The first flower shop Tammie Warner worked in was in her hometown of Joshua, about 30 minutes south of Fort Worth. At 19, she also was attending college and worked at a Chicken Express before being recruited to the flower shop.
The shop, then known as Pauline’s Flowers, had already been in business for several decades when new management took over and offered Warner a job, paving the way for her to build a background in florals.
Now Warner runs her own shop, which has grown to be the official florist for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and has earned Mercedes Bass as a regular customer.
While most of the florals in Warner’s arrangements come from other countries, she often throws in some native Texas plants grown on her family’s farm.
“Fort Worth has been very good to us,” Warner said.
Contact information:
Website: camelliafarmflora.com
Phone: (817) 386-2466
Facebook: Camellia Farm Flora
Instagram: @camelliafarmflora
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Camellia Farm Flora sources its floral arrangements with flowers from abroad. (Nicole Lopez | Fort Worth Report)
Nicole Lopez: When did you open your store?
Tammie Warner: I opened this store in April of 2018, so we were very new to Fort Worth as far as the brick and mortar location. I had been doing work in Fort Worth for a while. We were open for a year and a half and then COVID-19 (hit), so it was a little rough.
Lopez: Where do you get your flowers?
Warner: They come from all over the world. All my roses come from South America. It’s either Ecuador or Colombia. The zinnias and the marigolds are actually local. They are grown by a lady in Glen Rose. She drives in every Monday and brings me what she grows. We get flowers (from) as far away as Taiwan. We got a lot of orchids from Taiwan.
During the summertime, because Holland isn’t growing some things like peonies right now, we get those from Alaska.
Lopez: What do your services look like?
Warner: When we started, our event business was probably 80% of what we did. I had to shift and totally pivot with COVID-19. We really started going hardcore towards daily stuff, and we became really popular really fast.
Lopez: Are there options for custom orders?
In addition to floral arrangements, Camellia Farm Flora sells vases. (Nicole Lopez | Fort Worth Report)
Warner: It’s kind of based on availability and seasonality. They can’t call and demand right now that they’re going to get, for example, this specific color of peony. Again, they come from Alaska — you have to order in quantity, so it just kind of depends. But yes, we absolutely do custom work. I don’t do a dozen roses. If you ask me twice, I’ll still say no. Our branding is very, very luxury style, so we don’t do anything that you can find at Tom Thumb or H-E-B. Okay, we do not do that. If someone calls and wants that, the answer is no.
Our style is just very curated, very intentional and upscale.
Lopez: Is there a time of year that’s busiest for your business?
Warner: It’s kind of a race between December and May. We never know which one’s going to be bigger. We do so many corporate Christmas parties, and people want big, lavish designs for their tables. For May, it’s other parties, graduations, Mother’s Day. A lot of people get married in May. October is actually the biggest wedding month in Texas. It’s more because the weather is more predictable.
Lopez: I saw the set of floral arrangements on your website. Do those tend to change depending on time of year or the season?
Warner: I’ll swap them out. Right now, I have some of our more fresh, summery designs, but let’s say once September hits, I’ll add in some more fall styles. We definitely change with season and seasonality. Same for Christmas.
Lopez: What inspired the name Camellia Farm Flora?
Camellia Farm Flora’s storefront pictured Aug. 5, 2026. (Nicole Lopez | Fort Worth Report)
Warner: I’ve been doing this for 30 years, so I have a lot of florist friends, and we were trying to come up with a name. I wanted it to feel luxurious, but also approachable. I wanted to have a Magnolia vibe. It was the time (when) everyone was in love with Chip and Joanna Gaines and so I wanted to have that vibe, but I couldn’t name it magnolia — that’d be a copycat.
One day, the owner of The Enchanted Florist and I were talking, and she was designing something, working with some camellia. And she goes, “I got it. It’s camellia.” I’m like, “OK, but what’s the rest?” I hate the word floral because everybody’s like “such and such floral design.” She says, “You wanted to have a down-to-earth vibe and you own a farm.”
We just talked through it until we came up with Camellia Farm Flora.
Lopez: Are there certain arrangements or products that you found are very popular or that you see people coming back for?
Warner: Our bestseller is perfectly named — Fancy Like Fort Worth. Another bestseller is called Follow Your Arrow.
Lopez: You mentioned how something that sets you apart is you’re very intentional with your arrangements, your products. There’s a specific customer base you cater to, and you’re not going to find just the typical rose bouquet here. What else sets your business apart?
Warner: White glove customer service. It’s concierge all the way, from the moment they call to if there’s an issue with their order. For instance, if we get an order in and we notice that they misspelled a word or they didn’t put a comma in a place where maybe it should have been, we’re going to contact the client and make sure that what they said and how they wrote it was exactly how they wanted it worded.
We also handwrite all of our cards. About 1% of all florists in the United States handwrite. Our customers get a beautifully written card. Very personalized. It’s not typical. No one else in DFW does this.
We’re different from other florists. I really care about each client and their perception of our character. Yeah, it’s important to me.
I just feel like so many florists are just in business to sell flowers. That’s not what we do here. It’s an experience.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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