Give Men Flowers Before the Funeral

Brandon Andres Green, host of Good Neighbor Podcast Tulsa, sits down with Lyndie Mather of Lyndie Loves Flowers to talk about locally grown flowers, Oklahoma flower gardening, and how a simple bouquet can carry more meaning than most people realize.

Lyndie shares how one flower arranging class helped spark a deeper dive into cool-season flowers, warm-season flowers, backyard growing, and the quiet work behind turning seed, soil, and patience into something beautiful. From zinnias and weeds to winter compost and prep, she explains why flowers often begin long before anyone sees the bloom.

This conversation also goes beyond gardening. Lyndie talks about the meaning behind a bouquet you grew or arranged yourself, why flowers matter in moments of crisis, and how they can become a simple way to care for people while they are still here to receive it.

You’ll also hear the lessons her flower business has taught her about hope, resilience, seasons, comparison, and trusting the process when the garden does not look impressive yet. For anyone interested in gardening, flower arranging, local flowers, small business, or finding beauty in ordinary places, this episode is a gentle reminder to pay attention.

Do not wait until the funeral to give someone flowers.

Transcript

Welcome And The Power Of Blooms

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Brandon Andris Green.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Fresh flowers can change the feeling of a room, a celebration, or even just an ordinary day. And when those flowers are grown locally from seed, there's an entire story behind every single bloom. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Lindy Mather, with Lindy Loves Flowers. Hey Lindy, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Going great. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

You're so welcome. We're real excited to learn all about you and Lindy Loves Flowers and the business. You're growing one seed at a time.

How A Bouquet Class Sparked It

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Will you tell us about your flower business and kind of what you're building through this business?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yes. Um, I would say about four years ago, I just saw a little ad on Facebook, and it was like an offer, I think it was at the Philbrook Museum, to come and do a bouquet arrangement class. And I went just because I wanted to, and we had fresh like wildflowers in the field behind our house. So I wanted to know how to arrange. And I caught some kind of bug there and immediately started ordering seed for the next um season, and just slowly one thing turned into another. And I got into a big deep dive of the difference between cool season flowers and warm season flowers, which opened a whole new world to me. And I really don't do it for profit as much as just for my own personal pleasure. And I don't know why, but I get tremendous pleasure from it. I feel like it's kind of an old lady hobby, but um I think everyone should have some fresh flowers in their lives.

What Lindy Grows In Oklahoma

SPEAKER_01 1:56

So, what all are you growing?

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Well, right now we're in the warm season, and the main thing I'm growing are zinnias, and in Oklahoma, especially zinnias are foul proof. Everyone can grow zinnias by just throwing them in the ground. Um, dahlias are another one that I love to grow. They're a little bit trickier in Oklahoma. Um, of course, roses and sunflowers and eucalyptus and different fillers, um, salosha, to name a few.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Has it been hard or easy?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Um, every year I learn a lot. I would say um every year brings its own challenges. So it's easier every year, but weather changes everything. And I don't know if you remember, but earlier this winter we had a really warm month and it kind of caused everything to bloom way too early, and it messed up things even now that are suffering because of just the cycle of weather. But it's really easy.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

What would you say is something about growing flowers that maybe looks easy from the outside, but in reality is much harder than people even realize?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

I think the number one thing is um, which I've just learned this year, really, is the soil matters the most. And you can throw seed in soil, but if you want amazing flowers, you have to begin in the winter to prep soil. When everything looks dead, you have to amend the soil with compost and weeds are a huge thing that can be a surprising difficulty. But um finally working on the soil, I just used to think it's not that big of a deal. But once I

Soil Prep That Makes Flowers Thrive

SPEAKER_02 3:50

really got into prepping the beds before I even think about flowers, that's when I had the best flowers.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So are you still using that field out back, or how are you producing your flowers?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yeah, um, there's still wildflowers in the field that I use, but in the last couple years, I have just put flower beds, probably making my family go crazy, but all over the yard. So um we had some really good friends come when I almost gave up on my biggest flower bed, and I just it was just so full of weeds. And they came and they cleaned it all out for me, and I got to start over and start clean, and so I have flower beds in the back and on all the sides of the house.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Nice. And do you ever find yourself uh driving next to the highway or the road and wanting to just pull over with some scissors and uh get those wildflowers?

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Absolutely, and I'm always wondering: did people go out and plant those seeds or are they just from God? It's probably a little mixture of both.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Has there been a flower that surprised you the most either because it's so beautiful, or maybe it's just absolutely refused to cooperate?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Um honestly, I think it would be zennias. They're the ones that are the easiest. And um, there's this lady, she's really probably the reason I got into flowers on Instagram. It's called Florette Flowers, and she's in Washington, and she has curated flower zinnas that like in Oklahoma, we're used to really bright orange, red, and yellows. Um, but she has made like these seeds um that are just pale, like really soft, like strawberry, um just like the softest pastels and with really delicate, you know, leaves and flower petals that are different than most of the zinnias that you find anywhere. And those have been really surprising how gorgeous they can be, just because they're so pale and they're just um the the there's uh several that I grow now that have an ombre of colors, so they'll start like a really deep at the petal deep pink and go all the way almost to a white, and they're just amazing, they fascinate me, and I think they have surprised me the most at just the intricacy.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

They're gorgeous, huh?

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Have you had any meaningful interreact uh reactions from someone that you've given some bouquets to?

Why Giving Flowers Hits Deeper

SPEAKER_01 6:45

I know that uh everyone loves receiving flowers.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Oh, yeah. Um, definitely. Probably the most recent, my best friend's grand or mother was diagnosed with cancer and immediately in the hospital with surgeries. And um, I was able just to make her a bouquet of flowers for them to take her like every other day, the whole time she was in the hospital. And things like that's always meaningful. And of course, everybody loves flowers, and if you cut them yourself, it's even more meaningful. And then I have them all over my house too. So um everybody's always really appreciative, and I think most people would love to try it, but they feel like it's too hard. But I like to show people by giving them a bouquet that they can do this, it's so easy, even if you have kids and you work and all of those things, you can still tend a little garden in your backyard.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, I think everyone does love receiving flowers. I think it's crazy that half the population only receives flowers once in their life, and that's when they're dead. As a male, as a male, no one ever gives me flowers. Um, but I know that when someone dies, it is customary to buy flowers for their caskets. So it feels like most of the male population never receives flowers their entire life until they're dead, and then they get a whole bunch.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

That's so sad.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So I want to encourage our listeners to start buying flowers for males as well. I think I think everyone loves to receive them. Have you found there's anything um that feels different about giving locally grown flowers versus just giving someone flowers purchased from the grocery store?

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Absolutely. I think it would be equivalent to um a friend who has a baby and you know go buy them a pizza at Mazio's versus a homemade meal. It's a similar feeling. Um, and it's just it put there's more love put in it because you have you grew them, you cut them, you arrange them, and you were thinking about your friend the whole time. And um, so I think that it's way more meaningful. Yeah. Even even the flowers in inside my own home that I do that for and put them around my house. Um, just the feeling I get walking in my own home with beautiful arrangements that I grew. It's just it's tending to my own home.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

And that's and do you do you have set prices? Are you open to the general public?

SPEAKER_02 9:24

As far as selling them, yes, ma'am. Um, no, I haven't grown so many that I feel like I have such an overflow that I would do that. Um, but I'm open to that in the future, maybe on a very small scale.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

And what do you want to be known for for your flower

Seasons Of A Garden And A Soul

SPEAKER_01 9:45

business?

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Um, I think the thing that is most meaningful for me right now, and I try to, when I share my flowers and my bouquets, I try to um relay to other people is I'm a Christian and just the uh spiritual journey that I have gone on the last few years learning about a garden and tending my garden has been so significant in my own life. And I think um a lot of people, uh Christians or not, get disillusioned with life when things get really hard. And um and if they only could understand just the the seasons of our souls as the season is it perfectly mimics God made creation to perfectly mimic our lives. So I'm very passionate about the whole thing. I've thought about a book I would love to write someday, just um about the seasons of our souls and and if we didn't have winters in our life, uh spring could never come. And if spring and summer were all we had, it would burn up so quickly and things would not be healthy, and just like a heartbeat goes up and down. You don't want to see a flat line. It's the same with a garden and the seasons. You you want these times where everything looks dead, it's not. And to try the process, and even the things that do die. Right now, I'm getting in such a neat time where I have let all my spring flowers completely die and go to seed. And once they're completely dead, I did this for two hours this afternoon. I went and got one of my favorite flowers, they're fillers called bells of Ireland. And one little petal you open, and there's all these hard seeds in there. And so even though it died, the potential for life is extravagant in some of these flowers. Like one sunflower can have up to a thousand seeds.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Yeah, a thousand. And um it's phenomenal. So it's just all these lessons um that are bringing so much life to me that I feel like if all of us could grow a garden and just spend time almost daily, just five or ten minutes taking weeds out, like what like the spiritual analogy of our souls and that we have to daily tend to our souls. And um, it's just it's very significant in my life, and I love telling people about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, because it comes to mind we mentioned that you know, right now we're in the peak of summer, but your flowers are still greatly impacted by a warm period during winter, and we think that when we're going through such rough time periods that it'd be nice just to have just a little relief, we don't realize how that little relief during the most crucial time will actually impact us greatly later.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

That's really good. I haven't even thought about that, but that's yeah, it came at the wrong time. And yeah, you've got to let the seasons have have their place in our lives, and um just know, but the hope, there's so much hope that winter will end and spring is coming, and whatever we're going through, there will be an end to the suffering, and uh we're gonna smile again, we're gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Because all of that suffering actually works to benefit those flowers, it makes those flowers more beautiful, more hardy, more resilient, and able to produce better crops in the future.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah, 100%.

Follow Lindy And Nominate Neighbors

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Well, Lindy, what's one thing that our uh where can our listeners go to follow your journey and learn a little bit more about what all you have going on with Lindy's Loves Flowers?

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Well, right now I'm just on Instagram and just under that Lindy Loves Flowers. And I try and post at least every other day, just pictures of my bouquets. I'm trying to get a little bit better about posting more of the journey of like arrangements and how how to do things. It's so easy. So that's where they can find me.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

And that's Lindy with L-Y-N-D-I-E, correct?

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

All right, so Lindy loves flowers for all of our listeners. Well, Lindy, I really appreciate you being on the show, and we wish you and your flower business the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptulsa.com. That's gnptulsa.com. Or call 918-3201-6356.