When In Paris: The Magnolia Company Goes Abroad!

It started with a phone call.

Julie’s phone rang – it was Matt.  “He probably has a question about something at work,” she thought.

The Roths are the power couple behind The Magnolia Company, a family business in Central Florida that specializes in magnolia farming and magnolia home decor.  They’ve been doing this for nearly twenty years now, and it’s made them experts in their field.

While the Roths always put their faith and family first, The Magnolia Company perpetually makes their short list of priorities. It’s why they functionally become unreachable from late September through January each year – too many things to do on the farm!  The Roths are, in fact, your (very) friendly neighborhood workaholics.

So when Julie answered her phone, the last thing she expected to hear from Matt was, “Hi honey, do you wanna go to Paris?”

Thinking he meant some time far into the future, or at least next year, she nonchalantly replied, “Of course!”  After all, who doesn’t want to go to Paris?

“Okay, I’m booking it!”

The line clicked as Matt ended their 30-second call, and Julie went about her work day, not thinking much of it. Matt’s the kind of guy who dreams big, so it’s pretty normal to sporadically get spontaneous ideas from him – especially off-the-wall ideas.  Those are his specialty.

A short time later, Julie gets a text.

“Ok, we leave in a week.”

You, Me, and Paris (for 9 Days)

“It was a complete perspective shift for me,” says Julie after she’s back into the swing of American normalcy at The Magnolia Company.

She intended to do something she’s never done before: completely unplug.

You would think that a couple of plant lovers whose entire business revolves around gardening would be the most unplugged people you’ve ever met, but the demands of capitalism require phone calls, zoom calls, emails, web stats, spreadsheets, texts, and even social media.  It’s a necessary evil and a double edged sword.  While Matt’s in the greenhouses or crunching numbers, Julie’s in meetings galore and handling nearly all of the communications in the business.  Her phone? It’s never far away. 

So when Julie says something radical and seemingly ludicrous, like “I’m going to completely unplug for the trip,” you smile politely, commend her for her goal, and think to yourself, “that’s impossible.”

She thought she could, and so she did.

Shame on me for underestimating the formidable Mrs. Julie Roth!

While it’s impossible in today’s world to unplug cold turkey, especially in a foreign country or while you’re traveling, Julie did, in fact, unplug completely from work.  No emails, no texts, no work calls, no spreadsheets.

Just Julie & Matt in Paris.

“It was a chance to really connect with each other.  The best takeaway surely was to completely step away from the hustle and bustle of life and the to-do’s and the texts.  It’s completely different from American culture.  Everything is done with meticulous intentionality.”

When you unplug, what do you tune in to?

For Julie, the world became a vibrant new place.  She felt like she really got to step into another life, even if just for a short time.  Every detail, every meal, every step she took on those romantic Parisian streets revolved around beauty.

Beyond the croissants, the cheese, and the wine, Paris offers a whole new perspective on how life could be if you just slow down.  At first, there’s so much to take in – the architecture alone is to die for!

A few days wandering the streets like a pair of honeymooning lovebirds acclimated both Julie and Matt to the air fairly quickly, and then the little details started to emerge.

Planted by Design

In America, everything is big, loud, and in your face.  It’s often overstimulating, but our nervous systems are so accustomed to all this sensory input at all hours that Americans don’t notice it. Our culture is all about multitasking and maximizing profits. 

Success = getting it (whatever “it” is) all done.

The French are, simply put, built different… Literally!  Everything is smaller, from buildings to businesses to the meals you eat.  Life is smaller, but it’s not less.  It’s quieter.  There’s an air of pride in the French that you don’t find in Americans.  French folk have a reputation for being rude, but Julie has a different idea.

“It’s all about beauty.  Every little thing is done with intention, and the French experience that stillness for what it is: beauty.”

People specialize in their crafts and trades. There’s a magnificent sense of pride and purpose baked into the culture. People aren’t trying to do more.  They’re trying to do with heart.  Julie noticed this particularly in the way French architecture and design incorporates nature. 

Every restaurant had trees – entire trees! – outside its entrance.  Every museum has a garden, manicured to abundance.  Plants are everywhere, and the space feels inherently more green and alive than anything in America, where we’re surrounded by city gray apartment complexes, strip malls, and highways.  Even in areas where planting in the ground isn’t feasible, potted plants are everywhere.  Container gardening, which is objectively smaller gardening, is abundant.  Flowers, trees, even fruit trees line businesses and street corners like artforms of their own.

Julie said it perfectly as she recounted her experience:

“The art and beauty of Paris isn’t limited to the halls inside of museums. It’s absolutely everywhere.”

Magnolias in Paris

When your life revolves around magnolias, it’s impossible not to notice them everywhere you go.  The French are quick to take note of beauty, so it’s no surprise that this tree is a popular choice in Parisian landscaping.

There’s more to the French connection here.

Magnolias are not native to France.  In fact, they’re native primarily to Asian countries and islands.  Southern Magnolias (Julie & Matt’s forte) are among the few species native to North America.

Sources vary on exactly how the magnolia made its way to France.  Some say the Asian family of the tree was brought to France through trade first, and others credit the French botanist, Pierre Magnol, with bringing Southern Magnolias from Louisiana to France.  Either way, the family of tree now gets its namesake from Pierre.

Pierre Magnol

Pierre Magnol was a prominent 17th Century botanist, and today, we credit him with many significant developments to plant classification.  The system by which we identify species, known as taxonomy, has a specific title and structure: binomial nomenclature, the genus-species combination we know as a scientific name.  You probably learned about taxonomy in high school biology class.

Before taxonomy, it took a lot of effort to distinguish organisms from one another.  Obviously, a sunflower isn’t the same thing as a dandelion, but how do you know that one sunflower is the exact same species as another?  And, since dandelions and sunflowers both have yellow blooms, could they be related?

Magnol’s biggest contribution to the scientific community at the time was using morphological characteristics (appearance) of a plant to group plants into categories, or “families.” 

Later, the Magnolia genus was officially named by Charles Plumier in Magnol’s honor.

Leave it to the French to marry science with beauty!

Souvenirs and Life Lessons from France

“I think what’s interesting is to see that this mindset shift really was able to transcend, even when we came back to this life of work and family and all the demands,” says Julie as she reflects on her trip. “It sounds so cheesy to just ‘be mindful,’ but to experience it really is a thing.  Internally, I’ve done such a reset.”

Julie’s life is all about multitasking.  She raised four kids and worked full time.  She still works full time, but now, she’s doing it through a different lens.  It’s time to slow down, to stop and be present with every task instead of thinking about the next.  The French take pride in what they do; everything is infused with passion.  Without the ability to be present, you lose passion, and passion is truly at the heart of The Magnolia Company.

The Magnolia Mile – French Style

The Magnolia Company is more than just a company: it’s a community.  Julie and Matt have a vision they’re calling “The Magnolia Mile.”  It’s meant to be a hub, a third place, for the community to come and experience the joys of nature.  A bit of that manicured Parisian greenery, with all the warmth of Southern love. 

“Seeing the way they [the French] create these spaces where people can simply exist and enjoy nature’s beauty has really given us inspiration and affirmation that what we’re doing is amazing and important.”