Dee Hall Goodwin is a Norfolk-based flower farmer, educator, and community organizer whose work bridges floriculture, equity, and ecological restoration.

Some of her earliest memories are of her grandmother's garden in St. Lucia, surrounded by orchids, anthuriums, and night-blooming cacti. Growing up across from Brooklyn Botanic Garden deepened her connection to plants and place. When she moved to Norfolk in 2018 and couldn't find locally-grown, sustainable flowers for her own wedding, she started growing them herself.

In 2020, Dee founded Mermaid City Flowers, an urban flower farm growing seasonal blooms on borrowed plots throughout Norfolk. Her garden-style florals are foam-free, focused on native plants, and designed to support pollinators. Her work has been certified as a National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat.

In 2021, Dee founded Black Flower Farmers, an international network of growers of color that now includes 50+ members across continents. The collective provides fellowship, professional development, and grant funding, creating space, resources, and visibility for Black growers in an industry where they've been historically invisible. In 2025, Black Flower Farmers secured its first grant to support members with equipment, professional development, integrated pest management, and new systems.

Dee also founded the Tidewater Flower Collective, connecting 25 regional growers to collaborate, share resources, and strengthen the local flower economy.

She serves on the Board of Directors at Norfolk Botanical Garden and is a member of NBG’s Presidents Council for Inclusion and Diversity, working to preserve and share the history of Norfolk's WPA botanical garden, the only one in the nation, built by Black workers in 1938. She also serves as Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers and sits on the Bee City Norfolk committee.

Dee speaks nationally on native plants, sustainable floriculture, and building equity in agriculture. [View speaking topics and availability →]

Her talks include the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's "The Giving Garden: Cultivating Native Plants to Transform Your Garden and Community," presentations at ASCFG and Slow Flowers Society conferences, and lectures for Garden Club of America chapters. In 2026, she will co-host the Slow Flowers Worldwide Summit with founder Debra Prinzing and speak at the Philadelphia Flower Show and the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival.

Her work has been featured in Garden & Gun, National Wildlife Federation Magazine, and En Forme (cover story, Fall 2025). She is quoted by MarthaStewart.com as a floral expert and featured in Black Flora: Profiles of Inspiring Black Flower Farmers and Florists by Teresa Speight.

For Dee, flowers are the medium, not the message. The message is community, equity, and ecological healing, from seed to celebration.