In conversation with florist, Emily Richardson

as founder of go-to Toowoomba floral destination, ruby lane flower co, and mother to Mac and daisy, Emily has gracefully adapted to each change that has come her way. From working out where to call home, and scaling her still growing business, emily has learnt the power of putting down roots.

This feels like a lovely full circle moment. One minute we’re in primary school together, and it’s 90s birthday parties & sleepovers, and now we’re running creative businesses & raising babies! You have Mac & now Daisy. How are you?

I'm good. It's been an adjustment, but I think I struggled more from zero to one, whereas one to two feels like you're already parenting, you're just parenting a little bit more. Maybe Mitch has to parent a little bit more (not that he's not already) but I think he's found it more of a struggle because he's had to have Mac where I've had Daisy. But I feel like the adjustment is making sure both are happy and dealing with the mum guilt of, are you neglecting one or the other? But besides that, I feel like our lifestyle was already in that routine, so I don't know. I feel good. I feel a lot more settled this time. This time I knew what I wanted to do with work as all those decisions were already made with Mac. I know more about how I want to parent, so that's felt a little bit nicer, whereas that felt a bit more stressful the first time around. You're kind of inventing the wheel the first time and seeing what works, whereas this time, I know what works for us, and it's just adding another child into the mix. So I feel like it's been a little bit easier to get our head around this time.

That’s really good to hear! We know you as an exceptional florist, curator & the founder of Ruby Lane Flower Co. With roots in Toowoomba but with time spent in Brisbane, you have returned with your brand to build a family & future in Toowoomba. What brought you back?

So I moved to London at first. That was my first get-out-of-Toowoomba moment. I moved there for six months and then came back to finish off uni and start working. But then I came back to Toowoomba and was like, no, I've just come from London, I need something bigger. So then I moved to Brisbane, and that was where I met Mitch and got married. We decided together that maybe we were ready for something different. So we were going to move to the coast, and then right as we were about to move, we had a going away party and realised we couldn't afford the coast! But we'd already told everyone, so we were like, well, where are we going to go? 

We started sort of looking back in Toowoomba. I always thought I would never come back, but we were back for just one weekend visiting my parents, it was Autumn so there were all the fallen leaves in Queens Park. It was really beautiful. The weather's cooler, and Mitch loves the colder weather, so it was more him being like, “This is actually really nice. We’ve never really considered it, but we're looking to start having kids. so is this the sort of a place that we should be going with more affordable housing?”. 

So we moved here sort of on a trial period, and I was still like, “I don't know…” I think everyone who grew up in Toowoomba has that “get out of the bubble” feeling, but in coming back, I think you just appreciate the good parts. Also, in coming back as an adult wanting to start a family, you can see all the benefits which you don't see when you're 18. So yeah, we just came back. 

There was also a lot of creative things happening at the time, and I think that really drew us in. So the trial period pretty quickly became a permanent decision, because we just started getting involved in little things around town. It felt nice to be building something, not moving to a big city that's already got all these creative programs established, but to feel like we could actually make a difference here, or be a part of this community. To help build it from the ground up sort of thing, I mean. 

And really you have. You came back at quite a pivotal time in the landscape of small business and creativity in Toowoomba, and very quickly made quite an impact. Can you tell me about your journey into floristry & how it all began?

So when I came back from London, I was about to finish my Bachelor of Communication, so I was doing PR, and then sort of realised that I didn't want to do that. I thought maybe I'll do a degree in nutrition, whether I work as a dietitian, or whether I just incorporate it with the communication degree and do public health or something. So I went back to Brisbane and finished that and started working as a nutritionist. I just didn't think of myself as a creative person when I was growing up, and I felt a lot of pressure to be stereotypically smart and do science. I did well at school, [so I thought when I finished school] that meant I had to do something with that. That society equates that to being… I don't know. So while I did that, I would love to go into the flower markets in Brisbane. I would just go the markets and get flowers for myself, and started making up more little arrangements around the house.

A friend was getting married and trying keep it quite cheap, and she was like, “Do you want to do my wedding flowers?” And so I did that. And then it was really Mitch who, because he had worked creatively for himself since he graduated school, said, “Yeah, great. Do it as a business.”

And I was like, you can't just do that! You can't just go and become a florist. And he was like, “Why not? We're together. We're fine money wise. you can have a break if you want to try it and If it doesn't work, you have things to fall back on.” We didn't have kids so it really was a risk free time but I'm not a risky person. I really struggled with that - thinking I could just go out and do it. It was so ingrained that you have to study to do it. [So I was thinking], do I have to go back and study floristry? But I just didn't love the modules and how it is framed at your typical TAFE, so I just started doing it really casually. I was still working through the week and then on Saturdays, I would just make up “Posies of the Day”. They just started selling at first to friends and then we made a very official website. I remember the first time someone rang and bought one that I didn't know. I was like, “Oh my gosh. This is amazing, it’s not just my friends trying to be nice. Someone actually bought it!” And then Saturdays just started booming. I pulled back one day at work and did them on Fridays and Saturdays. And then it was Mitch [who said that I needed to] go the whole hog and see. So I just quit my job and started doing it, and it really it was such a blessing. It really took off straight away or it was enough to make me feel like it was going to be okay. So I did a little bit of training with another florist so that I felt like I did have more base skills. And then, yeah, just kept it going.

That's amazing! You and Mitch are both wonderfully creative people and creative business people. How is the juggle with now two full time businesses and two little people?

Yeah, it is tricky. I think one of us is always doing something. When I moved back [to Toowoomba], he [Mitch] was doing a lot more weddings and his business [castle and crown] was still on the coast at the time, so he kept that going. I moved back and tried to get established here. When covid hit he lost his weddings, so he started doing something else, and I started my shop. That was more steady, and so he had time to work on his business. Then we added the kids! Since then it's like, just keep the businesses going so that we can have kids! It does feel like we're always trying to let one person focus on things I guess. Even now, I'm on maternity leave and I've got employees there [at Ruby Lane] who can keep it going. That gives Mitch an opportunity now and he's building something different - a studio space in town, [precinct studio], so now that's our focus. 

Having the two kids, there's not really enough space for us both to be full time parenting, or full time at home and building businesses. It has to be a bit of give and take. He helps me with my stuff, and then I have space in my life to help him with his. So we are very collaborative, I would say. We are always in each other's pockets and know what is happening. he's sometimes down at the shop, and I'm sometimes up with him. It’s very convenient that his businesses are now above mine, which is really nice. Now he's upstairs, so it'll literally be him coming down for coffee, and then I can pop up and see him, and I'm hoping it'll be good with Daisy. 

To me, that sounds like a dream. And you're now on the second iteration of your bricks and mortar store. Can you tell me about Ruby Lane now, compared to the beginning and how you're feeling about its constant evolution?

I think it's nice, it keeps it fresh. at first wanting to focus on weddings, and then we were looking at having kids so we were like, oh, would it be easier to have a shop and really focus on the daily delivery side of it? And so then we built the shop, and it happened to be just when covid hit, so I lost weddings anyway. So I was like, well, let's focus on a bricks and mortar store. And so we did that and built it, and it meant that I could have staff. And so when we had Mac, I could leave, and the business could keep going. So I was really grateful for that, because when I was doing it at home, or when I was just doing weddings, it was just me. to have the opportunity to still be able to earn an income from it, and be off for the amount of time that I want to be off is great.

But it just got to the point [in the old space] where a friend wanted the space that we were in, and asked if we would consider moving. there was no pressure, but we'd always wanted to add coffee, and so I was like, great! Maybe it's an opportunity to move. So then we went and saw the Rowes building. It was just perfect. It had the courtyard, it had a workshop space that we can use for our workshops. It had something like a coffee window, and so it was just the perfect space to then add coffee. I think each time it's changed, it's good for business. Like it's good for the business to keep it fresh, but I think it's also good for me to keep it fresh. It just makes you get really excited about it and sort of reconfigure how you do things and gives you something else to focus on. And I like that part of it. I like doing different elements of it. 

I can see you like working on the business as much as you like working in the business.

Yes, but always both. I'll never just do one.

You’ve been able to step back from the in person running of the business to grow your family. How have you found the transition from being on the floor to behind the scenes?

I think that's where sometimes Mitch and I differ, because he's very much like, “Oh, wouldn't it just be great to have staff in there doing the flowers, and you just work on the business, and you can be behind the scenes and building it up and doing the marketing.” But I was like, “Yeah, I did a degree in marketing and PR, and I hated it and I didn't want to do it.” I love working in floristry. I really love the hands on element. I love talking to the people that come in and buy them. I love seeing people getting flowers. Even with the deliveries - we have couriers now, but I will always still do a couple of deliveries a week, because I love it. I love seeing people's faces when they get flowers. I take Daisy down, I’m on maternity leave really, but I'll take her down. I just hang out. But also, maybe because it is a nice space, like flowers are always nice. It's set up to be beautiful, it's meant to be peaceful and it's meant to be joyful. That is what giving flowers is. and the gift of giving all the time.

Motherhood changes us in so many ways. How are you feeling now compared to when you moved back home? Have you found motherhood has changed how you view your business at all?

I think the best advice I got when I was having kids was, “Don't decide when you'll go back to work until you've had the kid.” Growing up, I always thought that I would stop working and I would have children, and I would be at home all the time. Then I really loved my job, and so then I was like, actually, will I go back to work full time after having the kids? Now, I love striking the balance between the two. So until they're in school and fully, you know, away, I think I've set a really good balance of part time work. 

I mean, part time work when you're in your own business is full time work, part time being there a couple of days a week, and then being at home and getting to do fun activities with kids. I love the balance of going to those things with them, having holidays with them, having them home with me, and then other days where they're in daycare two days a week and I get to go and just be fully in the business and be a part of it. So I couldn't decide that until I actually had them and realised I really loved both, and I couldn't handle doing both, or being away from both but yeah, you can't decide that until you're there. 

Now I'm so grateful that I did set up the store as I can be away and set my own hours and be with kids. I can still go in anytime I want and be in that world as well. And present. It's about being present in both halves, which is tricky. There are definitely weeks where, like this week, the kids were sick, and it got to the end of the week and I was like, I did not talk to the staff at all, like I was not there, and thank goodness they kept running it well. We've got really good people in place. But it definitely feels like I probably didn't give enough to that side this week. But that's the balance.

How does it feel raising Mac & Daisy in the city you grew up in?

It's really nice. There's little things like when we go to the Queen's Park, there's the same slide that I went on when I was a kid. I'm such a nostalgic person and I love feeding into that nostalgia. Things like finding photos of things that were the same… and so I really enjoyed that. And I think I'm so comfortable with what is here and the things that I enjoyed, but then there's also so much here that wasn't here when I was a kid. And I think that's enough to make it feel different, to make it feel exciting and like I'm living a different life. I'm not just repeating it. 

There's a lot more sort of going on here than when I grew up. And that's what keeps it exciting as an adult too, that there's more to discover all the time. 

How has your house shaped how you live & work with your little people?

We get very drawn to farm life, like having chickens and being out of town and having the space. But I think the benefit to being right in the city while they're little and we don't have a big backyard is, we can get out at any point and go down to the park, or we can quickly drive to a cafe, or we can go to the library, or we can do all those activities really easily. So while we don't have a lot of the space that we would desire, having a smaller house where the house is really comfortable, and it's so close to other parks and other things, sort of fills the gap in the meantime. So we debate it all the time, and now that our businesses are both set up here, it's like, do we need to be right in the city because it’s so easy, and we can duck home really easily. But I think our dream is to still live a little bit further out and have chickens and ducks and goats. 

What’s next for you and Ruby Lane?

I think at this point I’ve built it to a point where I'm happy with it. I can keep it going, and have kids and get them sorted, and get them into school and just have stability. So I think for now, the focus turns to Mitch and what he wants to do and how he wants to build. And at the moment, that's really exciting, and so we're working on that stuff. But I think for me, I’m just enjoying it. I know Mitch is more of the let’s grow, let's build, let's do stuff type of person. I'm more like the slowpoke, but I think sometimes that stability is nice because it does allow you the lifestyle that you want. And for me right now, that's being with kids and getting them sorted.

It’s been an absolute delight to be with you this morning. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

for more from emily, you can find her at @rubylaneflowerco and @emilyrich_.

photography & words by morgan smith for morgan journal.