Castlewood Flower Shop News
Highlands florist urges support for local shops as some take business to West Virginia - WSLS 10
Wednesday, December 02, 2020They partnered with a local bakery to deliver cupcakes with flowers, and they’re also shipping bouquets for the first time.The owner said people who are frustrated with Virginia’s mask requirement and pledging not to wear them while shopping are only hurting small businesses like 'mom and pop’ places.“We’re close to West Virginia and a lot people are just jumping over the border because it’s like nothing ever happened over there, and over here we’re still very restricted, but if you continue to take all of your business to West Virginia, then the businesses here are not going to be here when you come back,” said Erin Huffman, The Flower Center owner.Huffman said small businesses like The Flower Center are just doing what is required in Virginia. https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2020/06/13/highlands-florist-urges-support-for-local-shops-as-some-take-business-to-west-virginia/
How this company saved thousands of flowers during the pandemic - Business Insider - Business Insider
Wednesday, October 28, 2020Lauren Anderson and Rachel Bridgwood held a drive-through flower event. Business Insider visited Sweet Root Village's pop-up flower market in Alexandria, Virginia, to see the other pivots the owners have implemented to keep their small business afloat.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Following is a transcipt of the video.Lauren Anderson: When people ask, like, "How are things going? How's the business, how are you?" Like, you know, your first thing is to be like,Rachel Bridgwood: "Fine!"Lauren Anderson: But then we're like, no.Rachel: We're bad.Lauren: Bad. Things are bad.Narrator: Lauren and Rachel run the flower design company Sweet Root Village in Alexandria, Virginia. At the beginning of 2020, they were expecting their most successful year yet.Lauren: It was our 10-year anniversary in business. We were at our highest booking level we had ever been for events. And literally within a week, it was gone.Narrator: Then COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders canceled weddings across the country and crippled the wedding industry. Lauren and Rachel lost 80% of their business and had to furlough their staff, including themselves.Lauren: We're like, congratulations to us. We made it 10 years...unemployment.Rachel: We're unemployed from our own business.Lauren: File for unemployment. This is our warehouse/studio workspace that we produce all of the flowers for weddings and events out of.Narrator: In a typical year, they work upwards of 100 events.Lauren: Some weekends we're employing, like, up to 100 people. We pull in big teams of people to work two, three,... https://www.businessinsider.com/how-va-wedding-florist-saved-thousands-flowers-during-pandemic-2020-10
ROUNDUP: JP Parker Flowers vacates Indy store, adds retail truck - Indianapolis Business Journal
Wednesday, October 28, 2020PUI campus. The restaurant is in the spot formerly occupied by Madd Greeks Mediterranean Grille, which closed in March after 3-1/2 years.The new Peppy Grill is associated with the Peppy Grill at 1004 Virginia Ave. in Fountain Square—it is not affiliated with Burt’s Peppy Grill at 3401 E. 10th St.— The Fudge Kettle plans to open its first brick-and-mortar retail space... https://www.ibj.com/blogs/property-lines/roundup-jp-parker-flowers-vacates-indy-store-adds-retail-truck
Ham Lake couple trust God as they grow family flower farm business - The Catholic Spirit
Monday, August 24, 2020When they began researching farming, they planned to grow organic food. They were inspired by the writings of Joel Salatin, a Christian farmer in Virginia who has become the godfather of a movement favoring small-scale, sustainable, family-based farming. The Carlstroms were thinking produce and chickens when, in the winter of 2019, Kristen came across a book titled “The Cut Flower Garden” by Erin Benzakein, a florist farmer in Washington.“Basically, I just fell in love with it,” Kristen said. “It was kind of out of the blue for me.”She had always kept a small flower garden with sunflowers and zinnias, but nothing large-scale. But once she began to think about flowers, she became convinced that was the direction she wanted to move.“I knew we were going to take on something really big,” she said. “It was really important for me to be really passionate about it. And so, this was something that just really took a hold of me. 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/