Upper Dublin's Hidden Flower

No one leaves Cheryl Wilks’ home without a bouquet of fresh flowers— she insists.

Wilks says that if you never take risks, you will never understand yourself. Wilks says she took risks that led her to lead a life of doing what she loves best—helping people. 

Surrounded by flowers and saw carvings of animals created for her by her husband, Wilks, 55, sat in her backyard on Bluebird Lane Wednesday morning and spoke of her journey to become a floral therapist.

She attended Beaver College, now Arcadia University, and graduated with a degree in graphic design. She had originally gone into school as a biology major to become a veterinarian.

“I missed my art,” Wilks said of her decision to switch majors.

After school, Wilks lived in Israel for a year, where she became the head art director of a tourist magazine.

When she returned to the states, Wilks began a business called the Flower Cart. Wilks said she never went to school for floral arranging, but has always been creative, and flowers became her outlet.

“I love my graphic design, but it’s flat,” Wilks said. “I became three-dimensional with my flowers.”

Wilks said the Flower Cart grew into a very successful business in the 13 years she co-owned it. She said the business began with delivering fresh flower bouquets to grocery stores in the area and grew into a full-fledged flower shop, with over 20 employees.

Over the years, Wilks has held many teaching positions at schools in the area. She taught floral design night classes at Eastern Center for Arts and Technology. She also worked for Delaware Valley College teaching floral design classes for five years. Wilks said when she began, the college offered one floral design class with about 20 students in it, but by the end of her tenure, the college offered seven classes.

In 1994, Wilks began Flowers on Location, her current home-based business. Flowers on Location provides workshops, demonstrations and lectures for any group interested, both business and personal. She said she has 35 different workshops and seven different demonstrations, but if someone is looking for something else, she could do that, too.

Her company allows Wilks to share her favorite part of floral arranging with those interested—therapy. Wilks is a registered horticultural therapist with the American Horticultural Therapy Association.

“I really enjoyed empowering people to get in touch with creativity through flowers,” Wilks said. “Flowers are very nurturing.”

Wilks said she differs from many of the horticultural therapists she knows. Many work with planting flowers and other plants, but Wilks said she is the only person she knows using floral arranging as a form of therapy.

Wilks has worked with rehab centers, prisons, schools, hospices, nursing homes and other organizations. She said she brings all of the materials, supplies and flowers with her.

While Wilks said she still does arrangements for some events, such as Arcadia University’s special events, her passion is therapy.  

Wilks said she believes flowers are a great medium to help people with their emotional well-being, and she likes to tell people that she works with that “flowers are fresh, but they don’t talk back.”

Wilks also said she does demonstrations at the Philadelphia Flower Show, home and garden shows, and other events.

For the first time, Wilks is offering classes on floral arranging at her home this summer. She is doing classes for groups of girls and adults. She said she is even doing a two-day intensive program about how to arrange flowers for weddings in August. 

Wilks said that because she goes on location for her work, the Upper Dublin community isn’t that familiar with her.

“I’m a secret here,” Wilks said.

Wilks said her next project is to write a book about floral therapy and how to do some of her arrangements, including her money roses. She said so far, she has a title, an outline and the intro.

It’s important to do what you love, Wilks said. She likes to tell people that if you do what you love for a living, you don’t work a day in your life. And that’s just how she feels.

“I’m very blessed to be able to do what I love. I don’t work for a living, I play for a living. I play hard; I don’t work hard,” Wilks said.