As a young girl, one of my favorite memories was roaming through my Grandfather’s garden. It was hard not to notice my Grandfather watching me with a twinkle in his eyes as I skipped through the rows of plants, stopping to pop a strawberry in my mouth or pick a bouquet of flowers for my Grandmother. He took such pride in tending to this place and the joy that it brought me.
After my Grandparents immigrated to the United States from Italy, they moved into a small Chicago bungalow, where they transformed an empty plot of land into a beautiful garden filled with a variety of flowers and herbs. This early connection to gardening inspired me to pursue a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture and design gardens for residential clients.
The pleasure I get from creating outdoor spaces for my clients has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I especially take pride in considering not only the visual components of garden design but also the olfactory components. As a child, roaming through my Grandfather’s garden, I always felt at peace, and now, as an adult, I realize that part of the experience came from the scents that surrounded me.
This realization led me to create Caroline Francis candles and fragrances, which capture the aromatic combinations of different plant materials and provide a daily reminder to slow down.