Flowers Come From Where?! with Williee Armellini
Ever tell someone you're in the flower business and watch their face when you explain that most flowers arrive by airplane from South America? That reaction is exactly why Williee Armellini titled his book Flowers Come From Where? In this episode, Lori and Ellie sit down with the man behind Flowers and Cents — artist, musician, photographer, accidental journalist, and one of the industry's great characters — for his origin story, his book, and some hard-won wisdom about happiness.
The original floral blog
Williee grew up in the flower business through his family's trucking company, Armellini, which hauls flowers across the country. But Flowers and Cents was born from a stranger place: the late-90s dot-com era, when USA Floral Products was buying up wholesalers and importers to spin them into one big IPO under the ticker "ROSI." Investors hyped the stock in an anonymous Yahoo chat room — while employees of those very companies posted that the whole thing was headed for a crash. It crashed. When the chat room started disappearing, Williee (posting as "Harley") built his own message board in 2001 so the community wouldn't scatter, and called it Flowers and Cents.
When the print floral papers went out of business, he realized he had one of the only online news outlets in the industry — so he got "out of the gossip business" and into news. His first ad sale is a lesson in itself: someone mailed him $50 and a business card, he posted it, and within 24 hours others were asking what an ad cost. Today the site, newsletter, and YouTube videos combine his three loves — photography, writing, and music (every soundtrack is his own).
Becoming the industry's historian
The book started when Williee and a colleague realized they couldn't remember the name of someone they'd both known well. "We better write all this down," he decided. Then COVID confined him to his upstairs office — his wife sliding food under the door — and the stories poured out. His daughter, a photographer, helped him organize, edit, and publish it.
The research turned up genuine surprises: the first South American flower exports came from Ecuador, not Colombia — around 1962, when Bill Seck of Seck Wholesale in Baltimore bought land near Quito's old airport and grew red carnations (the "wrong" crop for Ecuador, but he had red carnations when nobody else did). And in Pierson, Florida, where the greens come from, the early-1900s settlers spoke Danish, not English. Companies have bought the book 10 and 20 copies at a time for ex-employees and retired customers. You can order it here — Ellie's calling it the Christmas gift of 2024.
"Retailers going out of business is bullshit"
Asked how the industry has changed, Williee points to supermarkets becoming florists — convenient, decent selection, real competition. But he's blunt about the limits: "when you want an arrangement, you've got to go to a florist. It's an art, it's a skill." Add credit cards and overnight delivery, which made direct shipping viable, and retail got harder. Still, after attending his first AIFD Symposium — where the artistry blew him away — his take on the doom narrative is refreshing: brick and mortar may be difficult, but there's more flower engagement happening than ever.
The hat, the quote, and the random questions
Lori's favorite line from page 21 — "altitude will determine what you grow, longitude will determine where you grow, latitude will determine where you sell, and attitude will determine your success" — Williee credits to Dean Rule, a breeder in Ecuador. His signature hat began as a gifted Panama hat that melted under stage sweat and was upgraded at a Quito artisans' market (beads added in Kenya); his recurring nightmare is arriving at a convention without it. His toughest decision was leaving the family company — and yes, he'd do it again. His definition of happiness: being comfortable with yourself. He and his wife even quit watching the news and got happier for it. And his advice for anyone eyeing retirement: have hobbies, plural, or you'll be bored — or back at work — within six months.
Key takeaways
- Community is a business model: Williee built Flowers and Cents by giving scattered industry people a place to gather before monetizing it.
- Write your history down — memories fade, and the people who built this industry are aging out.
- Supermarkets changed the game, but arrangement work is a skill they can't replicate; lead with your artistry.
- Trusted, independent voices get believed where salespeople don't — a lesson for how you communicate with your own customers.
- Attitude determines your success — and if you retire, retire to something.