This Macon native and florist is a contestant on HBO’s flower competition series
A florist from Macon will compete on an HBO Max series premiering this week.
Canaan Marshall, who was born and raised in Macon, is participating on season two of Full Bloom, an HBO Max flower design competition.
“We know how to do flowers but how to design them on a bigger scale, and how to use time management, that was totally different from when I do flowers, but it was a great, great opportunity. I couldn’t pass on it,” Marshall said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Marshall was contacted by HBO Max to see if he was interested in competing in the show, and the process to be selected was a long one with multiple interviews and even a psychological evaluation, he said.
Simon Lycett, Elizabeth Cronin and Maurice Harris, florists who create flower arrangements for celebrities from Beyonce to the Queen of England, host the show and judge the 10 contestants’ work.
The winner of the competition receives $100,000, and the first episode of season two will be available to stream Thursday at 3 a.m., according to HBO Max’s website.
How he became a florist
Marshall was working at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon when he met florist Allison Lucas. She taught him how to arrange flowers, he said.
“The one thing that really drew me in was the different colors. I love color. I love mixing things and making it real soft, but also learning the flowers and the technique and how to really do a mass arrangement,” he said.
Growing up in Macon, Marshall said he didn’t see a lot of people put flowers in their homes, either because they did not have access to fresh cuts or they weren’t confident enough to make an arrangement.
“I want to show other people they can do it,” he said. “A lot of people who don’t have access to them, or they don’t know the meaning ... that’s the whole reason I really, really love to do flowers, and I love to show people.”
He attended Mercer University, and then pursued a career as a florist, creating his business in 2012. Now, he makes arrangements for large events and some celebrities as well.
His work has been featured in several magazines, including in Traditional Home and Modern Luxury, and he has been hired to create the arrangements for events like ADAC’s To Live & Dine, Historic Macon Foundation’s Design Wine & Dine, and Atlanta Symphony Associates’ Decorators’ Show House & Gardens, according to his website.
“Flowers are a beautiful way to show love. They smell divine and who in the world would say they don’t like flowers. Guys, girls, everybody loves flowers, so I think it’s like a universal love for flowers,” he said.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 6:00 AM.