Whimsy—dubbed the word of summer 2026 by multiple media outlets—is one of those terms that’s hard to pin down. Merriam-Webster describes it as something “fanciful or fantastic,” while the Cambridge Dictionary opts for “unusual, funny, and pleasant.”
But scroll through the nearly 327,000 posts tagged #whimsy on TikTok, and it becomes clear that whimsy—like the Danish concept of hygge—is more a vibe than a definition. It’s about moving slowly and softly, and taking pleasure in life’s small beauties.
For some, being whimsical means adding colorful sprinkles to a matcha latte; for others, it’s embracing the aesthetic with pastel, fairy-coded nails or flowy dresses. And for many, it’s filling their home with flowers—lots and lots of flowers.
In fact, nothing captures whimsy quite like flowers. They’re delicate, colorful, natural, and romantic. But cut flowers, of course, transcend any trend. They’ve always been here, and they always will be, as a way to show love, affection, or friendship to someone important. The whimsical summer of 2026 will soon be a memory, but cut flowers are here to stay. According to Future Market Insights, the industry is expected to exceed a value of $70 billion by 2036 (up from $46.3 billion today).
And if Christina Stembel, the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, has anything to do with it, the cut flowers of the future will be more meaningful and more whimsical than ever.
Farmgirl Flowers has grown into a nationwide brand since its founding 16 years ago. | Farmgirl Flowers
The Farmgirl Flowers journey
Stembel started Farmgirl back in 2010. She was working at Stanford University in California and wanted to treat her mom in Indiana to a beautiful bunch of flowers. But, if you’ll excuse the pun, the options just weren’t cutting it. “I’d scroll and scroll through one of the big flower sites and just feel deflated,” Stembel told VegNews. “Everything looked the same.”
“Same stiff, dated arrangements, same weird color combinations, same lack of anything that resembled design,” she continued. “Nothing on those pages looked like something I’d be excited to open if it showed up at my door, and nothing felt like it came from someone who actually cared about what they were putting together.”
So Stembel decided to step in. She invested her life savings ($49,000) to start Farmgirl Flowers—and since then, the brand has grown into a nationwide business. Every day, customers across the US show their loved ones how much they care with its thoughtfully designed floral arrangements. The company delivers from coast to coast, and if you’re in Northern California or Washington, you can even pick up a bouquet in select Safeway stores.
Now, Stembel is building a 25-acre farm in Gig Harbor, WA—the brand’s “Farmquarters.” It serves as a creative hub, where test gardens grow, and new bouquets are designed, all wrapped in the company’s signature burlap instead of plastic. Never plastic.
Farmgirl Flowers uses burlap to wrap its bouquets. | Farmgirl Flowers
Creating a better future for flowers
“When I was first figuring out what Farmgirl was going to look and feel like, I kept coming back to this idea that every single piece of it should mean something. And plastic just doesn’t,” Stembel explained. “It’s what everyone else was using because it was cheap and easy, and then it ends up sitting in a landfill for the next 200 years. That didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t want our name attached to something that far outlasts the memory it was supposed to celebrate.”
Stembel aims for sustainability across every part of the business, while acknowledging the realities of cut flowers. Even if you’re picking them from your own backyard, the bulbs, tubers, or corms were probably flown in from somewhere faraway. The fertilizer you used to grow them? Probably not great for the planet, either.
“For me, the environmental concerns are not a reason to throw your hands up and stop trying. It’s actually the opposite,” explains Stembel. “It means you look at every single part of your process and ask where can we do better, where can we waste less, where can we make a smarter choice, even if it costs more or takes more effort.”
Farmgirl understands that you don’t change an industry by walking away. You change it by getting stuck in, changing the status quo, and accepting imperfection. This mindset shows up everywhere, from compostable burlap wrapping to a focus on domestic sourcing. The brand’s “Grown in the USA” section allows shoppers to choose locally produced flowers.
And then there’s the emphasis on seasonal options. Right now? It’s peony season, which just so happens to conveniently coincide with Mother’s Day.
Farmgirl Flowers can be shipped across the country this Mother’s Day. | Farmgirl Flowers
Say it with peonies on Mother’s Day
Flowers and Mother’s Day go hand in hand. Nearly three-quarters of Americans buy a bouquet for the occasion, making it the second-biggest floral holiday after Valentine’s Day.
While roses and tulips remain classics, Stembel has a soft spot for peonies, especially during their short but spectacular season. She’s not alone. Stembel says this is a flower that has a special connection with many people, for various reasons.
“For a lot of people, peonies are tied to a memory,” she explains. “Their grandmother’s garden. The smell of their mom’s backyard in June. Peonies have this way of pulling you right back into a moment you forgot you were even carrying around. They hit you somewhere that has nothing to do with flowers and everything to do with the life you’ve lived.”
“For others, it’s the color,” she adds. “Peonies grow in these shades that don’t quite exist anywhere else. Or it’s the scent. If you know peony scent, you know. It’s one of those things that just stops you. And then for a whole lot of us—me very much included—it’s the absolutely ridiculous floofiness. The petal count that you genuinely cannot believe comes out of the ground. Like, how? How does something that over-the-top just grow in dirt?”
For Mother’s Day, Farmgirl Flowers is offering a range of special peony options. There’s the Cherry On Top bouquet, for example, which combines pink peonies and lilies, or the Best Vase Scenario, which includes a vase and 15 pink peonies. Not a fan of peonies? Other options include the limited-edition Specialty Field Trial Peonies, grown in Oregon.
Each bouquet has been carefully designed and curated to make the recipient feel something. The colors, the combination, the arrangement. None of it is by accident.
“A lot of what makes a bouquet feel like someone actually thought about it comes down to the details,” explains Stembel. “A color palette that feels harmonious instead of random, texture that gives your eye somewhere to travel, that little bit of whimsy that makes you go ‘oh wow’ instead of just ‘oh, flowers.’” She adds that “It’s the difference between something that was designed and something that was assembled.”
You can even add a vegan gift to your Farmgirl Flowers bouquet, such as this Roen candle.
Sending the right gift
If you’re not sure what to send your mom, Stembel has some invaluable advice: don’t overthink it.
“Here’s a very simple hack that I know works after 15 years of helping people send flowers to the people they love: pick something that reminds you of her,” she says. “Maybe it’s the color of the kitchen she raised you in where you spent so much time baking with her, maybe it’s something bright because she’s the most vibrant person in every room, maybe it’s simple and elegant because that’s just her—and then tell her why you picked it.”
“Here’s the thing—even if it’s not her favorite flower today, it might be after she reads what you wrote. You just gave that flower a meaning it didn’t have before. Now every time she sees one, she thinks of you and what you said. That’s the power of actually saying the thing instead of just checking a box. She’s your mom. She’s not grading your floral choices. She just wants to know you were thinking about her.”
If you want to go the extra mile, you can also choose one of Farmgirl Flowers’ vegan add-ons, like the Popped Sea Salt Caramel Artisan Popcorn or the Roen De Las Flores Candle. Just keep it thoughtful, simple, and personal. The world is already complicated enough.
“So much of what we see and touch and read now has been filtered or generated or optimized to the point where you can’t even tell what’s authentic anymore,” says Stembel. “So when someone hands you something that grew in actual dirt, that smells like a living thing, that’s going to be gone in a week—there’s something about that that stops you for a second.”
So while you’re adding a bouquet for your mom, maybe take a moment to treat yourself, too. We could all use a little more whimsy in our lives right now.
“Flowers are beautifully fleeting,” adds Stembel. “And the fact that they don’t last forever isn’t a weakness—honestly, I think that’s what makes them so precious. They’re here, and then they’re gone, and that’s what makes you pay attention and appreciate what’s real and right in front of you.”
Just for VegNews readers! Use code VEGNEWS for 20% off your Mother’s Day delivery from Farmgirl Flowers.
For more plant-based stories like this, read:
JUMP TO ... Latest News | Recipes | Guides | Health | Subscribe
Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England's southern coast.
Here at VegNews, we live and breathe the plant-based lifestyle, and only recommend products we feel make our lives amazing. Occasionally, articles may include links where we might earn a small commission, but in no way does this effect the editorial integrity of VegNews.
