The You Kale Me arrangement from Maple Grove Floral. Photo: Tate Carlson
Beautiful arrangements by Maple Grove Floral bring a touch of warmth to the season.
After the excitement of the first snowfall is over and holiday festivities have been enjoyed in a white wonderland, you might be getting a little antsy for spring. Thankfully, much-longed-for blossoms can be had earlier. Maple Grove Floral offers that hint of spring with an array of colorful, fragrant blooms to subdue those mid-winter blues.
The shop recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, the last nine years of which have been overseen by owner and floral designer Nancy Boettcher. Boettcher fostered another career for 25 years, looking to incorporate a side business along the way. “Flowers are a big part of my life… so I decided to look into getting a flower shop,” she says.
While Maple Grove Floral keeps busy year round with orders for Valentine’s Day, graduations, funerals, wedding season, and everything in between, the shop is filled with possibilities for just about any occasion, including bringing a colorful bouquet home to add sunshine to any room in the house.
Their cooler, stocked with cherry red roses, vibrant yellow tulips, cheerful daisies, snow white lilies and pink carnations, provides a wealth of options. To create a one-of-a-kind bouquet, add multi-hued alstroemeria, purple liatris or bells of Ireland. Flowers change throughout the seasons depending on availability, but Maple Grove Floral always has plenty of options and can order flowers by special request.
Prearranged bouquets are available in take-home vases. “You Kale Me” ($52.95) starts with a purple-and-green kale cut flower surrounded by fluffy purple stock, purple heather, curly willow, caspia and a touch of colored roses. “Exotic Love” ($99.95), an original tropical arrangement, features kale, orange birds of paradise, long-stemmed liatris, deep purple alstroemaria and cherry blossoms.
Other great options to perk up any living space during the winter months are blooming potted flowers that require little maintenance. Try mums, whose intricate petals come in splashes of whites, yellows and maroons; kalanchoe, a hearty plant whose colorful flowers bloom in bunches; or the simplistic beauty of an ivory-and-purple-hued orchid. Not only will these flowering plants last several months throughout the winter with great care, but most of these blooms can easily be transplanted outdoors in spring.
Boettcher also suggests ways to make your floral arrangements last longer. A good rule of thumb is to give them fresh cuts every couple of days as you change the water. “A week to ten days is how long you’re going to get a floral arrangement to last,” she says, adding that the water should be kept fresh.
Placement and temperature are also key in helping flowers thrive. “Keep [the bouquet] in a cooler place; keep it out of the sun… put them in the refrigerator overnight and then bring them back out,” Boettcher suggests. Fresh cut flowers thrive at 38 degrees Fahrenheit.
Payton Faber, a Maple Grove high school student and store associate, regularly helps customers select flowers for various occasions. The high schooler reveals what she loves most about working at the store: “The uplifting feeling of having people come in and pick out something for a loved one, because it’s always happy, it’s always to lift someone up. . . It’s nice knowing that we’re a part of giving that feeling to other people,” Faber says.
