When choosing my business name, I knew I didn’t want to follow tradition in using my name followed by “…Floral Design”. Named after my great-grandma, Callie Elizabeth is *so* endearing to me, but not enough to dedicate my entire business to lol. 

Nothing against anyone who chooses this route- I just didn’t feel like it fully encapsulated:

1. the theme and feeling I wanted to portray to future clients
2. caught the attention for my flower business 

I wanted something that referenced flowers, of course… “What if I choose a name that NO ONE understands?” (In hindsight this is funny because I still explain the name pretty much every time I talk to someone new about it…) but I also wanted something that distinguished my business and me as two separate parts of a whole.

So…

While working as a horticulturist in 2019 and beginning to think about the direction I wanted to take my floral design, I felt myself wanting a space that allowed me to focus solely on subjects and content that fueled my creativity and passion… one that reflected who I wanted to become as a business owner and gave me the opportunity to learn everything I could about botany and design. 

I dove headfirst into community garden programs and groups, and to quiet the chaos in my brain from exterior sources, I created a social media profile where I could go to get away from my normal intake of accounts from friends, family, celebrities, etc… one that was JUST for flowers, gardening, and OKC community forums. 

It was everything I needed. I met with people within my community who taught me more about the craft I was pursuing. I took in so many different design techniques and lessons on color, style, and form from world-renowned and local florists and artists that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to if it weren’t for tiny little squares of photos and videos via Instagram profiles.

However, through all of this, I was still unsure of my name.

It wasn’t until a spring day at The Myriad Botanical Gardens in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City that I had my “eureka” moment. They were hosting a plant sale that I drug my parents and boyfriend (now husband) along to. 

“I HAVE TO HAVE MORE PLANTS” I whined to them. Luckily, they were more than willing to oblige me.

Full of *amazing* tropical plants, they were also selling old botanical prints. You know, the ones that are hand-drawn and colored with color pencils- identifying the physiological components and growth patterns of different plants. Sitting there on the top of the pile was a print of a bright yellow native wildflower… Calliopsis.

A genus of native plant widely known across the Americas and commonly utilized by indigenous communities in a brewed “flower tea” to treat:

• stomach ailments
• strengthen blood (scientific research is being conducted on its ability to treat insulin resistance)
• dye fabrics

Coreopsis, AKA tickseed and Calliopsis, wildly and bountifully grow in prairies and woodlands- and just so happened to speak to me (Callie Elizabeth Burleson) as the perfect business name to combine my love of flowers and… well, me.

Important for their medicinal qualities as well as their showy and beautiful nature, cultivars of Calliopsis blooms are generally bright golden and/or red with delicate, lacy foliage with a long-lasting growing season. They grow freely in even the toughest and seemingly most impossible environments, knowing no boundaries and exhibiting amazing resilience… not only a perfect play on my name, but also exactly how I aspire to be as a business owner and designer. 

Thanks to this plant print that to this day hangs on my living room wall, I had found my name and direction.