Lydia Sellers 

Lydia Sellers is a new GardenComm member from South Carolina and seems to have a tireless passion for the plant world!

For the past two years, she has been studying horticulture part-time at a local community college while working full-time as a communications professional in the education technology industry (Pathwright.com). She says. “It was challenging but also fulfilling, and I now have the skillset I need to pursue some things I’m passionate about!” She continued, “Namely, I’ve been dipping my toes in residential landscape design, which has been a wonderful creative outlet and learning opportunity.”

This year Lydia also started a side business in plant care, styling, and design, primarily for a popular local coffee shop, Methodical Coffee, at their three locations in Greenville, SC. But that’s not all! She is also a contributing writer for Plants Map, a guide to local plant shops in Greenville, SC, launched in May 2023: https://www.goodprintedthings.com/shop/p/paper-routes-greenville-sc. 

Lydia shares her travel stories on her Instagram account as she visits famous gardens throughout the South (Region 4). She has visited Monticello, Maymont, and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and you can see her latest venture to Richmond, VA, in her highlights. She says, “Next on my list are the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet. If you have any recommendations for places I should visit in Region 4, I’d love to hear them!” You can send her a DM on Instagram @lydiasellers

And again, that’s not all! Lydia is also on the board of the Greater Greenville Master Gardeners Association, and she is currently laying the groundwork for a new Instagram channel focused on houseplant styling tied to her side business.

We can thank Kelly D. Norris for our acquaintance with Lydia, as he recommended she join GardenComm because of her communications background and interest in public horticulture while at a horticulture event at Spartanburg Community College. Lydia hopes to meet some lovely people who can guide her as a newbie in this space. In addition, she says: “I’m also on the lookout for an opportunity to transition my communication career into the horticulture/garden industry.”

Erin Benzakein and her team at Floret have been a huge inspiration for Lydia. They just released Season 2 of “Growing Floret” on Chip and Joanna Gaines’ TV network, Magnolia Network, and she says that “the storytelling is phenomenal. The production is stunning. But the truth at the heart of it — the story of a woman who was so compelled by the beauty of flowers that she turned her whole life upside down to grow them and share them — that’s what I’m most intrigued and inspired by. Erin’s passion for flowers and nature is a beautiful force, like a strong wind carrying seeds of hope to new places. I hope her courage and belief that beauty is worth fighting for rubs off on us all.”

Welcome, Lydia; you will be an excellent addition to GardenComm!