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Her wedding day might not have been the ideal time to try a new skill, but Breigh Jones-Coplin was up for the challenge. Despite her lack of experience in floral design, she decided to create her own bouquets for her Turks and Caicos Islands nuptials in 2019. And, as it turned out, she had a knack for the art. “[Our wedding guests] were like, ‘Who did these flowers? These are amazing!’” Jones-Coplin recalls.
A year later, while she was completing her doctorate in clinical psychology and helping her therapy clients navigate the unknowns of a global pandemic, she found herself in need of a release. “Having to be a therapist at a time when we were all struggling—I really needed an outlet of my own,” she says. She began tinkering with flowers again, and her husband gave her a floral design certification course for her birthday. By the end of the year, Jones-Coplin had founded her floristry company, Black & Blossomed, and was selling arrangements at pop-ups and delivering bouquets to patrons all around Denver.
“I think that having something colorful in their homes gave people hope during that time, and they were supporting a Black-owned business, which became really important socially after [the murder of] George Floyd,” she says. “[Black & Blossomed] started as something personal for me, but I quickly realized it was something bigger than me.”
Now, as a small-business owner, an assistant professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology, and a practicing clinical therapist, Jones-Coplin is finding ways to combine her passions for mental health and vibrant blooms. “I’ve been doing a lot of workshops on community healing, and I use flowers as a tool to treat my trauma clients,” she says. “When you’re touching or looking at flowers, you’re grounded in your five senses, which allows you to be more present.”
Now Open
In April, Jones-Coplin opened Black & Blossomed’s first storefront inside RiNo’s Green Spaces Market, which provides affordable retail space to a rotating roster of vendors. In addition to custom florals, she sells gifts—coffee mugs, journals, stationery, etc.—created by Black-owned, woman-owned, and Black-woman-owned businesses. “It’s important to me to use my privilege, my opportunity, to get other Black businesses out there,” she says.
