“Every day we are creating a beautiful space while always trying to do our very best for our customers and our employees." That spirit runs through Cactus & Tropicals, the beloved Salt Lake business owned by Karin and Scott Pynes and guided day to day by Kath Harbin, the general manager who has helped shape the company for decades. Step through the doors and it is easy to get lost in the beauty: lush foliage, blooming plants, and thoughtfully layered displays that make the greenhouse feel more like an escape than a store. But behind that sense of calm is a much longer story, one that stretches from the mountains outside Munich, Germany, to the streets of St. Louis, to a bold young woman named Lorraine Miller whose dream first took root here in 1975.

“My purpose, my mission statement is to create the landscape in which we celebrate this big, beautiful existence,” said Morgan Simkins, owner of Native Flower Company. Inside, that purpose is visible everywhere. Both the Liberty Wells shop and their Sugar House location are bright and beautiful, filled with color and movement, with a small, well curated collection of gift items tucked between lush plants and artful floral arrangements. 

“We were young and confident. In one year, we opened Orchid Dynasty, got married, and I was pregnant.” Shelly Huynh smiled when she said it, remembering a time when everything seemed possible. Born in Vietnam, she arrived in the United States as a toddler in 1979, one of the “boat people” whose families risked everything to flee.

“Taking a three-hour flower arranging class made me so happy - it brought me a source of comfort and peace that I did not realize could happen to me,” shares Natalie Cruz, a native of Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Surrounded by flowers since childhood, thanks to her mother and grandmother, Natalie developed a deep love for blooms. This passion followed her to California, where it truly flourished during her college years. Frequent visits to local farmers markets and floral arrangement classes ignited a joy that eventually led to the founding of The Petal Coop.