Over the years, Pamela Dangelmaier has noticed that she tends to meet the people who eventually impact her life in a big way, in the strangest places and at the strangest times.

One such occasion was while attending a lively meeting at a Metro Vancouver garden club.

Dangelmaier, co-owner of Botanus, a mail-order flower company, was sitting in on the event with her business partner Elke Weninger, and customer care manager Wendy Leroux, when the drama between the club鈥檚 members began to surface.

鈥淭hrough building up the business, one of the things we do to promote and get to know our customers is go to garden clubs. So we鈥檝e spoken at many, many garden clubs in the Lower Mainland, on the island, the Sunshine Coast and so on. And through those visits to those garden clubs, we鈥檝e had the opportunity to meet some really fun and interesting 鈥� and sometimes rather quirky 鈥� people, because gardeners are an interesting bunch,鈥� she explained.

鈥淲e had a particularly interesting club, and they had a very interesting meeting 鈥� obviously there was a lot of politics going on in the club. And after we left, I turned to Elke and Wendy and I said, 鈥榊ou know, I swear one day I鈥檓 going to write a book about these garden clubs because they鈥檙e just so fun.鈥欌��

Four years later, and Dangelmaier is making good on her promise with the release of her very first novel, Flour Garden.

Set at the Kerrisdale Garden Club, Flour Garden follows two friends who have fallen out of favour with one another, as they find there way back together.

鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of really interesting characters in it. I think if you belong to any kind of club, it doesn鈥檛 have to be a garden club, you鈥檒l probably recognize the characters that are in the book, the politics that go on,鈥� Dangelmaier said. 鈥淚t all culminates in a garden show that takes place at a fictitious botanical garden in Vancouver, sort of reminiscent of the VanDusen Flower and Garden Show.鈥�

Although based on experiences Dangelmaier has had, all of the characters and events in her novel are from her imagination, and the scenes weave in underlying themes of relationships, friendships and grief.

鈥淚 try to keep the characters as real as possible. That鈥檚 one of the things that I always asked myself when I was creating the book, is could this situation really happen? Could this conversation really take place? I wanted the dialogue situations to be as real as possible,鈥� she said.

鈥淪ome of the really good feedback that I鈥檝e gotten from the book so far is that people have said it feels like a real community, it鈥檚 some place that they would like to go and visit鈥� So for me, that鈥檚 the highest compliment of all, that it doesn鈥檛 seem so out there and ridiculous.鈥�

Dangelmaier chose to self-publish the book, and through that process, taught herself to do all of the interior layout. She also received help from her brother, a graphic designer, who created the front cover, and Heather Conn, a copy editor from Vancouver Island, who Dangelmaier met while completing the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in northern Spain.

鈥淭he most enjoyable part, really, is the writing, the making up of the story 鈥� that was really fun to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淥f course, the other really enjoyable part is to finally actually see it. When the shipment arrived with a number of copies that I ordered, that was quite a thrilling day for me because it was really, truly a dream come true.

鈥淚 had been wanting to have a novel for so many years. There鈥檚 times when you think, 鈥極h I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 ever going to happen.鈥� And then when it actually does, that鈥檚 pretty exciting.鈥�

BOTANUS

Dangelmaier, a graduate of 91原创 Secondary School, had never intended on owning her own flower business.

After studying theatre at UBC, she worked in the entertainment industry for a number of years, before moving to Germany to pursue one of her dreams of learning to speak German.

She lived abroad for six years, working for different marketing companies, and eventually met her future business partner, Weninger, a master florist who owned a flower shop in Munich.

When Dangelmaier came back to Canada, she 鈥渓iterally fell into鈥� an opportunity to purchase a small mail-order company that specialized in flower bulbs in 91原创.

Beginning in 2000 with a leaflet selection of 100 bulbs and a mailing list of a couple hundred people, today their company has grown into one of the largest mail-order nurseries in Canada, supplying The Shopping Channel and other large businesses.

鈥淚t was kind of organic how it happened,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y dad was self-employed, owned a business here in 91原创. So I kind of grew up in a family of self starters. My brother owns his own business, my sister is self-employed and so is my other sister, so it runs in the family. I guess I was always headed in that direction.鈥�

Dangelmaier and Weninger have 鈥渓iterally grown up with the industry,鈥� transitioning from having no website to now hosting an online garden club with weekly YouTube promos.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not an easy business to do, but if you market it correctly it can be great,鈥� she said.

BOOK LAUNCH

On Saturday, May 20, Dangelmaier will be holding a free book launch event at Tracycakes in Murrayville.

On from 6-9 p.m., there will be prizes, a number of live readings, and signed books available to purchase.

Flour Garden can also be ordered online on Amazon, and signed copies, with free shipping in Canada, are available at .

For more on Dangelmaier, visit her website .