Experts advise: how can this tiny – and funky - flower shop put down roots and grow?

Brazilian-born Nemuel DePaula wants his Lenita flower truck business to blossom in its brick-and-mortar location

Nemuel DePaula has never been afraid of big pivots. The Brazil native immigrated to Boston at age 10, started his own graphic design business, Grita, while still in high school, and moved himself and the business across the country to Los Angeles in 2013. Four years later, DePaula took a gamble again with Lenita, the part-time mobile flower shop he launched and named after his mother.

DePaula, 35, has been captivated by flowers since childhood. The first thing I ever stole was a rose," he said with a laugh as he recalled the perfect bloom he snipped from his neighbor's garden and slipped to his mom as a small child. Over the years, his aesthetic sensibilities evolved from purloined roses to less conventional species. His latest love is the graffiti anthurium", a tropical flower with a natural paint-splattered effect that resembles a bloodied orchid - but in a cool way.