A Woman Owned Business / May 2005
Young Floral
 Maxine Conner –Bird and Janet Pearce. |
By Pat Lawrence
Janet Pearce joined her mother in the family business as a girl, living a wonderfully colorful life, surrounded by flowers, plants and celebratory sentiments of every kind. Now her daughter has joined them as well. Women and flowers have always been a happy combination, but at Young Floral it's become the family tradition.
The Charleston business is a bustling, bountiful success and has been for fifty years. Young Floral is listed as 117th in sales out of over 22,000 FTD florists across the country. The showroom at their remodeled, two story Pennsylvania avenue location is filled with silk and fresh flower arrangements, plants, bath products, plush stuffed animals, garden statuary and even home décor.
“We've always had gifts,” Janet says. Customers liked choosing loose flowers from the back room coolers, so Janet added a new, walk in cooler in the front so they could browse through the tulips, lilies and roses comfortably. She added the wedding room, a special area for brides to choose their special decorative accessories from arches to candelabras. Besides the extra large stock room for fresh flowers, one room in the building is dedicated just to silk flowers. Seven designers work full time to create the silk and fresh flower arrangements, along with the specialty baskets that are popular gifts. They offer fresh fruit baskets, gourmet baskets that include specialty coffees, and what Janet laughingly calls “junk baskets!” filled with cookies, candy and chips.
Young Floral keeps four delivery trucks on the road all the time, but for special days, like Valentines and Mother's Day, they have as many as eighteen. Janet says they “are open six and a half days a week because funerals happen every day. We keep the shop open so people can stop by on their way and pick up a gift or a bouquet.”
They have been computerized for years, but now the friendly reminders for anniversaries and birthdays are sent as animated emails. Orders that come directly from their website have been steadily increasing. The dozen multicolored roses and Thanks a Bunch Bouquets are favorites. Since it's prom season, the designers are busy making corsages. Janet says, “Last year, we were the only florist to add lights in corsages. This year, we have fancy bracelets for the corsages. They're very dressy–some look like pearls–and are something to keep.”
Janet's grandparents operated a large greenhouse and floral enterprise. As a young bride, Janet's mother, Maxine Conner-Bird joined her husband in the family business and developed an interest in having a separate location. Janet says, “I was working at the greenhouse in junior high, while my mother was working in the store in town. My mother worked hard to get the business established.
We've been working together for forty years. She still comes in and is always involved in the major decisions. She's a very smart woman. ” The greenhouse enterprise was sold several years ago, but Young Floral just kept growing.
Janet says one of the advantages of working with her mother has been “If there's a business problem, she's there to help. If I needed to go pick up the kids, I could go or she would go for me. Now, I'm doing the same thing for my daughter.” Janet's husband does the payroll and accounting, but her daughter, Tracy Wooten, is handling a lot of the business side of the enterprise, like purchasing and advertising.
Young Floral does an abundance of “party work”, for local country clubs and especially for the Clay Center. For the gubernatorial inauguration event, they brought in a tractor trailer full of flowers from Florida. Janet says, “I think we've grown because we watch over the business. With three generations involved, it's important to all of us.”
For more information, visit Young Floral, 215 Avenue in Charleston or www.youngfloral.com.
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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