Flowers By Janie

When Janelle Gerestein was in high school she did a work experience stint at a flower shop in her hometown of Brooks. “I really liked it,” she says, “I went on a flower delivery and this 70-year-old lady started crying because she had never received flowers before and that really touched me.” It started her on the career path that eventually led to her owning her own business, Flowers by Janie.

She studied floral design and then travelled to New Zealand to work on a flower-exporting farm. She went back to university for business management and took a job in a Lethbridge flower shop. That’s where she picked up the nickname “Janie.” Her New Zealand experience left her with the travel bug and she was off again to Bolivia to volunteer as a marketing specialist for indigenous artisans in the South American country. “When you first start a business you don’t have time to travel, so I thought before I commit to starting a business I wanted to travel. I wanted to give back,” she says. Her Bolivia experience is where her life took another turn as she met her future husband.