Kris Stell

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Editorial Content Director, Florida

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Kris really kicks it in the garden!

She kicks it in the dirt, and she kicks it on the field. From gardening to sports, Kris is not your typical “soccer mom.” For starters, she doesn’t just drive the kids to soccer games – she coaches them. And when she’s at home with her family, she doesn’t just watch her son play in the garden – she shows him how to grow in it. (And that’s just in her spare time.) Kris grew up in Apopka, FL, the “Indoor Foliage Capital of the World,” which has more nurseries per capita than pretty much anywhere else in the country. After a long, hot summer of full-time nursery work before her senior year, she decided she never wanted to set foot in a nursery again. Yet lo and behold, after obtaining her bachelor’s degree in communications, she ended up working for a publishing company that covered the horticulture industry. After nearly 10 years there, where she was eventually the managing editor of Ornamental Outlook (a horticulture industry trade magazine covering the Southeast), she decided visiting nurseries was more her calling versus working at one. Now as an independent freelance contractor living in Orlando, Kris works with institutions and associations involved in the commercial growing, producing, education and landscaping of horticultural material – and she couldn’t be happier. Her favorite moments are out in the yard with her 7-year-old, helping him plant annuals – while her 1-year-old comes behind and pulls them all up. “If my garden could talk,” she says, “it would tell me, ‘Keep your kids off my daylilies. Seriously.’”

Facts

Two activities Kris really enjoys are playing soccer and coaching soccer. A lifelong player, she even got through college on a scholarship for it. Kris has two national coaching licenses that she currently puts to good use, coaching her 7-year-old and his pals. They certainly have a well-qualified coach – before she had kids, Kris used to coach premier and Olympic-development teams!

Quotes

“Yes, some landscaping ideas DO look better on paper.”

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