Flower Castles with Joshua Bishop

Joshua David Bishop, of Nature Boy & Co, in L.A. tells us of his journey in the floristry industry and how he first got the idea to build flower castles in the sand. Be sure to check out his page on Instagram and tag him the next time you go to the beach to build a flower sandcastle of your own. He wants to start a movement, after all!  And if you are a celebrity - have him do your proposal or wedding! 

Instagram: @natureboyandco

Transcript

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welcome to the Flower Power Podcast, Joshua, David Bishop. Joshua owns Nature Boy Design, and I came across his Instagram and I can't wait for you all to hear about Joshua's design and all his cool ideas. Joshua, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Hello, nice to meet. Nice to talk to you today. You too. So I found you on Instagram, how cool. Mm-hmm. Um, other side of the country. Mm-hmm. Um, you live in la? Yeah, okay, cool. I've never been there. Um, so how long have you been doing floral design? I mean, professionally, maybe four-ish years. Okay. Four or five. Um, I've, you know, years ago I did the flowers for my sister's wedding, and then, uh, a few years back I did my brother's wedding. And then about five years ago, some friends asked me to do their wedding here in la. So I, I did like maybe three friends weddings here. Or sort of in the general area. And then after that I decided to sort of look into doing it as like one more side hustle, you know, just adding it to all the side hustles that I do. But it was definitely a very organic journey. So I freelanced with, uh, florist out here and now I freelance with another wedding florist as well. And so I've been doing that So you are busy on the weekends, like every weekend, like every Saturday you're, uh, yeah. Um, out here, I mean, you know, this year's been tough, with, the fires and things. So, there have been a lot of cancellations in a, like slower months than normal, but. One of the floors that I freelance with does tend to book far in advance. So when, when she is busy, there'll be, uh, weekends that I have been booked all year, you know? Um, and then I work in advance in other capacities as well. So like, yeah, weekends tend to be taken. From me for the most part. Oh my gosh. So how do you like freelancing? Because I haven't done a whole lot of it, but I've really loved it and learned a ton. Yeah. Is that how you feel like you learn a lot and I mean, it's definitely how I've learned everything. I know for sure. Um, because I'm just learning on the job from. Either the people that I work for or the other people I work with, just learning about processing and ordering and here in LA we have the flower market, which is just a magical place and definitely a privilege. So like, I, I would know how to like do an event without that, as, you know what I mean? Like, like in another part of the country, I'd have to. Really learn like where the, where the flowers come from because they're all here for us pretty easily accessible. And then you can order through them as well, you know, so, um, but I've learned a lot through freelancing and, you know, just sometimes getting hired to do something on my own. I'll learn through that process as well, for sure. Um, but I've always been sort of a. A freelancer, bartender, um, waiter, like all of those things.'cause I moved to LA to audition. So the freelance lifestyle is something that I'm kind of used to. And as of now, I'm not sick of. So I'm just sort of like, you know, when it's busy, it's very busy and when it's slow, there's nothing. So it's just kind of like having to prepare for that, you know what I mean? Um,'cause there's not one source of income that is steady enough to be the only one in this way of, of life. So as now I'm sticking with it, the first thing I noticed that very much stood out from, all the different flowers you see on Instagram, all beautiful. Um, but yours, what stood out about it was it was part of a sandcastle. Mm-hmm. So I wanted to talk about that. Have you ever done a sandcastle with flowers for a wedding? I've done one. This, this year. Mm-hmm. Um, and sort of similarly to how you found me, the bride found my Instagram. Okay. And she just was really touched by the concept of the sandcastle, decorated the flowers. Mm-hmm. Um. And so she reached out to me and originally they were gonna be getting married last year, um, and that didn't happen. So I, I was just, excited to possibly get to do it professionally, you know? Um, although that, that wasn't necessarily the goal in the first place. Right. You know? Um, but I am happy that. It did end up working out, and I'm absolutely happy to do it again. Um, and that was a learning experience too, because I've freelanced for weddings that were near the beach. Mm-hmm. But at venues, you know what I mean, that had their own sort of like beach side sort of space. But this was the first time doing a wedding that was on like the public beach in Santa Monica. So you can't reserve space in the same way. You know, there is a company that. You can hire to set up chairs and things for you, but you can't, so they reserve it in that sense.'cause they built, they've like set up things for you, but it's not private in any way. And they had set up the archway as well. So we showed up and just sort of like added the florals to the archway and built a sand castle at the base of the archway. And luckily she was a dream client that was kind of like, do what you want, you know? And like she, of course she had ideas and and desires, but just had a lot of trust. And also because we didn't know even what the schedule was gonna be like, you know, like the day of, you know. So there wasn't the same pressure, I guess that could have been on a more. Sort of structured timeline, if that makes sense. You know, which like we knew, we knew when it needed to be ready by necessarily, but we had sort of all day to like work on it if we, if we needed to, you know. Um, so I've done one where, so were the flowers in little vials, so they had water or did they not need it? Um, that is a good question. So, a friend of mine, I hired to be sort of my assistant for the day, and they're a much more experienced florist than me, um, but had never built a sandcastle. So we did, we did an experiment day together. So I sort of like showed him how I build a sand castle with the molds that I have. Then we just brought a bunch of different flowers and water picks, and we even brought a block of foam just in case. Mm-hmm. Um, because normally when I do them, it's just for fun so like, it doesn't necessarily have to last a long time. And so we did experiment with water picks and in the end we just, it, we realized that it was probably gonna be fine for the amount of time it had to be there. It was funny, like the one thing that we had that we, we thought might need the water pick was the, just the um, Jasmine Vine. Like the flowers seemed to be okay, at least the ones we had actually picked specifically, you know? Um, but the problem is the, those picks, they, when you stick them into the sand, they can destroy the tower or the structure. So that was, you know, it's a good thing we tried that on a day. That was not the wedding day. So if we ended up not. Using any water sources for the sandcastle itself. But, you know, we had a, a cage on the archway that had foam in it. Hmm. So cool. I mean, I'm sure, did you get pictures of little kids going over and all these people, I'm sure on the public beach to get to see that? Yeah. You must have taken so many pictures that happens a lot more on the days that I just go to the beach to do it. Just because, uh, on this day where they had set up the wedding. Was closer to the promenade as opposed to the beach. Mm-hmm. Like the shoreline. So, um, there were definitely people walking by, but they were on the promenade, so they would have to walk all the way over to like, look at it. As opposed to when I build one closer to the water, there's a lot of people walking back and forth and definitely taking pictures and things. Um, but it was such a windy day, windier than normal, so even. Uh, even in the pictures of the sandcastle for the wedding, like there you could see that some of the towers were a little eroded, which had never happened to me before. And of course, no, nobody cared. You know what I mean? It was still a very special, unique thing that's never been done before. Mm-hmm. Um, but that was a learning experience and the, the archway that had been billed for us, um, did almost fall over because of the wind as well. Because nor, you know, normally I'm working with people when we bring the archway too. Mm-hmm. You know, so I had brought a bunch of empty bags to turn into sandbags just in case. And we secured it with fishing line and it was fine, but like literally someone had come over just to watch us and it started falling over and so she helped us and she held it in place. It was so kind of her, and she just held it while we secured it, you know. I feel you, I did that happen to me and the thing actually broke? Oh, no. Luckily we were able to just zip tie, i'm like, I'm sorry. It broke. It was windy. Yeah. Yeah. It was. You know, I should have expected it in a sense. I tried to become prepared. Uh, we thought it was fine. It was already decorated, you know, and what's interesting is the sandcastle side did anchor it more because it was a pile of sand on top of this base, you know what I mean? So maybe next time we just do one on both sides. I don't know. You know, the sandcastle that's so cool was at the base of the arch. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. I definitely need to have a photo of that. Yeah, for sure. So I was wondering when you made your first sandcastle and how that, that is kind of a good question because I'm trying to remember back to the first one, but I feel like it was January 23 maybe. I think I've been doing them on enough for two and a half or so years, I would say. Um, and I just, you know, talked about inspiration or divine inspiration. Literally just woke up in the middle of the night and sat up and was like, sandcastles with flowers. It was just like this thought that maybe I maybe was in the dream that I was having, you know what I mean? But like, and just luckily we, you know. Reminded myself of it again and shared it with other people, which helps me remember too. I was like, I have this thought. I don't know what if it's been done or you, you know. And so it just turned into sort of a creative challenge, which isn't always met. But, uh, the goal originally was just to go once a month.'cause it was away from, you know, we're lucky here in LA that we have beach access all year round and the weather is. Fine, even if the water's cold, you know? Um, and I live maybe 20 minutes from the beach at this point. So it was just kind of this awareness of like, you need to be aware of this gift you have already and you need to take more advantage of it, especially when you have a freelance lifestyle. So you do have random days off and. Um, extra flowers after a wedding. Like sometimes you have that. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. But actually speaking of the flowers, what I tend to do, and this is not, um, an ad for them, but I usually just stop by Trader Joe's on my way. And, um, unless I have a very specific concept that I, you know, like I did for Pride, I wanted rainbow flowers, so I went to the mark for that, you know? Um, and then it, you know, to do the experiment for the wedding, I picked the florals that we were gonna use for the wedding, but a lot of times I'll just, go to Trader Joe's and whatever speaks to me, that's what I get, you know? And Again, the goal was to try to do it once, once a month, but my very first one, I didn't know what I was doing at all. I hadn't built a sand castle in a long time either, you know? That's what I was wondering. Yeah, no, I have been, it's very fancy. I need a lesson on how to build a sand castle first. Well, those, I mean, those are, most of those are molds that I've just got, I ordered and had delivered, you know, I inherited a couple from. Like a friend when I went to the beach once and somehow I ended up with a couple, you know? Um, and sometimes I'll find some that have been abandoned on the beach too, you know, and I'll definitely make sure they've been there a while and then, so now they're mine, you know? Um, but there's some really cool ones that make it, uh, look fancy. And they, I mean, it still like, takes a little bit of skill to like figure out how to, how to use them, you know? But I'm not like a sculptor yet. I'd love to like exper, you know, learn more about that too, you know. Um, but I had a few molds, a couple buckets, and just flowers from Trader Joe's and, uh, I was gonna meet my friend at the beach and. By the time she got there, I think I was already adding flowers or I had a bucket of flowers and the sandcastle was almost done. And she was like, what are you doing? And I was like, uh, I don't really know yet. You know? Um, and it, it was funny'cause we were on the beach, we were part of the beach that was kind of skinny. And I was like, it, you know, is the tide gonna come in? I didn't, you know what I mean? Um, and then just the time of day is an issue too because, you know, I like taking pictures and video of them so I can share them. Which again, is still wasn't the point in the first place either, you know, was not the original point. But like I have learned that it is very important. It's a, it's a part of, uh, this journey too is just, uh, because that's where I'm getting all of this. Uh, lovely feedback from, from strangers, you know, not just in person, but on Instagram as well, which is very special. But the time of day,'cause I'm not a professional photographer either, so it's like the, a lot of times there's harsh shadows and so like I'm just, every time I build one, I learn more about like, okay, if I put a tower there, where's the shadow gonna be? So maybe I don't put flowers there. It's just like. Um,'cause like they can look really beautiful when the sun is sitting behind it, but that means that it's all back lit. You know what I mean? So if I take those pictures, a lot of times I have to do some editing, so it's just been a learning process for everything. The technical side, the video side, and just learning, which again, like usually I just pick up whatever flowers inspire me, but I've learned some of them don't do so well because I'll, like, if I'll try to have a bucket in some water and it, and a little umbrella so they can sit in the shade in the water while I'm building the sand castle, um, so that they're not all floppy by the time I put them in, but sometimes I don't have that, you know? So like certain flowers just. Do better without, they're just heartier. You know, some things I've learned are just gonna be pretty floppy and so I don't use them, you know, at least for. I can see this being, especially in la like the way celebrities propose, like have anybody asked you to do one for a proposal?'cause that would be such a cool thing to have in there. Yeah, that would be really cool. I know. Um, and, and not yet, no, Taylor Swift or like, I know that one's done, but like. Next big, celebrity wedding. It's gotta be with you. I would be so excited on podcast. I know, that would be super fun. Um, so I think it's gonna happen. I predict. Yeah, yeah. Um, definitely. Um, the first, especially the first year, um, I feel like every time I did one, someone walking by just was like. I mean, most people clearly think it's really cool and some people take pictures and stuff. Um, but some people actually like, make conversation and someone. Said it reminded them of their son who had passed away and they thought their son was saying hi, you know? And I was like, oh my goodness. And then another person said they used to be a florist and had quit and they were crying and were like, I think I'm gonna start again. And I was like, oh my goodness. You know that, you know,'cause it's just so nice and refreshing to see something so creative and there's not a bunch of plastic, like, it's just so natural, like in the sand. Which for me, like that's what I try to do is, you know, use local flowers. And I'm sure in California you guys have a lot, of local farms and stuff. Do you try to source, I mean, I guess if you're working for someone else, sort of their call right? Or the couple getting married gets to decide what flowers they want, but is there a push there in California for like local flowers? I know even in our area it's kind of. Becoming a bigger push to Yeah. Source locally. I, I mean, I think because the market is here, and again, I've only been doing this for a few years, so I, I don't have as much experience with the clients and planners and the event industry as some other florist that I work for do. Um, but I think because. Uh, the, the wedding industry here is pretty lucrative too. And also we have the film industry here too. So there's a lot of, premieres and screenings and red carpets and things like that. I would say the push tends to be, at least in, from my perspective, more about, um, creating something new and unique and different, you know, um. And, but also because we have the Flower Mart, which is just filled with, Flowers, and a lot of them are imported, you know? Um, so. Then it does bring you that difference. Right? You, it doesn't look like the same thing they always see in town. No, there's just so many, just so many different options, which is very cool. But I love the, I, I mean, I've been developing just in the back of my brain, like,'cause I love dahlias so much. Mm-hmm. Especially the, like, the huge dinner plate dahlias. Right. And those, those specifically. I don't always see, you know, and then also like sometimes I talk to the vendor and I'm like, when did they come in? And they're like, yesterday. And I don't know how long they're gonna last, you know? But I would love somehow like to find a Dahlia farm or have one, I don't know. You know, like just a place where like you can like do events and. They're just growing around you. I, I don't know, but the idea of local, I mean, I will say like one of the first weddings that I did for friends, um, they just went to the, we were in Santa Barbara and they just went to the farmer's market there. So that was all definitely local, so that concept, especially when it's a little more DIYI, I do like to encourage'cause then. If they're like low key and it's fun for them and they're cool with it, I say, you go and you pick the ones you like and then I'll meet you and the whole experience for the family, like they can go, I'll go. Right. Yeah. So that's happened a couple times where like, because again, they were just friends, so like, it wasn't really a, like a contract or anything, but, um. I got paid a little bit just to do the designing, but like I didn't have to order or source anything. I just met them on the day and they brought the flowers'cause they had picked them. You know, you should listen to my podcast with Ellen Frost. Okay, I will. After I talked to her and I'm new, I've only been doing this three years, um, but after I talked to her. I was like just committed, not as committed, like she will. She is a floor designer, 15, 20 years. Okay. She will not buy anything. She does local only like grown here in, the Virginia, Pennsylvania area. Sure. So it's amazing and she says so many people reach out to her to design for them because they really like that that's her. Mm-hmm. You know, that's sort of part of her brand. Like that's, you know, she's feels really passionate about that. And so I think, I mean, even yesterday I had a call with a bride who's considering using me next May. Mm-hmm. And she said, she goes on this journey. I saw you were a micro Fowler farm. I'm like very, very micro growing all of the flowers. But I will source them'cause it's may, you know, locally. Mm-hmm. Um, for you. And she thought that that was really cool. I mean, she really wanted me to be the one growing them too, but that's a lot. Oh. Yeah, grow everything you end up using one day maybe, but for sure. Yeah. I'm gonna do some research and since I'm going out to California, I wanna research anyway, some of the flower farms. So if there's anything that's close to LA I will have to email you. Oh yeah, let me know for sure. Yeah, I think I had one grower reach out to me just because they saw the sandcastle and so they were like, if you ever need. Flowers let me know. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. So like I have to that. I think I just saw that message today. So that's really cool.'cause then for them, that's a good collab.'cause then, you know, you're both sort of on Instagram, you know their flowers are shining, but you're design and creativity. Yeah. So I'm definitely open for sure to that idea.'cause I, yeah, I think locally is localism. Important, you know, these days. So, but we are a little privileged out here, like, um, you know,'cause you're touching it and just the chemicals, so I, I always say to people I love Trader Joe's and I, I will go there too, but, um, and I love going to Trader Joe's because you, and I'm sure you relate, like you fill your cart and people are just like, who are you? Like who are you buying So many flowers for yourself? Uhhuh Uhhuh. But yeah, just like the chemicals that are on all that stuff, that's, you know, um.'cause I work from my house, so then I, all the extra stuff I use in my room and my bathroom, so my kids are here, you know, so yeah. That's kind of another thing I always think about. Well, I'm putting this in someone's house, like for an event it's different right? But, for when it's going to someone's house, um, yeah. You know, I feel like that's, that should be important to people ordering them, but. I don't know. Um, well, thank you so much, Joshua. I know you have lots, lots going on. Probably a wedding for next weekend, but I'm excited for some famous celebrity to contact you. Probably in the next week. I'm maybe a fortune tell and you are gonna be just all over the place and I'm gonna be like, I just interviewed him. Um, so thank you so much for being on the show. Don't forget to listen to the one with Ellen, lacrosse. You'll, you'll love that. She's so good. You and, um, it was so nice meeting you. So good luck in the future with everything. Thank you so much. Keep following you on Instagram. Thanks for inspiring so many people. You are welcome. Thank you. Bye. And if I go to San Diego and build a sandcastle and put flowers on it, is that okay? As long as I tag you say it's my hi nature boy. Absolutely. Okay. So I want a movement to start. Absolutely. Okay, good. Because that was another question I was like, have people copied you and does that make you mad? But um, just make sure you tag Nature Boy. Instagram, yeah. Nature Boy and Co. And Co on Instagram and I'll put that link in the show notes too. Great. All right. Thank you Joshua. You nice to meet you. Nice meeting you. Bye.