Emily MacPherson – the owner of Emmy’s Flower Truck – previously spent 25 years in the airline industry, working as a flight attendant for Southwest. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, air travel fell sharply which prompted airlines to cut capacity. “They started offering employees early outs and were paying people because they had too many flight attendants,” Emmy explains. “They were trying to cut back without ever having to lay someone off.” Emmy felt it was the right time to leave that chapter of her life behind, take the airline money, and venture into something completely new and different.
“I’m an old car girl, so I thought ‘what kind of business could I do?’ Flowers and trucks have been around for years. Since before I was born people have been selling flowers out of their trucks. So I did some research and found Daisy,” Emily MacPherson says of how she started her new venture.
Daisy is Emmy’s pride and joy – a beautiful, green 1965 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter. It took Emmy a year of searching to find the perfect vehicle to kickstart her new business, finally finding Daisy at a dealer in New Jersey
Throughout the snowy and cold winter months, Daisy keeps warm and dry in a storage unit. But as soon as the sun comes out and the temperatures in Reno begin warming up, Daisy can be spotted all over town spreading the joy of flowers with the whole community.
“We go out to businesses that invite us, and we have regular businesses that we visit on weekends once the weather gets a little warmer – like Pangolin Cafe… Perenn at Rancharrah…Too Soul Tea Co. …a lot of breakfast and coffee shop places,” Emmy said listing some of her many local partners.
Emmy also makes appearances at summer craft festivals and farmers' markets. Emmy loads up the back of the Transporter with buckets of fresh, vibrant flowers and greenery. Shoppers can pick and pull the flowers they like, and Emmy will arrange and wrap them in a beautiful bouquet to take home with them. “We add an extra wrap layer around the stems for extra hydration,” Emmy adds. “This way, you don’t have to go straight home to quickly put them in water as you do with store-bought flowers. Our bouquets can go 7-8 hours without putting them in water, as long as you keep them in the shade they’ll stay fresh and beautiful.”
Emmy also puts in the time to give back to local non-profit organizations, donating flowers to the Nevada Humane Society for their employee appreciation day and the Eddy House, among others
.Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of businesses to struggle – especially small, locally-owned companies – Emmy found that the pandemic actually helped her business, and she didn’t experience as much of a strain as she anticipated. “People were walking, trying to get out of the house. The flower truck was simple – we could drop these off at someone’s house, leave them at the front door and go. People would come with their friends, and they’d all stay apart and take turns picking. But yeah, I think the pandemic made people crave something. And flowers happen to be one of them,” she said.
A recent addition to the business is wedding parties. “We didn’t do weddings at first, but everyone kept asking us if we did so we started taking small weddings,” explains Emmy. “We wanted to make it less expensive for the brides, and a fun time as well.”
Emmy has a large, very welcoming showroom in Reno where she stores her flowers and the truck throughout the winter months. “We have all of the bridal party come in, and the bridesmaids and the bride make their own bouquets. Everyone has the same flowers, but they can put the bouquet together the way they like, so everyone has a different look which is kinda fun. We have their music playing, champagne, it’s like a fun get-together!” The showroom also provides Emmy with a space to host other events throughout the winter months when the weather is harsh and cold, such as tie-dye and other craft workshops.
“2023 is our third year, and we are really going try to do more regular spots instead of so many random different events in Reno. I think we are just going to try and stick with regular places and times since our biggest complaint has been not knowing where and when to expect us.” – Emily MacPherson