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Florist closes shop after 4 decades - My Citizens News

He expanded into meat a few years later, and in 1984 he purchased the building with help from his parents and a real estate partner. He tried to start up other grocery franchises, one in Ansonia, one in Bridgeport, but they didn’t last more than a few months. Raimo retrenched to Naugatuck.“I still had my baby,” as he called the Rubber Avenue store.On the last day at the flower stand, Raimo was quiet. He punctuated long silences with stories about his life and his business, jumping back and forth across decades. He started bagging groceries in his dad’s store when he was 7. He learned to cut meat in his uncle’s Waterbury market, Antonelli’s. When he had his own store, he liked to group flowers by color.“The colors pop more that way,” he explained, chopping his arms out in front of him like barriers between the colors.When a customer ambled up, Raimo perked up like a geranium after a good watering. His voice got louder and stronger as he called out a “Hi, how are you?” across the parking lot. He cracked jokes, giving some a hard time for planting flowers so late in the spring. If the customers came in couples, he liked to ask, “Who plants them, you or him?” He made everyone who bought a tomato plant promise to bring him a tomato. As one couple drove away, he sighed audibly and said, “It’s people like them.”A friend said to Raimo once, “First time a customer, second time a friend.” Raimo took this to heart. He said he has gone to weddings, confirmations, bar mitzvahs, and funerals of the people he calls “customers slash friends,” and has gotten to know three generations in Naugatuck.“I do love this town, and I love the people,” he said.Teenagers used to come to Raimo, looking for summer jobs.“I used to have a waiting list of kids that wanted to work from the high school,” he said.Some of the former “help,” as he calls his employees, went on to become doctors and lawyers.“Some of them didn’t turn out good,” he said, chuckling. “I love them all anyway.”He said he could tell who was going to do well by watching them work as teenagers.If he had to guess, Raimo said a couple hundred local teens had been in his employ at one point or another, including his own four children, now grown. One son, Eddie Raimo, was with him on the last day, doling out advice on how to make marigolds flower, how to revive sickly tomatoes, selling six-packs of habanero peppers, and loading flats of fragrant basil into cars.The elder Raimo cut deals to sell off the last of his plants. He gave away a few tomato plants to customers he knew, and to a few he didn’t know. He folded bills in half, and slid them into the breast pocket of his tan palm-printed shirt, halfway unbuttoned in the June heat.When the customers were gone, and it was just Raimo, his son, and Josie the German shepherd lying at his feet, Raimo got quiet again.“I’m going to really, really miss seeing all these faces,” he said.He sighed again and looked around.“This stand cost me two marriages. I spent so many hours here —14, 16 hours a day,” he said.On the last day, Raimo didn’t bring a credit card reader to the stand. Cash only. He told one woman who came with just a credit card to just take the marigolds and impatiens she had picked out. Come back to pay him later. She was back in less than 10 minutes with the $6 she owed.“I did that with so many people, and they always come back. I never got beat, ever,” he said. “...

Founder of Victoria's 'cheeky' flower count, dies at 97 – Vancouver Island Free Daily - vancouverislandfreedaily.com

Even the last time we visited her there was a flower arrangement. Fresh flowers, her orchids, her flower garden outside. It was all about flowers for my grandma.”Fitzsimmons started her career as a florist, working in flower shops in downtown Victoria before buying her own flower business in 1957, which she sold in the late 1980s, Bourrie said.RELATED: Saanich counts most blooms in 45th Greater Victoria Flower CountFitzsimmons, known as a tireless community volunteer, would make flowers part of as many local events as she could, said Bourrie.She would donate and arrange flowers for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners at Victoria’s downtown Our Place shelter for homeless people. She also provided flowers and arrangements for the Greater Victoria Art Gallery, Victoria Symphony and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.Bourrie said she organized a beach wedding in 2010 for former cross-Canada runner Steve Fonyo after sponsors pulled out of the event following news the cancer survivor’s bride had previous convictions.“She was always about the underdog,” said Bourrie, adding her grandmother later invited the couple to celebrate their one-year anniversary in her backyard. “She wanted to do what she could to make it a beautiful thing for Steve and his wife.”Daughter Diane Kuypers said her mother saw herself as an ambassador for Victoria as a colourful, generous and welcoming city, and her message spread nationally and globally.“It’s a hard act to follow,” said Kuypers. “She was just so kind and her love of life — I think that gave her that longevity that she did have because of her passion for everything.”Kuypers said she will always remember being in her mother’s kitchen looking out at her country-style garden of daisies, lilies and cherry and magnolia trees, with the ocean in the distance.“She was very happy right up until the end,” Kuypers said.Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said Fitzsimmons made amazing contributions the Victoria area and the flower count has helped the city become a major tourist destination in February and March when other places are cold.“I think the benefit of the flower count is the story it tells, and I think that’s a lasting legacy that Norma Fitzsimmons has left for our community and I’m ve... https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/founder-of-victorias-cheeky-flower-count-dies-at-97/

Abston, Joseph - The Chattanoogan

Fund in C/O Ms. Linda Pendergrass, 1298 Black Oak Ridge Road, Dayton, TN 37321.     Arrangements are by the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson, Tn. 37343.     Please share your thoughts and memories at www.chattanooganorthchapel.com. ... https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/8/6/413171/Abston-Joseph.aspx

‘The power of flowers’: Alabama’s florists cope with pandemic, recovery - AL.com

Volume dropped to almost nothing except what I could do,” Morris said.Morris’ experience was much like other industries, but it illustrates the particular challenges felt by florists around Alabama. The life events where people expect flowers - hospitalizations, funerals - were suddenly in the news, but the demand for them was all but extinguished.Cameron Pappas at Norton’s Florist in Birmingham said the lockdown, and the reopening that followed, has reminded him of the “power of flowers.”“We’ve had a lot of reminders of how important flowers are to everyone,” he said. “They keep people sane.”The pandemic hit America right in a peak season for florists - the rush before Easter, proms and spring events. Pappas said business began to slowdown by about 40 percent one week before his shop closed for two weeks on March 23. The store laid off all of its employees for that period.Cameron Pappas delivered flowers to Birmingham-area restaurants during the coronavirus shutdown.Thousands of floral businesses around America were left with perishable goods that they couldn’t sell. Just three days before Norton’s closed, it had received a shipment of about $5,000 in flowers. Rather than throw them out, Pappas said, they made bouquets to give away at restaurants and nursing homes that would accept them. In some cases, he hand delivered them.“We wanted the flowers to still do their job, to bring joy to bad situations,” he said. “We wanted them to say that we’re not going to let this virus take away the heart of our city.”Morris, 86, said he was reduced to little better than a one-man operation for about five weeks, with his nephew keeping the books. https://www.al.com/business/2020/06/the-power-of-flowers-alabamas-florists-cope-with-pandemic-recovery.html

Midlands Business Owners Concerned About Second Lockdown - Midlands103

August 7th, 2020 3:38pm One florist lost ten weddings when they were forced to close for two months.  Locking down Kildare, Laois and Offaly will have a devastating impact on businesses that are trying to get back on their feet. That's the message from Kildare Chamber of Commerce, which is calling on the government not to lock down the three counties. Hotels and bed and breakfasts have already started to get cancellations due to threat of a localised lockdown. Chamber chief executive Allen Shine wants the focus to be on community testing instead: Violet's Florist in Kildare Town lost commercial contracts and ten weddings when they were forced to close for two months. Owner Elisha Devine says if a strict lockdown is announced today, €3,000 euro worth of fresh flowers will go in the bin: ... https://www.midlands103.com/news/midlands-news/midlands-business-owners-concerned-about-second-lockdown/

Self-serve flower cart in North Vancouver delights neighbours - North Shore News

Vancouver resident has been bringing a little island charm to her quiet Lynn Valley street. With the assistance of an old cooler, some wood strips and ample bunches of beautiful flowers, gardener and florist Rachel Klausen has opened a tiny flower cart along Bermon Place. article continues below Trending Stories The hook: there’s no vendor or florist in sight. Instead, Klausen has opted for an honour-system model. Passersby are encouraged to grab a bouquet and either e-transfer her $10 or pop the cash into a paper bag next to the cart. Klausen says she was inspired to open the self-serve flower cart in front of her house after noticing how common this kind of makeshift commerce was in smaller communities around British Columbia, such as the Gulf Islands or some places on Vancouver Island. “We were driving by and there was this little cart and it just said, ‘Self-serve apricots,’” says Klausen, recalling a recent trip to Duncan. “I just thought it was so interesting. I’d never seen anything like that and then just driving around the island I saw them everywhere.” Klausen has been a florist for six years, but it wasn’t until this year that she was determined to start... https://www.nsnews.com/community/self-serve-flower-cart-in-north-vancouver-delights-neighbours-1.24179798

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