Local farmer-florist expanding services in Bonduel

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

February 9, 2026

BONDUEL – Since launching Archer & Bliss Floral in 2023 at 206 S. Cecil St. in Bonduel, Owner Kate Guth said she has kept a busy schedule.

What began as a flower-growing and floral design business focused on weddings, special events and wholesale orders, Guth said, has since expanded to include home-grown specialty flowers and greenery for funerals, holidays and everyday occasions.

That growth, she said, prompted a May 2025 purchase of a roughly 3,000-square-foot commercial building to serve both as a growing space and a brick-and-mortar location for her customers.

Though she always believed in her business concept and its sustainability mission, Guth said to her delight, Archer & Bliss Floral has grown even faster than she anticipated.

“Within the first year of offering weddings, I did about 20 weddings,” she said. “Last summer, I did 70. And I’ve been doing [many consultations] for this year, so I’m sure it will be close to what I did last summer.”

After making the decision to purchase the commercial building, Guth said she saw a growing demand for additional services – such as sympathy and funeral arrangements, as well as daily fresh flower deliveries.

“Those are the areas that I’m expanding my services to this year,” she said.

Floral dreams take root

A self-taught florist, Guth said she has excelled thanks to years of hands-on experience and a deep understanding of her craft.

Though not formally trained in floral design, she said her associate degrees in marketing and graphic design from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) and her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Southern New Hampshire University have helped her market her business. 

Before launching Archer & Bliss, Guth said she worked in NWTC’s Small Business Initiative at the Entrepreneurial Center, helping entrepreneurs and small businesses with marketing, graphic design and economic development.

Including her time working at NWTC, the 40-year-old said she estimates she has spent at least 20 years doing some kind of small business marketing and graphic design.

Unbeknownst to her at the time, Guth said her experience helping others build and grow their businesses would later prove invaluable when launching her own.

In 2019, while taking a break from her corporate career to finish her bachelor’s degree, Guth said she picked up a part-time job at a flower shop to help make ends meet.

Surrounded by blooms and greenery, she said she was reminded of her early love of flowers and gardening – memories of visiting greenhouses with her mother and helping select plants for her mother’s planters.  

“I’ve always loved flowers and gardening,” she said. “I grew up around flowers… So, I thought working in a flower shop would be kind of a nice place to chill out for a while while I was getting my degree and thinking about what the next move in my life was going to be. I absolutely fell in love with gardening and working with flowers and felt like all of my dreams were validated by my doing it.”

Guth said she spent a couple of years at the flower shop, gaining hands-on experience with a wide range of floral designs and greenhouse work.

She said she also spent a full growing season at a local flower farm, further expanding her skills.

“I was very familiar with flower varieties,” she said. “But getting that hands-on experience and getting to learn the different flowers, and then being able to eventually work on a farm and see them from start to finish and how that process all goes, I just fell in love with it.”

Flower farms, Guth said, specialize in cultivating flowers and greenery meant for cut arrangements, ranging from annuals to perennials.

Local growers, she said, often focus on either a few select varieties or grow blooms year-round to keep flowers available throughout the season.

“It was when I was at the flower farm during the summer of 2020 or 2021 that I realized just how many beautiful flowers and other cool stuff can be grown in Wisconsin,” she said. “I wondered why more florists didn’t utilize those options, instead of relying so much on more of the traditional flowers coming from South America and Ecuador. That’s where the idea for my business started.”

Growing ambition

In 2023, Guth said she began laying the groundwork for her floral vision, starting with stock plants – including perennials – to establish a reliable supply for arrangements.

At the same time, she said she mapped out her flower farm, carefully planning which blooms would be planted, nurtured and harvested.

Guth said the perennials she started with were hydrangeas, baptisia, gelsemium and spiraea. 

“I [now] also have peonies, roses, rudbeckia and sedum – those are some of my perennials,” she said. “And each year, my annuals will vary depending on what my customers are looking for the following year and what were good sellers in the past.”

Beginning with a half-acre field, Guth said she has since moved all her perennials to her Bonduel studio.

She said she still leases growing space at two local farms – in Cecil and Pulaski – using their high tunnels to cultivate flowers and plants year-round.

High tunnels, Guth said, are large, arched structures covered with plastic that protect plants from the elements.

They are ventilated but not heated, unlike greenhouses, which maintain warmth year-round – the main difference between the two, she said.

Since the tunnels aren’t heated, Guth said she’s usually only able to grow in them during three seasons, with winter being the one exception. 

“There’s nothing viable for me to cut on in the wintertime,” she said. “But I’m starting my seeds right now in my shop. I will probably start planting in the tunnels in March or April.”

Guth said she can grow at her studio, but hasn’t tilled any land – as she’s still deciding whether to establish a farm at the studio or take a different approach.

“I might do some annuals there, but right now it’s just perennials,” she said. “In the meantime, I have these two great farmers who have under-utilized spaces, heard about me and are excited to have me lease space from them and grow on their property.” 

Between the two farms – one a flower farm and the other an orchard – Guth said she leases about 3,000 square feet of growing space.

“The farmer with the orchard actually has a wedding barn and thought it would be really cool if the brides would be able to see the flowers being grown right there when they came to tour the barn,” she said. “So, it’s a nice partnership.”

To start drumming up business in 2023, Guth said she put her name online as a wedding florist and started getting leads. 

“Everybody seemed to resonate with what my mission was and what I was doing behind the scenes with growing my own flowers and doing things more sustainably,” she said. “And it’s just grown year after year.” 

Guth said people are often surprised by the range of flowers she manages to grow.
“People really resonate with the fact that I can put unique flowers into their designs – not something that you would see from a traditional florist,” she said.

Collaboration with local flower growers, Guth said, allows her to support regional agriculture while expanding her own floral offerings.

“If I know that one of the farmers grows a certain type of flower really well, I don’t necessarily want to duplicate that flower myself,” she said. “I will instead buy the flowers from them and let them do their thing and focus on what I’m good at. So, we’re building a really cool community of flower growers and supporting our local agriculture in ways that people don’t really know about.”

Guth said it’s easy to visit a flower shop or greenhouse without ever realizing where the blooms were grown.

“I never really knew where flowers came from either,” she said. “But the floral business was really affected during COVID-19, because a lot of the shipments coming in from outside the United States were being held in customs, and everything was being gone through with a fine-tooth comb. Farms down in South America were being shut down… So, our resources for flowers were being cut off.”

With the usual flowers unavailable at the time, Guth said both growers and customers had to reconsider their options.

“I want people to know that in Wisconsin, we can grow absolutely beautiful flowers that can wow you just as much as your average rose can,” she said. “So, people should keep their minds open to different varieties when it comes to floral designs.”

Natural growth

Guth said she has grown her business largely through social media and networking.

“I’m really blessed that I know a lot about marketing, being an entrepreneur and building businesses,” she said. “I feel like I had a little bit more of a head start than other people do.”

Guth said her marketing skills and “work smarter, not harder” approach helped her get started, first establishing her social media presence and building a portfolio of her past floral work.

“I also partnered with ‘Premier Bride’ magazine to do style shoots,” she said. “Those were floral arrangements that were professionally photographed and put into the magazine. I’m also a part of The Knot, the WeddingWire and [Zola], which are websites where newly engaged couples can go to find vendors who can help them with the special day.”

Guth said she also takes part in wedding shows throughout the year, using them to connect with venues and other vendors while raising awareness of her business, and is a member of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Inc.

Alongside growing her floral business, Guth said she enjoys mentoring aspiring florists, sharing her expertise in arranging and working with flowers.

“This year I’m really looking forward to approaching the local school districts and their FFA (Future Farmers of America) programs or other ag programs to see if I can’t get more students involved in the floral industry,” she said.

Located at 206 S. Cecil St. in Bonduel, Archer & Bliss Floral’s shop hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Friday.

Head to archernbliss.com or Archer & Bliss Floral’s Facebook page for more information.