Behind the Bloom (and wheel) with Sprouts Flower Truck

If you float along the cascade of students rushing out of their Wednesday morning classes, you’ll wash up at an unusually vibrant Firestone Plaza. The Princeton University Farmers’ Market brings joy to any bright autumn day, and at the heart of this social hub is Sprouts Flower Truck. 

As I approached the truck on Sept. 30, I saw students laughing and chatting comfortably with Cindy Olentine, the owner of Sprouts Flower Truck, and I knew I had found the right place. Over the next 30 minutes, I sat down with Cindy to uncover the behind-the-scenes story of this picture-perfect stall. 

Parked on the path between East Pyne and Firestone, a Volkswagen drop-side pickup truck stands, filled to the brim with flowers. Depending on the day, you might see Isabelle, a blue 1957 model, or Clementine, her orange younger 1967 sister. Regardless of which truck is there, a smiling Cindy and her husband Steve stand by a table of prepared bouquets, ready to brighten your day. 

While Cindy and I spoke on the lawn chairs, Steve naturally filled in the empty space Cindy left behind. While Cindy is the original owner of Sprouts, Steve has been a pillar by her side since the very beginning, when Sprouts sold flowers in Mason jars from the backyard of their family home. 

Cindy’s reaction when I told her about how students always referred to her and Steve as the “cute couple” showed she was no stranger to the label, and she even leaned into it as a marketing strategy. “Haha, it’s working!” she exclaimed. Steve “drives the truck, gases it up, maintains it, and makes bouquets. His grandfather was a florist, so it's in the family. He plants the flowers, cuts the grass, washes buckets, and keeps Isabelle ready,” Cindy said. “I couldn’t do it without him.”  

Whether he is making sure the trucks have gas or setting up the table and carrying the buckets the flowers fill, Steve is indispensable to Cindy.  But perhaps most important are the words of encouragement Steve offers, exclaiming “that is so pretty!” when Cindy puts together bouquets for any event. 

For Sprouts Flower Truck, the flower business is a family business. Isabel, the first truck to join the family, was named after Cindy’s mom, who passed away 15 years ago. The blooms decorating Isabel also represent the influence of Cindy’s dad, who “grew all his flowers from seed” and filled her childhood memories with blossoms. Since Isabel’s adoption from an online seller on eBay, she has become a priceless member of the Olentine family. 

Just as Isabel is a love letter to Cindy’s upbringing, Clementine’s orange hue represents the relationship between Sprouts Flower Truck and Princeton.

Cindy’s voice showed her fondness for the truck — it was love at first sight. “And then Clementine, we purchased from someone in Colorado like five years ago … She was named Clementine, and she’s orange. So we thought, ‘Oh, for Princeton, that’s a nice name, Clementine!’”

Cindy laughed as she described how she and Steve like to imagine Clementine and Isabel bickering over who gets to come to the farmers’ market every Wednesday — they take turns!

Princeton University Farmers’ Market is one of Cindy’s favorite places to sell at because “we see the same students every week.” Cindy’s face brightened as she told me about “one gal who comes every week to buy a flower with her friend, and then they swap and give it to each other … She’s only a sophomore, so we have two more years of her.”

While two years may sound long, it is a blip compared to the time Cindy has spent in Princeton. “We raised our kids here and lived in the same home for 25 years. I started doing the flower thing out of my home, and we were looking for a farm just to have more room,” she said. “Now we’re growing flowers. [A farm] became available, so we purchased that and sold the other [home]. Our kids aren’t sad because it’s a farm and kind of fun.”

Thanks to Isabel and Clementine, Sprouts is able to sell at many farmers markets and collaborate with local businesses, such as The Graduate Hotel on Mother’s Day, and with TCNJ, as well as “an anti-violence organization, [where they] donated 25 percent of proceeds.”

This year marks one decade since the beginning of Sprouts, and Cindy has many favorite memories, from “surprise baby showers, where the woman walks out, and she starts crying,” “surprising an engaged couple” where the groom teased the bride for being happier about the flowers than the ring, and last but not least, preparing “hundreds of jars for teacher appreciation days” at schools. 

As idyllic this life of flower truck ownership sounds, Cindy’s smiling voice disguised the hard work it takes to maintain such an active business. Driving Sprouts from event to event is a full-time job. A typical day for Cindy begins and ends at nature’s demands. “For example, today, I woke up at 7 a.m., went out and cut flowers — especially the dahlias, which are coming up every day before the frost next week,” she explained. But she likes the fast-paced hustle Sprouts demands: “It keeps us active and physical.” 

It also helps that Cindy is also never without helping hands (or in this case, paws). “I took the dogs out; they came and cut flowers with me! We parked at TCNJ yesterday, here today, and tomorrow we’re doing a ladies’ night at Needlework, so I had to make sure I had enough flowers,” she said. 

I was sad to end this interview with this happy-ending version of Carl and Ellie from the Pixar movie “Up.” As I left with the bouquet Cindy gifted me, I could hear Steve laughing while filling her in on one student’s dead cactus (death by dehydration). Over the course of ten years, Sprouts has poured both flowers and warmth into countless arms, making Princeton a home away from home for students. 

Hayeon Kwak is a contributing writer for The Prospect and a member of the Class of 2029. 

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.