My Story

From a young age, Taylor Rae had a strong connection to the natural world. As a child, she spent countless hours, climbing trees, picking dandelions, and digging through the earth whilst exploring the small forestlands near her home. As she got older, that love for the outdoors never dimmed and she reveled in the time she spent at parks and around lakes, connecting with the land. After graduating from high school, she followed that connection and dove into her studies of Environmental Science and Plant Biology/ Conservation at Northwestern University. Over the course of the following years, Rae spent time working as an Assistant Lab and Field Researcher at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, A Plant Research Mentor, and an Environmental Educator.

While she thoroughly enjoyed all of her jobs studying the plants and was more than amazed by the ecology of our natural systems, Rae couldn’t help but think that she was missing something. Being someone who identified strongly with care taking and nurturing, she longed for a way to merge the two avenues together. She knew there was a deeper way in which plants and humans were connected, she just had to find it! After working in education and the plant sciences for a number of years, Rae took a backpacking trip through New Zealand and it was there that she stumbled upon her missing piece: herbal medicine and phytotherapy.

Whilst in New Zealand, Rae had all the time in the world to read, write, and reflect on her life’s calling. It was during these months that she came across the medicinal properties of dandelions in one of her books. While she always knew about herbal medicine vaguely, this was the first time it had ever been brought to the forefront of her attention. The fact that this information was in relation to a flower from her past-one that meant a lot to her- was especially surprising. Dandelions are part of the Asteraceae plant family. Aster was the first family she learned how to identify while working in the field with the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Hearing about the spectacular relationship this plant had to bodies sparked a fiery curiosity to know more.

Fast forward to the present and Rae has been studying herbal medicine for a number of years now. She completed a 2 year apprenticeship under an American Herbalist Guild (RH) certified Master Herbalist and continues her studies with a variety of mentors and teachers. She launched Raeflower Holistics, named after her and the blessed dandelion, one of the few Asters to be made up entirely of rayflowers! She is now working on expanding her knowledge and clientele so that she may eventually be accepted into the Guild herself, a process that can take anywhere from 5-8 years of being a practicing herbalist.