Austin, MN Florists

Austin Flower Shop News

Flower Businesses Persist Despite Postponed Events - Spectrum News

Studies point to a connection between presence of flowers and happinessSam Eberhardt owns Cassiopeia Farm, a small flower farm located behind her home in Austin, with her husband Dan Poole. The two spent the spring and summer watching florists cancel flower orders as weddings and events were postponed due to pandemic social distancing orders.“It seems like initially events – they didn’t just halt completely. People were still kind of holding out, holding hope that we would be able to hold events, but then eventually people realized, ‘okay,’ that we couldn’t have events,” says Eberhardt.But despite those cancellations, they say they didn’t face massive losses because orders kept coming in, just from other places.“COVID has sort of been a mixed bag for us. A lot of our flowers eventually end up in the hands of florists – maybe they go to a wholesale house first and then they end up at a florist – but florists have had a pretty large drop in business because of COVID. They aren’t doing weddings and events anymore. Our flowers aren’t going to them, instead they’ve been going direct to consumer and some to wholesale, but direct to the consumer through the farmers' market has been our main sales outlet this year,” says Poole.Sam Eberhardt (left) works with a farmhand to prepare plant beds for spring 2021. The farm's flowers have been harvested for fall and the small farm doesn't grow in the winter. (Spectrum News 1/Megan Vaughn)“I think people were really enjoying getting out to the markets, it was a safe outdoorsy thing to do during COVID. I heard a lot of people mention how it was important to them to support local farmers and ranchers, just keeping the money locally in trying to support the small businesses. And then directly I heard a lo... https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/news/2020/11/17/small-flower-businesses-persist-despite-postponed-weddings-and-events

Sales aren't blooming: Florists adjust during pandemic - Delaware State News - Delaware State News

She added it has been able to slowly bring back some of the staff.The loss of workers has made the busy weeks even more stressful.“It’s been exhausting,” Mrs. Fries said. “The few of us that are here are doing the work of more people. There’s only so much we can do with this staff so our inventory is smaller than usual.”... https://delawarestatenews.net/coronavirus/sales-arent-blooming-florists-adjust-during-pandemic/

Leander florist Visual Lyrics offers arrangements for any occasion, events of all sizes - Community Impact Newspaper

Dunn said, adding that many of the brides have booked them for a reception later next year as well. Home weddings are also taking place.“A couple months ago we did a tropical wedding on Lake Austin at a home,” Bennett said. “We did this full, Hawaiian garland draping down a big cypress tree, that was unique.”Everything in the store is one-of-a-kind, she said. All arrangements are handmade and never mass produced.Visual Lyrics opened in 2000 and was a home studio for 12 years before the shop opened. Along with flowers, visitors to the Leander store can find Bennett’s sculptures, paintings and other creations. Additional local artists also have their work available onsite.Though the concept started with Bennett and Dunn, another sister, brother, a niece and nephews are now also involved in some component of the business.Visit Visual Lyrics at 109 S. Hwy. 183, Leander. 512-244-6720. Hours: Tues.-Fri.10 a.m.- 5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., Sun.-Mon. Closed. https://www.visuallyrics.com/... https://communityimpact.com/austin/cedar-park-leander/business/2020/09/29/leander-florist-visual-lyrics-offers-arrangements-for-any-occasion-events-of-all-sizes/

Flower giant Dennis Edwards passes away - Fruitnet

Edwards, a major figure in the UK flower trade, has passed away.A statement from New Covent Garden Flower Market announced that the co-owner of Dennis Edwards Flowers, previous owner of John Austin Flowers Co. and employee of the Flower Market for more than 50 years, died on Sunday 19 July.As a third generation Covent Garden Market trader, Edwards started in the Flower Market as a porter, aged 17. Over the next six decades he would have an illustrious career, with highlights including sourcing Lily of the Valley for HRH the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding bouquet, flowers for the coffin at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as 3,000 rose petals for the 9/11 remembrance service.Edwards was a familiar and popular figure on the market, and a highly valued supplier to florists across the capital.Covent Garden Market Authority's statement said: "We know Dennis will be remembered at New Covent Garden Flower Market as a true genetleman and legend in the floral industry. Covent Garden Market Authority have sent our deepest condolences to his family and will be keeping them along with his friends and colleagues in our thoughts at this difficult time."... http://www.fruitnet.com/fpj/article/182455/flower-giant-dennis-edwards-passes-away

Contactless flower delivery ensuring Mother's Day smiles despite outbreak - The Courier

Under this circumstance, Curren said, “Working as a florist has been wonderful, challenging, exhausting, inspiring, hectic, fun, maddening, and fantastic!” Orders as of right now are piling in for Curren and her staff, causing everyone to feel overwhelmed. As it is described as part of the job as a florist, understanding customers mean well and only want to stay local. With a minimum of $75 for fresh arrangements and $40 for plant deliveries, Halsted Flowers plans to make multiple rounds a day for their customers. Even though hours of operation are limited each day, the employees are finding themselves working around the clock in order to finish their customer’s requests. Delivery drivers are out until late in the night and up early in the morning to make their rounds and to clear out the shop to make room for more orders. Saville Flowers: https://savilleflowers.com/ Phone: (847)864-0632Halsted Flowers: https://halstedflowers.com/ Phone: (773)883-8600... https://codcourier.org/13169/features/contactless-flower-delivery-ensuring-smiles/

Upended by COVID-19, a Wayzata florist landed a federal loan. And then the wait started. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Mattingly started her business nine years ago, and it was coming off its best year — posting $500,000 in sales — when COVID-19 reached Minnesota. Though her shop was allowed to remain open, Mattingly said her event business plummeted as couples postponed weddings and restaurants closed across the state. She applied for a PPP loan in April. “We’ve lost about 50% of our income because of weddings,” said Mattingly, whose shop usually does $150,000 in wedding arrangements each summer. “People aren’t canceling on us, but they are rescheduling, and a lot of that work won’t happen until 2021.” Mattingly’s small shop has just two full-time employees, and she sent them home in late March, shortly after the governor issued his first stay-home order. Flower shops were allowed to remain open for delivery business because they were deemed “critical” to the economy. She expected her retail business to collapse, but the shop stayed surprisingly busy. Mattingly said her online sales tripled as customers called in large orders for birthdays and anniversaries as a substitute for taking a loved one to dinner. But with her employees at home, Mattingly, who is pregnant, and her husband, Julian, had to do all the work. “It’s been a really crazy two months,” said Mattingly, who is due to deliver her first baby in July. “We have been working 12- and 14-hour days every week.” Mattingly wanted to rehire her workers shortly after Mother’s Day, but her PPP application was put on hold when the program ran out of money in mid-April. On April 25, after Congress agreed to make another $310 billion available to small-business owners, Wells Fargo sent her an e-mail telling her the bank would soon submit her paperwork. “These are truly unprecedented times that we know are impacting both you and your business, and we will continue to partner and communicate with you throughout this crisis,” Wells Fargo said in the e-mail. ... https://www.startribune.com/upended-by-covid-19-a-wayzata-florist-landed-a-federal-loan-and-then-the-wait-started/571366132/

Ham Lake couple trust God as they grow family flower farm business - The Catholic Spirit

And I had so much energy with thinking of doing really hard stuff to make it happen.”She and Jonah took Benzakein’s online course on flower farming, and dove into researching what would grow well in Minnesota’s climate. “Before we knew it, we’re like, we’re really doing it,” she said.Jonah gives Kristen all the credit for the flower focus. “I never thought I would be a flower farmer — I don’t think many men do think of that,” Jonah said, sitting near the field. He agreed to the online course, “and I was just sort of open with the Lord; ‘Wherever you lead us.’”“Ever since leaving school, I wanted to do something in nature. I love working outside. I’ve been praying along the way” for God’s guidance, he said. “Basically, I want to come home and I want to work from home.”The Carlstroms don’t know any other young farmers, but they’re not alone among Catholic millennials. Jim Ennis, executive director of St. Paul-based Catholic Rural Life, said there are like-minded young Catholics across the United States who are exploring and adopting a rural lifestyle, including small-scale farming. Many are drawn to a slower, family-focused pace of life away from the demands of city living and corporate work.Like the Carlstroms, many don’t have farming backgrounds, Ennis said, and it’s hard work without the guarantee of financial sustainability. But it’s rewarding, he said. Farming is creative work, where people can work in nature, with their hands, alongside family members, for the benefit of their own tables and their community. And even young children can see, understand and participate in their parents’ work, he said.“There’s something very innate in many people’s DNA to connect with God’s creation in a closer way,” he said, “and I think that’s very Catholic and very Christian.”Kristen admits that sometimes she’s thought the idea of turning stay-at-home mom to cut-flower florist is “crazy.” But, “there was a lot of discouragement that came whenever I tried to let it (the idea) go, and a lot of joy that was there when we kept pursuing it,” she said, so they forged ahead.The field is easily accessible from the Carlstroms’ house through a path in the woods. Kristen spends patches of time throughout the day tending its 20, 100-foot rows as she learns to orchestrate timing their harvesting with flowers’ longevity onc... https://thecatholicspirit.com/news/local-news/ham-lake-couple-trust-god-as-they-grow-family-flower-farm-business/

Getting married? Designers make case for 'unusual and beautiful' Minnesota-grown flowers - Minneapolis Star Tribune

And that doesn’t have to mean settling for common garden-variety blooms picked in someone’s backyard. Minnesota flower farmers are growing increasingly varied and distinctive options for bouquets, boutonnieres and centerpieces. “I make the case for local with every bride, and I include local product in every wedding I do,” said Ashley Fox, Ashley Fox Designs, Woodbury. “As a designer and somebody who cares about the planet, it just feels good to do this.” There’s a misperception that local means rustic, she said. “We want brides to know that local flowers can look modern and innovative — not just a Mason jar full of daisies. We want to show people these flowers are cool.” It’s a message that Debra Prinzing, the Seattle-based author and founder of the “slow flowers” movement, has been spreading for more than a decade. Her books, “Slow Flowers” and “The 50-Mile Bouquet,” celebrate small flower farmers who are struggling to compete as big chain stores buy in bulk from growers all over the globe, driving prices down. ... https://www.startribune.com/getting-married-designers-make-case-for-unusual-and-beautiful-minnesota-grown-flowers/561464922/

Rosemary-Duff Florist: a landmark business - times-advocate.com

South Broadway and was sold to Bob Socin in 1956.Mr. Socin sold Duff Gardens to Pete, Dolly and Rosemary in 1976. Pete & Dolly Santrach and their two children moved from Minnesota to California in 1956. Pete was a Marine at Camp Lejeune until sent to Camp Pendleton. Pete left the service and over the years worked as an administrator for the Escondido school districts, for groups of doctors and for Baker Enterprises. Pete & Dolly had six more children in California. Four boys and four girls and now 16 grandchildren and one great grandchild.Dolly’s sister Rosemary Gornick learned the techniques of the floral business from a school in Cleveland, Ohio and opened her floral business in her hometown of Chisholm, Minnesota. In 1957 she moved to California (following her sister) and worked for Casa De Las Florist in Del Mar for many years and for Bob Socin and Duff Gardens before starting Rosemary’s Floral on Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido in 1974.Duff Gardens and Rosemary’s Floral merged in 1982 and built the Spanish style building where the business resides today.Aunt Rosemary passed away in 2015. Dolly Santrach passed in 2018.Today the business has four partners: Mary Ann Santrach, Rozanne Reguly, Luanne Csonka and Joanne Santrach. The sisters/nieces bought the business from their parents, Pete and Dolly and aunt, Rosemary in 1988.Mary Ann’s specialty is floral design. She says planning is important. “Ordering for a holiday like Valentine’s Day requires placing an order for roses by mid-January if not earlier to reserve the product desired. That can be up to 2,500 red roses alone!” she said.Rozanne Reguly is the primary decorator for the window displays and a floral designer.The interior of Rosemary-Duff Florist.Luanne Csonka is the managing partner. She says, “It has been said that floral arrangements were the only gift item besides pizza that you could have made and delivered – all in the same day!  Our business is unique, sending floral gifts to express one’s emotions from happy occasions like birthdays to condolences for the loss of loved ones.”The sisters credit much of their success to Aunt Rosemary for sharing with them the techniques she leaned from floral school and her years of experience.  Remember Bob Socin? I can think of no greater testimony than praise from the former business owner. Mary Ann says that nearly every day Bob will stop by the shop to say hello. Rosemary Duff Florist has designed florals for many weddings, events and special occasions throughout San Diego and designed florals for celebrities Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Streisand and Martha Stewart. “But we most appreciate our lon... https://www.times-advocate.com/articles/rosemary-duff-florist-a-landmark-business/