From Cuts to Creations

Wendy Komancheck

Driving along one of Pennsylvania’s heritage highways, past the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, the rolling valleys feature a patchwork of farmland that butts up against the Welsh Mountains.

Flourish Flowers’ sign sways in the breeze by a restored chicken barn in Goodville. As I turned into the parking area, you could see Trish Snyder’s one-acre flower garden in dormancy.

Pictured: The Flower Bar allows customers to come in and make their own bouquets during the growing season. This is a great option for busy people on their way home for work, going to a special dinner, or as a gift for someone special. Customers pay per stem. The flowers in the photo are: Solidago, viburnum, peonies, bachelor buttons, roses, lilac, lupine, anemone, ranunculus, catnip and artemisia.

Trish Snyder started her business 22 years ago when she lived across Route 23 from her current store’s address. She wanted to provide something beautiful to people driving by, so she started a “Cut Your Own” flower bed filled with tulips and peonies in the spring of 2001.

The garden plot was simple: 15-ft. x 15-ft. on the sloping front yard, where customers could cut their flowers and pay at the self-serve table. As the years passed, some young women from her church asked if she would create floral bouquets for their weddings.

These brides wanted simple floral arrangements. After fulfilling these bridal orders, Trish wanted to expand her knowledge by taking flower arranging courses at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. She found that the flower arranging courses increased her skill level and gave her confidence in creating her floral arrangements. Trish graduated from the Longwood Gardens floral design program in 2013.

Today, Flourish Flowers has been at its current site for eight years and provides cut flowers year-round. Many folks from around the small community come to buy flowers from the Flower Bar and the refrigerator at the shop entrance. Since Trish’s flower garden is dormant during the winter, she buys flowers from local wholesalers for her floral designs.

Flourish Flowers provides many different services to the people in the community. Along with another florist, Trish has established community orders and has been thrilled with the positive response she’s received from customers, especially during Valentine’s Day.

Her company offers delivery within a 10-mile radius and is always excited to have people stop in to buy flowers from the refrigerator or the Flower Bar. Trish also brings in garden speakers throughout early spring all the way through fall to teach classes. For example, classes range from a seed-starting class at the end of February to a talk on “All Things Dahlias” in September.

“I love flowers, but I also love giving people an experience. In our classes during the growing season, we give people clippers and a bucket, and send them out in the garden to pick whatever flowers they want for their arrangement,” Trish said. “But we give them some guidelines and people love that. They love that they can go into the garden to cut whatever they want.”

Pictured: The garden pergola is decked out for an evening event.

During the interview, we heard construction work upstairs. Trish noted, “That will be the small events space, so if people want to rent for baby showers, parties or something like that … up to 30 people. That’s something new we’re doing and we’re very excited about it.”

Pictured:  Trish Snyder and her staff in the garden at Flourish Flowers.

She also rents Flourish Flowers’ pergola next to the garden for outdoor events, such as baby or bridal showers. Those packages can run the gamut from inexpensive DIY and bring your own chairs and décor all the way to full-service “flowers everywhere you look.”

Trish offers unique experiences like private classes, too. She has options on her website for class topics, but she’ll arrange a class about a unique topic if requested. Prices are based on the topic and number of people. GP

Wendy Komancheck has a passion for helping small- to medium-sized green industry companies succeed. She writes blogs and web copy for garden design, landscape maintenance and lawn care companies. You can learn more about her at The Landscape Writer or email her at wendy@landscapewriter.com.