Introducing Dana Adkinson, Leading Lily

Favorite Flower

Lately, I’m really into dahlias.  That will probably change in another year.

Favorite Song

Love me some Frankie Valli, so probably December 1963.

Advice to a young woman beginning in business

Make your business decisions in light of your values and your character.  Making decisions based solely on numbers, sometimes aren’t realistic for your soul or for your circumstances.

About Dana

A first generation Floridian, Dana has called Central Florida home since Day 1.  She began Keepsake Floral in the spare room at her parents’ home in Winter Park, Florida, just a couple miles away from Keepsake Floral’s current location.  A 1989 graduate of the University of Florida, with a B.S. in Advertising and a minor in Business, Dana has been an artist and art lover all her life.

Dana is a native of Winter Park, returning to Central Florida after graduating from UF.  Here, she began a career in Public Relations at Universal Studios, followed by several years working at a mid-sized Public Relations firm in Orlando, representing clients in the Central Florida entertainment and tourist industry, as well as educational and real estate related clientele.  From there, she continued her PR and Marketing expertise as a manager of PR and Marketing for one of the specialty departments at Orlando’s Florida Hospital. 

When marketing and public relations for others began to ring hollow, the opportunity for creating her own company opened up, and with a supportive husband, she took the small business leap, creating the now nationally renowned floral preservation company from the ground up in 1993.

Dana uses her career as a Gator alumnae daily, as she runs the business end of Keepsake Floral, and still plays an active role in keepsake design and product production and management.  In the beginning of Keepsake, Dana was the sole keepsake designer, leading to the current design and production staff of six. 

Dana is a mother of two boys, 17 and 10, “three if you count my husband,” she adds.  “We’ll keep his age a secret.”  She volunteers regularly at her sons’ schools, putting her art, PR and professional framing talent and resources into the Winter Park High School Band programs, where her high school senior plays drumline and also into the Mathletes Program at her 5^th-grader’s elementary school.  “My oldest has always been involved in music, and my youngest is my visual artist and math/engineering guy,” she says.  “I’ve got one of each that blend somewhere in the middle.”  Dana enjoys spending what little spare time she has with friends and traveling. 

Keepsake Floral has been such a blessing in my life in so many ways. It has taught me so many life lessons, brought wonderful people into my life, and provided me a perfect workplace for me and my personality. Going to Keepsake every day is like going to a second home… I love the work, but love the people we have on our team even more.  Keepsake Floral is truly part of my family and the fiber of my being.