Today we’d like to introduce you to Iris Thomas.
Hi Iris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up in Vermont, my spring and summer days were spent outside — exploring my parents’ garden, harvesting whatever was blooming, and just being completely absorbed by nature. That early connection to the natural world never really left me.
In 2020, I finished my master’s in counseling and started working toward licensure as a professional counselor. For the past six years, I’ve been providing trauma and grief therapy — work that is deeply meaningful to me and that I plan to continue.
About two years ago, I decided to lean into my love of flowers in a more intentional way. I began with self-study, started offering local arrangement deliveries, and eventually established Yarrow Floral. It’s still growing, and honestly, that feels right — it’s been this beautiful creative outlet that brings balance to my life in a way I didn’t fully anticipate.
For me, designing with flowers is a way of moving emotion and energy — there’s something almost therapeutic about it, which makes sense given my background! And designing for people, for their celebrations and special moments, is incredibly fulfilling.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not entirely, but I wouldn’t call it a rough road either — it’s been more of a vulnerable one! Creating Yarrow has stirred up some personal stuff, especially self-doubt, and I’ve tried to meet that as an opportunity to deepen my trust in myself and what I can offer the space. That’s been its own quiet work running alongside everything else.
Pursuing this while being fully present in my therapy practice — work that is so sacred and important to me — has naturally made Yarrow a slow build. It provides a lovely compliment to that work, but holding both means my growth here has been more gradual. I’ve had to intentionally practice the belief that I’m moving at my own pace, on my own path, and that there’s nothing wrong with that. The point isn’t how quickly I can experience success in the floral design world — it’s finding a rhythm that’s sustainable and authentic to my life.
The technical side has had its own learning curve too — understanding the unique needs of each flower, experimenting with the right mechanics for installations, developing stronger business instincts. I try to approach all of it with curiosity and treat every project as something that can improve my skills and open up new creative possibilities.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Yarrow Floral is a design business rooted in creating work that feels organic and expressive — designs that feel less like arrangements and more like something that just belongs in the space. I’m drawn to unique, statement ingredients and I love using them in ways that are whimsical and unconstrained.
My focus right now is building relationships — with local businesses who want their spaces to feel more alive and elevated through subscription florals and events, and with individuals who want their celebrations to feel beautiful and intentional. The relational piece is really important to me. When I’m designing for someone’s personal event or gathering, I want to deeply understand their vision and what they’re trying to create for the people in the room. The flowers are just the vehicle for that!
As a newer business, I’m still growing and learning, and I’m really embracing that. What I bring is a genuine passion for the product and process, and a genuine belief that flowers have the ability to transform a moment or a space in a way that’s hard to put into words.
What matters most to you?
At the core of everything, what matters most to me is presence — learning to sit with the full range of human emotion and experience, and helping others do the same. In my therapy work, that looks like attending to the parts of us that need healing in order to reclaim a sense of self, safety, and connection. With flowers, it looks like building a relationship to the temporary beauty of all living things and designing in a way that adorns our most celebratory moments and brings joy to ourselves and others.
I care a lot about finding ways to slow down and reconnect — to community, to creativity, to something tangible. There’s something really grounding about working with your hands and being in relationship with other people through a creative process. Working with flowers is one of the ways I do that for myself. It grounds me, slows me down, and puts me into a flow state that I don’t find many other places. In a lot of ways, it’s its own form of mindfulness practice.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @yarrow.floral
