Featured Vendor / Best Wishes Floral
July 6, 2012I’ve had this idea for a few months now of featuring a different vendor that I have worked with each month. I wanted to get this posted last month, but as you can see that didn’t happen. I’m okay with that though! My first vendor is Frank, the owner of Best Wishes Floral in Golden Valley, Minnesota. I first met Frank when I was getting married, which will be 6 years ago this September! He did the floral displays for my mom’s church and she absolutely loved them so she hired him to the flowers for my wedding. I had a gorgeous mixture of wildflowers. I wish they could have lasted forever. Photo by Andrew Charon.
So, last week I went over to Frank’s shop and hung out for a while, watched him put together some flower arrangements for a client and asked him a few questions.
Tiffany: How long have you been in business?
Frank: I’ve had the shop, with my partner Mark, for just over 6 years, your wedding was actually one of my first weddings.
T: Do you have a favorite movie?
F: I have a few, Harold & Maude (which is one of my favorite movies too), The Original Muppet Movie and Young Frankenstein.
T: Do you have a favorite book?
F: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I’ve read them all probably 21 times. He didn’t particularly care for the movies however, he said that Frodo was too skinny, Elron was too stern and Sam was the perfect hobbit. He also mentioned that at the end of the books Gandolf says that their “Quest is fulfilled” but they don’t say that in the movie and I always thought that, that was a very important part.
T: Do you have a favorite flower?
F: I love them all! I really do, I guess my favorite flowers would be the ones that are fresh and in season.
T: When did you know that yo wanted to be a florist?
F: I started in a greenhouse when I was 13 in 1969. I studied Botany and went to grad school for Molecular Genetics but I couldn’t deal with the academics. I felt my interests were too diverse. So I started working in a flower shop. Flowers are my medium, I pose flowers!
T: Where did you grow up?
F: New Brighton, Minnesota
T: Are you influenced by anyone?
F: I went to a design show workshop once where I met a Korean practitioner of Ikebana. She told me that the flower will tell you where it goes in the bouquet. Flowers speak to me and I listen.
T: Do you have a favorite season?
F: The Fall. I like the rich colors and textures.
T: Do you have a favorite place in Minnesota?
F: I am fond of the North Shore and my family has a lake cabin in the woods and my back-yard.
T: Do you have a favorite style of music?
F:Baroque and Renaissance music, anything before 1750. I have my own harpsichord that I play sometimes. My friend tells me that I play for own “amazement” instead of “amusement”.
T: Anything else important that you would like to share?
F: I try to get as many of my flowers as I can locally. All of my roses are exclusively local.
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I think this is a great way to show Frank’s work. I hope he likes it, too, and that it helps bring him more business.