Iman Project Founder And Creative Director Bree Clarke Pivots With Plants

Bree Clarke isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. The founder and creative director of Iman + Co. can be found six days a week, wrist-deep in soil as she cultivates her lifestyle brand, The Iman Project, and connects people to one another while nourishing their roots.

The Iman Project is based on authenticity, from the farmhouse tables Clarke and husband Carlos sell from their garage to Bree Blooms, workshops for flower arranging that became a safe place to talk about race ande other difficult topics.

Clarke doesn’t shy away from the troubled parts of her past – homelessness and jail time – because they contributed to The Iman Project, which she launched after being ignored and devalued as a Black woman working in the wedding industry.

Parts of The Iman Project have been built on pain, including The Little House on Routh, which is in a former slave quarters. The Little Bodega and The Plant Project Next Door joined the Routh Street lineup in a predominantly white Dallas neighborhood.

“The Plant Project spent some time with our amazing friends @aspirepostoak to spread not only plant joy, but flower power, too, through Bloom & Bud: Botanical Bar,” Clarke said, adding, “Bloom & Bud is the baby sister of Plants and Proseco, built with the same intention, love and light to foster a sense of community. It brings such joy to see these concepts bloom and to see neighbors from all walks of life, backgrounds, race, religion, size and style share these magical moments.

“Retail has changed so much,” Clarke told me. “People are looking for a real experience. Plant and Proseco are luxury trunk shows with plants. We’re taking our boutique stores to the customer. I do a minimum of two hours and give people plant info and plant tips and connect and share with them.”

Plants and Proseco and Bloom & Buds are available in Houston and Dallas. Clarke travels back and forth between the two cities, visiting Dallas Monday through Thursday, and Houston Friday to Sunday. “I’m from Houston,” Clarke said. “So I see my family there.

“We still have the physical locations,” Clarke said. “When we started in 2020, everybody was pushing Black-owned businesses. Society gets bored with things. My business rose to its peak during the pandemic. People were at home and weren’t as busy. Now, there’s a lot going on with fiscal and money topics. Everybody was at work Monday through Friday, so I focused more on weekends. Retail has changed so much. People are looking for real experiences.”

Clarke knows how to create experiences around plants and flowers. WorkPlant is a program that brings the experience to offices such as law firms, “businesses where they wouldn’t let people work from home,” Clarke said. “WorkPlants has been a really good thing.

“The Plant Project is a place where we all can grow together,” said Clarke of Dallas’ first Black woman-owned plant shop. “I wanted to incorporate this back into Bree Blooms. That was the place for uncomfortable conversations. Now, we’ve created a place for telling stories.”

Clarke tries to schedule three to five Plants and Proseco events per week. On Monday, when all of Clarke’s plant shops are closed, she schedules Bloom & Buds. “We want to do about 10 of them per month.”

The businesses Clarke targets are in Dallas – Uptown – and within a 10 mile radius. “That’s also led us to interior plantscaping. If you think it would be good to have plants in your company, we can help.”

Clarke’s main company, The Iman Co., was overshadowed by the plants and blooms, so she took a step back. I’m back to focusing on my main brand,” she said. “I put so much of me out there. When they attack your brand, they attack you. For two years, I had to step back. I’m not ashamed of my past.”

Row & Glow, a wellness retreat that Clarke recently organized, surfaced her struggle with anxiety and depression. “I suffer from hard core depression,” said Clarke, who lists her titles as creator, designer, speaker, dream defender and influencer. “Even if you do the smallest thing every day, do a little bit every day. Everything is hard.

“With WorkPlants, I see a shift in the retail space and people coming in for workshops with plants and flower designing,” Clarke said. “And it’s not just
just
mom and dad. Plant Tiny Seeds workshops feature readings from garden and children’s books.”