space I have."

Brenda Shinn, 63, is relishing retirement with her new business, My Bloomin' Joy. The retired licensed practical nurse is the mother of four and grandmother of 12.

As her third year in business approaches, Shinn is still learning, perfecting and experimenting.

This summer, she might move her air-conditioned Bloom Box from her shadeless front yard into the front of the garage because "my poor little air conditioner has a hard time keeping up on hot days."

Next fall, she wants to plant tulips to sell for Mother's Day 2024, so she has ordered "only 300" bulbs. "I say ‘only 300,’ but the supply was pretty picked over when I ordered," she said. "I learned that you have to order by June to be able to plant in the fall. If it goes well, I will order sooner and plant more."

Shinn plants zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers, salvia and cosmos. She plans to plant tulips this fall.

She would like to plant lisianthus, which she learned about from an Aurora friend who has a flower farm. "They’re gorgeous. They look like a rose on long stems, but they’re kind of finicky and hard to start," she said.

She loves peonies, too, but she has no room for them. She put a few flower beds in the front yard last summer, "but we want to keep the yard looking nice."

Also, she would love to build a small hoop house, a moon-shaped building topped with plastic that absorbs sunlight and heat and keeps the ground warm in the winter, but she lacks space. "Hoop houses are essential for some Nebraska flowers, but my husband won't let me take up any more of the backyard," she said.

Shinn places bouquets on shelves behind the clear doors of The Bloom Box so that customers can see them.

This winter, Shinn plans to start a website and compile an email list of steady customers so she can let them know what's about to bloom this summer.

She's thrilled with her new business. "It's fun to meet people who stop by when I’m out checking flowers in Bloom Box," she said.

Shinn stayed home to raise four children during her early years of her marriage. At the age of 45, she became a licensed practical nurse. Now, retired, she said, "If you have a passion, don't let age be a barrier."

"My hobby-turned-business has so many benefits besides gorgeous flowers. The physical and mental benefits are amazing, plus connecting with and observing nature and getting your hands dirty," she said.

"The challenge of this is always, ‘What can I do better?’ It's a lot of fun, but the greatest joy is seeing people light up when they see my bouquets. That's my reward," she said.

Shinn can be reached on Instagram @mybloominjoy.

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