Stemz

Exciting news for Stemz! We are honored to be a recipient of the NC IDEA Rural Impact Grant, receiving $20,000 to further our mission of transforming the local wholesale flower industry and strengthening our deep roots in rural communities This funding will help Stemz continue to: ? Strengthen rural supply chains ? Improve farm infrastructure ? Create jobs & foster economic growth ? Support sustainability for long-term impact A huge thank you to NC IDEA and Wells Fargo for their continued commitment to rural entrepreneurs and small business innovation. Stemz is proud to be a previous recipient of the NC IDEA ‘20 MICRO and ‘21 SEED grants, and we’re excited to keep building on this momentum! We look forward to what’s ahead—stay tuned... #FindStemz #NCIDEA #RuralEntrepreneurship #LocalFlowers #FloralIndustry #BusinessGrowth #Sustainability #SmallBusinessSuccess #femalefounders Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Calypso Habermehl Winston Starts Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund Lauren McCullough Michael G. Paul Harrison https://lnkd.in/e7DfieMu

It's the first week of Stemz' 2025 Spring season! We're back in action, gathering amazing early season Valentine's flowers + foliage from NC & VA farmers for our floral creatives from Charleston to Raleigh to Charlotte. With the launch of our new season, Stemz has created a new blog to help our clients understand more of what goes into local flowers - from growing, to pricing to distribution and more. Check out our most recent post about supporting local farmers with regionally-grown flowers this Valentine's Day. Remember, more than 80% of flowers you'll be sending this holiday are grown overseas....it's a statistic that often gets lost in the mix, but is not lost on local farmers. Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Calypso Habermehl Margo Greenawald Winston Starts Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund

Stemz is excited to announce a new distribution partnership to extend our reach into the growing South Carolina floral market - and just in time to hit the volume rush of Valentine's Day! South Carolina Specialty Cut Flowers (SCSCF) has over 75 years of experience in the import floral industry, and our partnership creates a streamlined one-stop-shop for floral creatives, while leveraging SCSCF's larger distribution network to increase access to local flowers while boosting Stemz’ profitability and market influence. Our distribution partners have seen attachment rates of 60%+ by added Stemz as part of their service, and the partnerships allow Stemz to focus more on building in-demand supply with local farmers and improving our tech vs focusing resources on delivery. Exciting times ahead for local flowers! Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso NC IDEA Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund Winston Starts Paul Harrison Michelle Goff Lauren McCullough Calypso Habermehl John Watson Barber

Stemz' first Annual Farm Partner meeting was an incredible day, filled with ideas, collaboration and insightful planning for next year & beyond! With over 70 farmers now part of Stemz, getting our strategic partners together is crucial for growth in 2025 as we continue to expand and scale. Next year will bring new routes, more buyers & huge sales for our farms - all efficiently managed by our custom tech and expert team. Thanks to Winston Starts for their continued support and helping us host these key stakeholders from NC, SC and VA in such a beautiful space. Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Calypso Habermehl Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund Michael G. Lauren McCullough

STEMZ serves floral creatives & local farmers across Western North Carolina. There aren’t words to capture what they've been through with Hurricane Helen. Entire structures, studios, fields & livelihoods were erased overnight. ? STEMZ' clients & farm partners are coming together as a floral community and show our WNC flower family how much we love & support them. STEMZ is making an immediate impact by donating 10% of Live Field Inventory & Priority Advance Order promo proceeds in direct relief to those in our network with dire needs for funding. We are also working with established organizations who have infrastructure + resources to help mobilize on-the-ground work teams, and continue to send funding relief where it's needed most. ? The road to recovery is a long one, and STEMZ is committed to standing with our floral community now & in the future. Scroll to learn more. ? Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Calypso Habermehl Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund Lauren McCullough Paul Harrison Michael G. NC IDEA NC IDEA LABS (formerly Groundwork Labs) Winston Starts ? #ncflorist?#scflorist?#vaflorist?#ashevilleflorist?#ashevillewedding?#wncflorist?#ashevilleflowers?#slowflowers?#hurricanehelene?#charlestonflorist?#raleighflorist?#durhamflorist?#triadflorist?#wilmingtonflorist?#localflowers?#sustainablefloristry?#findstemz #floralindustry

STEMZ is adding another new route for our peak Fall season! We're starting service to Wilmington, NC in light of the area's high concentration of floral creatives & destination events, leading to a huge demand for local flowers + foliage. It's the perfect next step in our continued path to scale! From starting in just the Piedmont Triad, we've now expanded routes to Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Asheville, Wilmington and are planning to add even more in 2025 across our region. Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Paul Harrison Lauren McCullough Michael G. Winston Starts Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund Calypso Habermehl

STEMZ continues to grow! With new routes this Fall to serve even more floral creatives & farmers across the Mid-Atlantic region, we've welcomed several team members to help manage our expansion. Excited to see how their talent can help us change the floral industry as we begin to scale even further. Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund Winston Starts High Country Impact Fund Lauren McCullough Michael G. Paul Harrison

STEMZ just released a series of quarterly forecasting reports for Early Spring + Spring 2025 to our farm partners & on-demand growers. ? Guidance is golden, especially when it’s based on data-driven sales history, specific regional trends and buyer feedback - and we love fulfilling this need as asking what to grow is one of the top questions we get from farmers joining our community. ? Grow Guides / Trend Forecasts have been a cornerstone of the STEMZ philosophy since we started. Growing what sells makes our farmers more profitable, and gives our buyers more of the locally-grown beauty they crave. ? Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso #localflowers?#localflorist?#seasonalflowers?#ncflorist?#ncflowers?#springflowers???#slowflowers?#slowfloralstyle?#designlocal?#ncfarmers?#ncfarm?#flowerfarmer?#flowerfarm?#flowerfarming?#scflowers?#vaflowers?#sustainableflowers?#americangrownflowers

Heard of the slow food movement? That trend has now fully moved to flowers, and Stemz is perfectly poised to fulfill the demand through innovative tech & distribution systems, making local flowers easy for all. About two-thirds of consumers say it's important that the flowers they purchase are locally-grown, according to the?2023?National Gardening Survey, a market research report (source: Inc. Magazine, article link below). https://lnkd.in/eVPwtGfM Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Lindsay Piper Potter-Figueiredo Calypso Habermehl NC IDEA Winston Starts Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund High Country Impact Fund #slowflowers #localflowers #floralindustry #florists #femalefounders

In the floral industry, Mother's Day is our Super Bowl! It's the absolute biggest week of the year in sales, and our farm partners grew the volume we needed to make this year a complete success! Our initial scale up in this region happened just in time to handle the amount of orders - with farmers now in NC, SC and VA, three flower coolers at our 3 hubs (WS, Raleigh & CLT) + new fleet vehicles for pick-ups & deliveries - we're feeling the local flower love & proving the concept that the demand is out there and waiting for the STEMZ solution! Amy Dunlap Claire King Parrish India LoFaso Lindsay Piper Potter-Figueiredo Calypso Habermehl Winston-Salem Partners Roundtable (WSPR) Fund Winston Starts High Country Impact Fund NC IDEA https://lnkd.in/eAPCq_7y