Sean and Melissa Stevenson, of Kaleidoscope Floral, may have spent most of their life in Naples, but their vision and palette are fully global. The florists are always tinkering online and researching rare plants, novel arrangements and innovations in floral design to push their genre forward.
You might not be able to precisely define the couple’s style (somewhat wild, somewhat sweet, somewhat strange and surreal), but you can be sure the Naples petal pushers will always deliver something wholly original. Perhaps that’s why gemologist and Gulfshore Life advisory board member Jennifer McCurry claims the duo as her go-to for special-occasion arrangements and botanical gifts.
Since 2015, the Stevensons’ arrangements have graced philanthropic gala tables, Port Royal entryways and small-business offices across the region, helping fuel a botanical revolution in Southwest Florida with dozens of boutique floral businesses popping up and the local penchant for wild blooms blooming. In their previous Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South storefronts, the couple used plants as the basis to promote a local-centric, earth-conscious lifestyle, with naturalist gifts, floral arranging classes and chic mixers (they are currently hunting for Kaleidoscope’s new home).
Sean forages his family’s 5-acre property in Naples around town and for native pieces of the land to integrate into artful arrangements. “If I’m driving down the road and see something growing off the side of highway or median, I will stop and—responsibly—snip it down,” Sean says. Unlike commercial florists who stock from clearing houses, the Stevensons work directly with small farmers and independent brokers to source sustainably grown, lesser-known blooms like the nodding, bell-shaped fritillaria, and rarer varieties of beloved English garden roses and dahlias. Unfettered blooms are shaped into impressionistic arrangements that emphasize the plants’ otherworldliness. Locally found morsels of palm tree seed pods, bromeliads and wild grasses give each composition a distinct sense of place.
After nearly a decade of delivering to tony neighborhoods, the Stevensons have developed a deep cachet of local intel. If your recipient is in the central Naples area, chances are Kaleidoscope Floral has supplied them with flowers. They could tell you that so-and-so loves feathery sugarbushes or that your new Southern mother-in-law swoons at the sight of buttercups—and tailor arrangements accordingly. “We have clients tell us about how they grew up with hydrangeas, and having them around the house takes them back to that place,” Sean says. “Flowers have this incredible power to transport you.”