News

Jul 01, 2025

Iowa woman makes wooden flower bouquets to sell at Ames Farmers Market

The wood flowers at Afton Stout’s vendor booth look so genuine that people sometimes tilt their heads to smell them. Occasionally, a bee will alight on a wooden bloom. Stout’s business is called My

The wood flowers at Afton Stout’s vendor booth look so genuine that people sometimes tilt their heads to smell them. Occasionally, a bee will alight on a wooden bloom.

Stout’s business is called My Dinosaur Dreams Flower Co., and she offers floral arrangements made of a special, lightweight sola wood, which she paints and arranges in vases and bouquets.

Although Stout sells many of her creations at markets and online, she also features them in her brick-and-mortar location, located in a beautiful, historic building in downtown State Center. Currently, the gift shop in downtown State Center does not have regular hours. Customers can check the store’s Facebook profile for more information.

Stout is a frequent vendor at the Ames, Nevada, and Maxwell Farmers Markets.

Stout is a regular vendor at the Ames Main Street Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. She also has booths on alternating Sundays at the farmers markets in Nevada and Maxwell.

Stout has a color chart of some of the most popular shades and examples of some of the flower varieties she most frequently creates, such as roses, dahlias and sunflowers. But, the choices are not limited to what is on display.

“I can custom mix almost any color,” she said. “I’ve mixed the paint to match the swatches for a lot of weddings. It may be one of my superpowers.”

Stout’s love of artificial flowers began with her own wedding in 2014, when she used paper to make flower bouquets and arrangements. That was an impetus for her to offer fabric and paper flowers through Facebook ads.

Stout taught herself the techniques and started branching out in a new direction after a customer asked her to make sola wood flowers. It's now her main focus.

She dyes the wooden flowers and arranges them. Her Etsy shop, which she’s had since 2012, really started to take off after she began selling the sola wood flowers in 2016.

Sola wood is a “very specific type of plant” that is used in flower making. It grows in marshy areas, especially in Asian countries.

“I actually work with a group of about six women in Thailand,” Stout said. “They have high-quality sola wood flowers, and it feels good to empower other women.”

The wood is spongy on the inside, so it is very soft, similar to balsa wood. It’s made into a sheet and artisans work with it similarly to paper.

As the plant dries, it develops a more foamy texture. Stout often treats them with glycerin to keep the flowers “feeling more realistic and softer." The wood is also more forgiving for shipping and traveling, less likely to break.

The Thai women create many of Stout’s flowers, which arrive in Iowa in either ivory or shades of brown. She paints the flowers and arranges them.

Stout creates a lot of bouquets for weddings and arrangements for gifts.

“The last few years have been a whirlwind,” she said.

One of her biggest honors was creating a big casket swag for a funeral.

“It was one of my favorite orders because the family got to come tell me about their loved one, what kind of flowers they liked, what colors they liked,” Stout said.

The family members took flowers from the arrangement and got to keep them.

“It was such an honor to be involved in that,” she said.

Though an unusual name for a flower and gift shop, My Dinosaur Dreams stems from Stout's childhood in Montana.

“There’s a lot of dinosaur stuff there, so it’s always been part of my life,” she said.

Stout used to have vivid dreams about dinosaurs when she was a kid. They were often scary, being chased by a T Rex or another big dino.

Stout still likes dinosaurs. Fortunately, she hasn’t had a nightmare like that in years.

She started an online business in 2010 and settled on the dinosaur-themed name.

“I figured dinosaurs are big, so it could also represent your big dreams and goals, and it was also a reference to my childhood,” Stout said.

Stout punctuates her store with a variety of interesting gifts, including colorful puzzles, funky socks, polished rocks, sparkling crystals and unique coloring books.

There’s also space to create room diffusers topped with a sola wood flower.

Ronna Faaborg covers business and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at [email protected].