"Amazing!" The Philadelphia Flower Show w/ Abel Gonzalez Mencio

A Texas Cowboy in Philly? You couldn’t miss this Oasis Ambassador.

On the last day of the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show, a Texas Cowboy wandered along the flower-fragrant aisles without his horse. Dressed in his Texas cowboy hat, boots, and shirt - with a Texas flag and lone star on it, stood Abel Gonzalez Mencio, AIFD, PFCI, TMF of Casa Granada Floral in La Feria, Texas. He wore a banner that read ‘Texas Designer of the Year’ with his name on the back. 

Abel won an Oasis Ambassador contest that sponsored his travel to Philly where he volunteered on the international Schaffer Design team. 

“It was amazing!” responds Abel when asked about his first visit to the famous Flower Show. “There’s no other word for it.” When people asked to take photos with him, “I told them a little bit about Texas, Oasis, my Ambassadorship and getting to work with talented designers from around the world.” 

Abel shares more of his “amazing” adventures in this podcast. 

How we Bloom podcast is an oasis of flower ideas. Hosts Sharon McGukin and Smithers-Oasis North America interview floral guests who dare to do things differently. We listen, learn, explore new opportunities and that's how we bloom!

Transcript

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 0:06

If I could sum up my journey to the Philadelphia Flower Show and working with these amazing designers towards the common goal, it is that word amazing. Seeing a vision come to life, we had so much fun

Sharon McGukin: 0:29

Welcome to How We Bloom, an Oasis of flower ideas. I'm your host, Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI. And I believe that every great success story starts with one simple idea. That's why we interview those who dare to do things differently, inspiring people who plant seeds, grow ideas, and bloom to their full potential. In this podcast, we listen, learn, explore new opportunities. And that's How we Bloom. Joining us for today's podcast is Abel Gonzalez Mencio, AIFD, PFCI, TMF of La Feria, Texas. Like myself, Abel started his floral journey in a small town flower shop. He was the delivery driver. Even then, Abel knew he was going places. Fast forward a few years, and Abel was Director of Marketing and Design for Acolyte LED. He was also chosen as An ambassador of Rio Roses. Now he has his own design studio, Casa Granada Floral in South Texas. Not only is Abel currently the Texas State Designer of the Year, in 2019 he was the Louisiana State Designer of the Year. Several years ago I wrote a blog about Abel's mastery of Texas sized football mom corsages. It was a lot of fun and I think you will enjoy today's podcast as well. It will be released as a podcast for our listeners and a blog for readers. You can find both at oasisfloralproducts.com. Recently, Abel was chosen as one of 25 newly named Oasis Ambassadors in the Smithers-Oasis Ambassador Program. He's about it today. Welcome, Abel.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 2:34

Sharon, good afternoon. I am honored to be here with you.

Sharon McGukin: 2:39

Well, Thank you so much. It's interesting to learn about the new Smithers-Oasis North America Program. And I was happy to hear that you were as a member of that. How did you go about being chosen for ambassadors?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 2:55

I always considered myself an Ambassador for Oasis. It started off with one of the AIFD conventions when I first started with Acolyte. Lo and behold, they're like, you have to design a tablescape at the AIFD partners in Denver, Colorado. I remember walking in and seeing all of the amazing designers that I had always heard of Hitomi Gilliam and Jackie Lacey. It was a room full of superstars. Phil Rulloda was there and I had the capability of going up and shaking their hands. I was just so thrilled. But I realized, the floral journey was calling me and I needed to do something about it. Oasis is one of the products that we always use along the way. We incorporated the Oasis products, fresh florals and our LED lighting systems to accent everything. When this opportunity came regarding the ambassador program for Oasis, I jumped on board. It was something that I've dreamt about for a long time to be able to promote the product correctly. The usage, the questions that many people have regarding the sustainability of the product.

Sharon McGukin: 4:03

you. Now There was a contest and have to explain to me what that contest involved, but I know that the the contest, got to represent Oasis at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And that was you, I believe, Abel. Want to tell us about that?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 4:22

Absolutely. I submitted my name and about a week later, they did a live drawing Oasis' Kelly Mace came on and drew the names of the the runner up and first place. The runner up was Barito Vazquez Florida. We were all watching live and Kelly draws my name. Immediately afterwards I get a phone call that I had been selected. Bill Schaffer's successful design team had a spot available for one designer to go and assist. His amazing design team from all over the world. 30. gathered to bring his vision to life. I am just honored to have been in the presence of these designers to have had an opportunity to scrub the buckets, fill with water, process the flowers. I was just thrilled to be there. We all got along amazingly well. We all ended up leaving as friends. I had the opportunity to speak to many different people about Oasis products Seeing the way that the people incorporated the Oasis products is mind blowing because I've always used cages for funerals or for an arrangement. There were several people actually tacking them up on walls nailing them and screwing them into the wall brackets on furniture using them on the floor. It, was refreshing to see the different ways that people utilize the product. I saw Oasis product. I introduced myself as an ambassador and I told him, thank you for using our product. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. Because that's what the ambassadorship is about. It's about promoting the product to the best of our capability.

Sharon McGukin: 6:05

And I about that. You mentioned Bill Schaffer. He is a visionary. He's a very talented designer, but I think his superpower is team building. He can build a team faster, more securely, and with greater purpose than pretty much anybody I know.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 6:25

Absolutely. Just right off the bat, I can mention, we had a team member Ahti Lira from Estonia. We had Alex Seguda that came in from Spain, Barrett Larson from Denmark, several people from New Jersey, from New York three of us from Texas, actually two other designers went in. We had someone from Scotland a Belgian, several people from Holland. The farthest one that traveled was Mark Pampling. He came in from Australia. We had one young lady from Nicaragua. Another young lady traveled from Columbia. The first thing that Bill did was like,"you're going to process all the flowers, you're going to put water, put all the preservative, all the Oasis Floral Life, make sure that our flowers last the week for the show." And it's amazing to see these very talented designers, scrubbing buckets, processing flowers and getting the team together. And it bonded us immediately. By the end of the first day, we were all having dinner. We're having a good time, and we were focused on the design at hand that Bill had envisioned for us. He did give us a lot of leeway to do our own thing. we gave them options. My work was in the Bamboo Gardens. So we had a lot of tropical flowers that came in from all over the world. And the designers were like, let's use the Heliconia this way. Let's hang the Amaranthus the other way. The visions came to life. So it was 30 people, but one cohesive unit, which was amazing to consider.

Sharon McGukin: 7:55

And That really is amazing because. Personalities are so different, but when you're all focused on the same thought and purpose, it's easier since everybody was doing everything. I think that is a big key This was your first visit to the Philadelphia Flower Show, correct?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 8:16

Yes, ma'am. I had never been actually, I had never been to Philadelphia. Leaving South Texas at 85 degrees and arriving in Philadelphia in a small cold front was very shocking to me. But I got acclimated very quickly. Obviously, I wanted to go see their beautiful city hall. We have limited time because we were always focused on getting the designs ready and we would get out and it was already getting dark. I was able to visit and tour just the surrounding areas around the hotel and around the convention center. And I got to see a little bit of the city and it was stunningly beautiful. The hotel staff. They catered to our every need. Right across the street is a huge market where you have all different kinds of foods from all over Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch, the Amish Korean, Japanese. I think they needed a Mexican restaurant. That's the only thing that was missing, but the food was delicious. I don't know how many Philly cheesesteaks we ended up eating.

Sharon McGukin: 9:15

What was your first impression of the Philadelphia Flower Show? Take us through when you walked in and you saw the enormity, the number of people, and the volume of flowers. What did that feel like?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 9:30

It's nothing short of overwhelming. You walk in, there's this huge canopy, there's water features, waterfalls, I think all we needed were some ducks in the water and we would have been complete, but flowers everywhere, just the variety of flowers that were being utilized. And then that's just a part of it. There's more. There's vendors and there's food stalls. There's people selling clothing. Selling plants. There was a huge orchid society selling an array of orchids that I had never seen before. One of the local flower vendors had a market in there with all different kinds of flowers being sold at bunch prices. I was surprised by people actually buying pretty much everything they could see because they want to take a little bit of the Philadelphia Flower Show home with them. If I would have been allowed to, I would have filled the plane with pretty much everything I could get my hands on. There was just so many different things there to view and enjoy, people to talk to. When I walked around, everybody wanted to know how I had gotten there. They wanted to know my journey of how I had arrived at the Philadelphia Flower Show. I walked around a lot of the area where the flower people were doing their setups. It's nothing short of spectacular. You walk in, you're just immediately hit with a wall of flowers, trees, plants, blooming flowers. You know, the narcissus was blooming, so the whole area just smelled beautifully. The second day it smelled even better because it had rested overnight and the plants were giving their best face forward to everybody that was coming in that day. The amount of people that were attending when we walked in, Bill actually got us a VIP pass to go in so we could sneak in and get a little view of of our design before everybody walked in. The lights were low, and the mood was set with the flowers and the lighting it was just stunningly beautiful and ten minutes later It's like a madhouse. People are running around taking pictures and selfies everybody's like move out of the way and they're pushing each other because they all want to go see a certain section or maybe their friends designs Luckily, our Schaefer Design the canopy that went over the bridgeway where people had to walk through, it led everybody into the main flower setting. So everybody got to see our work, which to me was the highlight of everything because people stopped, took pictures, noticed every single detail, took pictures of flowers, orchids, items that they had never seen before, and the way that we had constructed everything.

Sharon McGukin: 12:10

I spoke with you the other night when you were on your way home from Philly, and you just kept saying the word"amazing. Amazing! You were starting each sentence and finishing it with the word amazing. And I just loved how amazed you were. That was just

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 12:26

Several years ago, when I competed at the Texas Cup competition in Austin, Texas, I think this is where the word comes from. I was approached by our local Senator's wife. She was there because we had Congressional Days and she walked up to me and there was only five designers, one on each area of the Lone Star State. We were underneath the cupola there at the at the State Capitol building. And she walked up to me and she said something which which rings in my mind every time I go to these events that are bigger than life. She says,"Little boy from South Texas does good." And I was like,"you're right." I would never have had these opportunities had it not been for Acolyte, Oasis, winning the Texas designer of the year, They're stepping stones in my journey of what I've been able to do. Receiving my Texas Master Florist, my Certified Florist Designer and people were like,"You're not done. Keep going." They cheered me on. And I have several people who were just amazing in that path of going towards AIFD. And then finally, graduating, being inducted in Las Vegas a couple of years ago where I was also able to get married right before I got inducted. So that day was a

Sharon McGukin: 13:44

I was, I

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 13:46

there you were a guest.

Sharon McGukin: 13:49

wonderful. Now, Did you get to visit the AIFD booth as

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 13:54

Obviously I did make my way over to the A IFD showcase. The amount of talent in that room. of AIFD and CFD designers working to complete their setups was just something to see. Everybody, that was a team. That was a team.

Sharon McGukin: 14:14

That was amazing.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 14:15

It was

Sharon McGukin: 14:15

amazing. That is an event that people look forward to all year. And you mentioned them carrying out materials. I remember one year, the hotel that has the walkway across that you can look out, the glass walkway. I looked down from there and that year, the big thing was pussy willow branches. And it seemed like every person in this river of people going down the sidewalk alongside the building because it was cold and they all had branches of pussy willow over their shoulders. And it was just the neatest river of blossoms you've ever seen.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 14:53

I'll tell you a little bit more of that. There's a reason why when I was there, I went out and purchased yellow roses.

Sharon McGukin: 15:01

Go ahead and tell us about the yellow roses.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 15:03

The final day that we were there, which was a Friday, everybody started heading out on Saturday in different directions. Friday, we got a VIP pass to be able to go in before the actual show opened. I wear my Texas cowboy hat, my boots, my Texas flag shirt that looks like a Texas flag with a Lone Star on it. I also had a banner that says"Texas Designer of the Year" and on the back it's got my name. I went down to the local market and I purchased three bunches of long stem yellow roses. People gravitated towards me. They all wanted a yellow rose of Texas. I did this once before, many years ago when I started with Acolyte. When I went to New York I went down to Times Square. I knew that people from all walks of life, come and go from everywhere, just like the Philadelphia Flower Show. I wanted to do something different, so I called it the Rose Experiment. I bought two dozen pink roses, I took a picture on one of the tables in Times Square, with all the lights and the signs in the background. Then I proceeded to hand out the roses. to just anybody who would accept them. And there's a lot of people who are leary, they thought I was selling them. And, but then, people realize,"Hey, this guy's giving them away." I gave out roses and then once they were all gone, I sat in the bleachers in Times Square and I was amazed to look out into the crowd and see the roses walking in all different directions. You could see people going left and right and getting into taxis and giving them to their daughters and, you know, the street performers even had them. And I thought, you know, that's an amazing gift to share our passion and our love with flowers and spread the joy to total strangers and have it be a project. Very similar to the Petal it Forward that some of the floral associations do. I did the same thing in Philadelphia. I went across the street to the market. I purchased yellow roses. I walked in and started handing out yellow roses to whoever would accept them. And. I sat back and watched the yellow roses walk away in all different directions, up and down the escalators, in the lobby area, walking out towards the restaurants. To me it's a fulfilling project to see the love and the passion that I have in floristry, for the state of Texas, for the yellow rose of Texas. Handing that out and passing my love along to other people And having them go enjoy it. There was one person who actually sent me a picture of the rose in their hotel room in a glass of water on their nightstand. She said, thanks so much. I love my yellow rose. I'm going to cherish it till it fades. But thank you so much for doing this for me. She found me on Facebook and sent me the picture. This is what our careers are about, making a difference in someone's life. Making them smile, enjoy flowers, learn about flowers, and all of the different processes incorporated in our daily lives that make being a florist special.

Sharon McGukin: 18:14

And Isn't it wonderful how easily we can send beauty out into the world, into the lives of others, if we just take the time to do simple, kind gestures.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 18:29

Absolutely.

Sharon McGukin: 18:30

everyone could do that every day, just think how much more beauty there could be in the world. And Of course we love flowers. So we wanted that beautiful rose to go out there, but there's so many other ways we could share kindness too, if we just took the time to do so. very cool. So When they came up to you to accept the rose, did they ask to have their picture made with the cowboy or how did they react to your Texas look?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 19:00

Let me tell you, it was unexpected to say the least. A Texan in Pennsylvania at the convention center. A lot of people asked,"Can I take a picture? Are you the Texas champion?" I go,"Yes, ma'am, I am." And the conversation was on. And it was,"How did you get here?" I won the contest. I was allowed to design with Bill Schaffer. We did that canopy that's behind you, Oasis product." They can relate to the green foam. Oh, congratulations. Can we take a picture?" Several people that took pictures found me on Facebook and shared them with me. I know that the Philadelphia Flower Show also videotaped us. As I was handing them out because I saw the camera off to the side. I haven't seen the video yet, but I'm sure it's coming, maybe in their publicity again, I think I touched some lives. I told them a little bit about Texas. About Oasis. I told them about my ambassadorship and the contest. Of how I was able to get there and work with these amazing, talented designers from all over the world.

Sharon McGukin: 19:59

When they asked you how you got there there

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 20:01

when I walked up to one of the booths, the husband said,"Where's the horse?" I said,"it's outside." So The cold.

Sharon McGukin: 20:12

you also mentioned being really excited about having the opportunity to meet and work with a number of been there, but Share some of the moments that you directly engaged with them

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 20:29

When I arrived into the hall that we were going to start setup many of the designers were already hugging each other. The hugs and the kisses went around and I just sort of sat back because I was the new kid in town. Not knowing that on the Schaffer design team, most of the designers have been there six seven 10, 12 years. They've been working with Bill quite a bit. They know. of them. So I'm guessing the longevity of them coming in and designing with him speaks for itself. because everyone pays at their own expense. Correct. No payment whatsoever. Even our food and hotel, everything we have to cover. One of the designers asked Bill what team everybody was going to be on. He's like,"well, I've already worked that out." I heard him speaking about how he was going to divide the team members. And I expected, I'm going to be throwing out the trash sweeping up the floor and doing the menial jobs. I wasn't sure what Bill had in store for me. And he says, you're going to be working with Team Bamboo." Which were the gentleman from Estonia, Mark Pampling from Australia, I was amazed by being able to work with them. Mike Boerma, who owns the Boerma Institute. I had to work side by side with Mike and I was like, a kid in a candy store because you're actually watching them, bring the concept to life. You're watching them manipulate the flowers the way that they do it.. It's stunning to see the vision come to life. I would grab a flower and cut it. No, they actually slice it. They manipulate it. They say make it last. The longevity is important because it has to last as many days as possible at the flower show. Orchids from Japan anthuriums and heliconia, an array of tropicals, many that I had never even seen before. Pitcher plants, we turned into kokedamas and hung them from the bamboo rafters. None of our product was touching the floor, everything was suspended. We were up and down on ladders all day long, binding bamboo, twisting and turning and, making, armatures so the Oasis could go into the trays. That was another one. Making sure that the Oasis was saturated enough that it would hold water to last during the first few days of the show. I don't know how many test tubes we filled with water. And we inserted orchid stems and anthurium in there. We came back the next day, the tubes were empty. Because the flowers were so thirsty from the travel. One of the designers, I think it was Mark, walked up to me, he goes" how would you feel if you flew all the way over here without water?" And I was like, exactly. We have to take into consideration our flower product. So, you know, he gives me a squeeze bottle. He goes,"Fill them all up." So there I am squeezing water bottle, squeezing water into all the test tubes. Uh, Exactly, but I didn't mind it because. It was part of the team and it had to be done and and that's what made everything click. And it worked so well for the teams. The design was a legacy design presenting Bill Schaffer's Design team. He brought the team together to make this design happen, but it was a legacy design. he is no longer competing. We're being showcased. to design the entryway, but it was not in competition with like AIFD or the other sites. We're being showcased. I'll tell you one funny story. Our international designers would go out to dinner and then they would disappear. I was in the lobby one evening after dinner and they all walk in with big bags of Hobby Lobby stuff And I asked him,"you went to Hobby Lobby?""Oh, yes, we went to Hobby Lobby. We don't have that back home." And the funny thing was I asked them to see what they had and believe it or not, they bought Easter eggs, little plastic Easter eggs and grass. You know, the Easter grass, the different colored ones. They also bought fabric. Just assorted fabric that I guess they can't find back home. So they had a Hobby Lobby party. They all went to Hobby Lobby together. We had a team meeting every morning at eight o'clock when we walked in so that everybody knew exactly what they had to do. Bill's like,"guess where they all went last night." We all started laughing, we were like"Hobby Lobby." and we asked what they had purchased. And then we said, wait a minute, you don't know Michaels yet. JoAnne's fabrics. There's a lot more you haven't experienced yet. I think somebody took them to a Michaels before they left. But I do know that every time they ventured out to Hobby Lobby, they came back with items not available over there. But it was funny when I saw they opened up the bag and they must've had 24 little plastic tubes full of Easter. They were taking home to incorporate into their spring designs. I was like,"well, that's smart."

Sharon McGukin: 25:23

You know, that's very cool because when we travel internationally, we're amazed at the things that we buy there that we can't get here and bring our suitcases full of materials. And we don't think it's that funny, but then when we watch them do exactly the same thing, it seems funny to us because Hobby Lobby, we just think it's normal. Actually, the first time I ever heard the name Hobby Lobby, I was doing a magazine shoot in Oklahoma and they said, let's run to Hobby Lobby. And I laughed because I thought they were, you know, making a name up and they're like, why are you laughing? That's the store now it's everywhere.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 26:00

It's everywhere.

Sharon McGukin: 26:03

So when it comes to having experiences in the floral industry. What would you say is your superpower?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 26:14

I've always had the gift of being able to converse with people, being able to talk, to express myself and it comes from the heart, but it comes off the top of my mind. And a lot of times I get in trouble for speaking my mind, I have that capability to introduce myself like in the Philadelphia Flower Show, introduce myself to total strangers. Walk up and feel comfortable in explaining, talking about Oasis, the Texas Cup, the journey of how I got there. Walking over with them to our show piece and telling them,"look, these are orchids, look at the pitcher plants, look at the kokedamas and how we created them. Telling them about the Oasis Bind Wire that puts them together. you see them actually understand what we're explaining to them. So I've always thought my superpower is Texas hospitality. It's a gift, that I've been blessed with to be able to speak to people. explain to them different processes and procedures and come away with a feeling of satisfaction, with friendships. I don't know, Sharon, if you have ever known, but I'm actually a certified minister, so,

Sharon McGukin: 27:31

I did not know that. How cool

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 27:33

That's another little thing. Marrying people is another fun little aspect that I can do.

Sharon McGukin: 27:37

no, go ahead. Let's face

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 27:39

We do.

Sharon McGukin: 27:41

Southern way.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 27:41

It's the Southern way.

Sharon McGukin: 27:42

were looking forward, We've been looking back at your history and your experience in Philly. Looking forward, what would be something that you would just love to accomplish next?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 27:56

I'll be honest with you, Sharon. It's very humbling to go to these experiences and find something that surpasses it in life. I always dreamt of being a Texas Master Florist. I in my wildest dreams never thought I would ever pass my PFDE and be inducted into AIFD. I never thought I'd go to Sylvia Cup and compete and, meet those designers and now Philadelphia, God puts these. opportunities in my path, and it's something that I cherish. I value. I always remember. I'm a diehard photographer. My cell phone is saturated with pictures of Philadelphia, of the show, of the setup, of the Oasis bricks being cut and wired and taped. I try to capture every little detail of what I experienced so that at some point in the future I can relive it. And to me, I don't know what the future holds, but I leave it in God's hands. Cause I know something bigger and better is on the horizon. I just don't know what it is. I guess I just have to sit back and be humble. And expect them to come in and they will because they always have.

Sharon McGukin: 29:26

be, You have to be watchful people is that you see them and you can I think that's, A lot of times that's the difference in people is that the opportunities are there, but some people see theirs and others overlook theirs looking for something else. So you've been very good at discovering what is for you.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 29:49

Like I mentioned before, I've always used Oasis products. I love Oasis products. It's the go to. Almost everybody uses Oasis foam to design in unless they're not using foam. Oasis is a staple for our flower I never in my wildest dreams thought I would actually be a real ambassador for the program and be able to go out and speak to people and inform them of the products and promote the products. Again, that comes back to that southern talking. I don't think if it wouldn't have been for me being able to express myself and express the interest of wanting to be an ambassador, I wouldn't be here.

Sharon McGukin: 30:32

And I know exactly what you're talking about connecting with people over it because as a design director for Oasis, we're out there doing the same thing, connecting with people. And when you say the classic green foam, their eyes light up. They know exactly what you're talking about. They may overlook everything else, but the foam, the green foam.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 30:54

And I think that's one of the new areas that we're going is the Know Foam where we want to have people understand and know the processes of the foam, where it comes from, how it's made. There's so many questions or misconceptions of the products.

Sharon McGukin: 31:10

And the The program, No Foam is K N O W, Foam. We'll be talking about that with Laura Walsh and Kelly Mace on an Now, Is there one word of advice? That you would give to someone. You mentioned being a little boy in Texas and not knowing the great things that were before you. If someone is looking to grow as a designer and to learn more about design, what would be your best advice for them?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 31:43

Education. Educate yourself with what your products are. Educate yourself with your floral products, your hard goods. There's so many companies that offer vases, containers, foam, obviously Oasis, our wire. Educate yourself on how you can use them. YouTube, Pinterest, there's so many things, that people can access nowadays that I wasn't fortunate to have in my early years. I'm going on 45 plus years of designing now. When I started out, there was nothing available like that. Nowadays, at a click of a button, you can have any kind of educational opportunity at your fingertips to learn how you can best utilize the products and how you can advance yourself, advance your skills, your knowledge of products, your knowledge of design. Some of these masters that were there with us at Bill Schaffer's Design. They have institutes of higher learning where you can go and travel to Belgium or to Holland or to Australia and study with them. they're on Facebook or YouTube or different places that we can access that knowledge. And to me, that's the key to, to being successful and to advancing ourselves in this industry. We never stopped learning. When I won the Louisiana Cup my theme was"Bloom where you're planted." I've started to bloom where I've been planted. I'm planted in South Texas, but that doesn't mean I'm always going to be here. I can travel anywhere. I have dual citizenship. I go to Mexico a lot and I take them knives and scissors, floral tape and things. Anytime I go to the small flower shops in the little quaint little villages where my family's from, I take them little'goodies' so that they can, they can play with. And I show," Hey, look, this is what this does." Or, I take them cold glue. Oh my God. They love cold glue. like, look, it's

Sharon McGukin: 33:38

Everybody. does Mm hmm.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 33:41

seen that before. And I go, let me show you what it does. I make up a little quick little corsage and I glue it on there and Oh my God, that is so neat. It's magic. It's magic in a tube. And wire. They look forward to next time I come and visit. That's how we build those relationships, build friendships. And sometimes it takes us giving them just a little bit of something and a bit of our knowledge. We can learn from them as well. We build those long lasting bonds, friendships and community that is vital to our floral industry.

Sharon McGukin: 34:11

tube, a floral adhesive and the yellow rose are the same thing in different forms. It's just giving a gift of acknowledgement to each person.

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 34:22

Absolutely.

Sharon McGukin: 34:26

To sum up your journey to the Philadelphia flower show, what is one description you would give?

Abel Gonzalez Mencio: 34:33

If I could sum up my journey to the Philadelphia Flower Show and working with these amazing designers towards the common goal, it is that word amazing. Seeing a vision come to life, we had so much fun We all work together, went out to dinner and had a good time and learned so much about each other Then the next morning, boom, we're back at work to get the process done by five o'clock in the evening before we had to clean everything up. The experience to me was amazing. There was no other word for it. It opened my eyes. To a whole new world of designers coming together and forming one team, one mindset towards the common goal of doing the best job that we could to present ourselves at the Philadelphia Flower Show. That in itself is an amazing experience that I would invite anybody that has an opportunity to go and experience the Philadelphia Flower Show at least once in their lifetimes.

Sharon McGukin: 35:43

Thank you, Abel. And to our audience, Smithers-Oasis North America, Abel, and I want to thank you for joining us today. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and be sure to hit subscribe. You don't want to miss the inspired solutions our upcoming guests will share with you for your personal or business growth. If you have topics or guests you want to hear, Please message me. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time, I'm Sharon McGukin, reminding you that like the unfurling petals of a flower, we grow by changing form. Soaking inspiration in, like raindrops. Absorbing energy from others, like warmth from the sun. This growth opens us up to new ideas and that's How we Bloom.