The Better Business Bureau in St. Louis has advised customers to use caution if doing business with Cultivate Wildflower, a flower preservation company in Marionville. Consumers reported to BBB the company failed to deliver goods in a timely manner, produced substandard goods, failed to reach customers, and provided poor customer service.
Cultivate Wildflower has earned an “F” rating, the lowest on BBB’s scale due to the unanswered complaints. Complainants were recent brides who gave the business their wedding bouquets to preserve.
“A wedding is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life, but this company has left some brides empty-handed,” said Pamela Hernandez, regional director for the Springfield BBB. “If it can’t do the work it was paid to do, it needs to provide refunds and return the flowers to their customers.”
BBB could not find any record of the business being registered with the Missouri Secretary of State. But according to a listing on Canva, the business has been operating since 2018. Cultivate Wildflower is owned and operated by Nicole Kackley.
Haylie Scherr of Chicago, who formerly lived in Branson, told the News-Leader she ordered two custom pieces from Cultivate Wildflower. Scherr entered a contract with Kackley in August 2022, but she says Kackley never actually signed the contract.
Scherr paid the company $1,150 for the two floral pieces to be preserved from her October 2022 wedding. She was supposed to receive her flowers by May 2023. But Scherr’s one-year anniversary has come and gone, and she still hasn’t received her items.
“I was just ghosted,” Scherr said. “We were only communicating through Instagram messaging because I wanted to see that she read my messages. And she would read it and then not respond.”
Scherr said she took to social media to warn others about Cultivate Wildflower. She is also in a group chat with other brides — seven in all — who have had trouble with the business. She said one bride sent out an all-white bouquet and got back purple flowers.
“I started blasting all her social media saying, ‘Do not work with this vendor. You will be scammed,’” Scherr said. “The items that were advertised are not what they’re receiving. I mean, it’s pretty bad. At this point, I’m not interested in receiving my items.”
The business owner gave Scherr various excuses as to why the items had not been delivered, citing health issues and sick relatives. She did ask for a refund, but Scherr said the business owner “never acknowledges that.”
“We’re all very understanding, but it can’t be two years down the road you’re ghosting,” Scherr said.
Another woman from Kansas City told BBB she entered a contract with Cultivate Wildflower in May 2022, paying the business $675 over installments. She was supposed to receive her items in early September 2023, but she did not receive them until late November 2023. When she did receive them, the items were damaged.
The woman from Kansas City told BBB Cultivate Wildflower has a clause in its contract saying the business could terminate the deal for “any offending behavior.”
“If you threatened (the owner), she could break the contract, keep the money and your flowers,” she told BBB. “I made sure not to upset her.”
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A third woman, from Springfield, told BBB she didn’t receive her order form Cultivate Wildflower until after filing complaints with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the BBB. She also said her order was poor quality.
The woman from Springfield said she entered a $700 contract with Cultivate Wildflower in early 2022. She was supposed to receive her items by June 2023, but she didn’t see them until December 31, 2023. She said the business came highly recommended from vendors at a bridal show in 2022.
“Her work on Instagram and Facebook was nice,” the woman told BBB. “But what I received was not done well. I don’t even know if I will display it.”
According to the BBB, Kackley said in a recent interview that Cultivate Wildflower was still in business. She said she didn’t know she needed to respond to BBB complaints — Kackley thought they were like “leaving a bad review” for a business. She also said she had delivered items to all of those who had filed BBB complaints.
Kackley did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the News-Leader.
