Happiness in Bloom

There is no more universal an “I love you” than a fresh bouquet of flowers from your hometown florist.

Story Rheya Tanner / Photos Fred Lopez

Few things in this world can please everyone. But no matter who you are, a beautiful bouquet has the ability to make you smile. What is it about flowers?

“They’re not something you wear. They’re not something you eat. They’re not ‘useful,’ at all,” says Libby Tomyn of Betty J’s Florist. “They are pure, unadulterated, heartfelt sentiment.”

According to a study reported by the Society of American Florists, the presence of flowers has a long-term, positive impact on mood, and leads to more intimate connections with family and friends. For our local florists, this study only reinforces the phenomenon they see firsthand nearly every day.

“My first week as a driver, I delivered flowers to this woman and her little girl, and she started crying,” recalls Meribeth Jackson, receptionist and longtime employee at Betty J’s. “I didn’t know what the flowers were for, so I just said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and left. A few hours later, I’m in the grocery store, and the little girl from before was there and came up to me. She said, ‘You’re the flower lady. You brought my mommy flowers today, and made her cry.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m so sorry.’ And she said ‘Oh, no. They were happy tears.’”

When the pandemic hit, as the rest of the country cut back on cut flowers, Winter Gardeners did just the opposite; they relied on flowers to communicate those emotions that can’t be expressed on a screen. “Flowers became a way for people to reach out to each other when they couldn’t be together during the holidays,” says Tomyn. “We kept having to restock on lilies and chocolate bunnies to make all the Easter baskets we delivered last year!”

“Fifty or 60 years ago, flowers were a wonderful hostess gift. It hadn’t been that way for quite a while,” adds Jackson. “But last Christmas, for the first time, we had people come in and say, ‘I’ve been invited to dinner and I need to bring some flowers.’ That never happened before COVID, but now it’s coming back. It’s a great way to say thank you.”

What truly sets bouquets apart from any other decoration is their multisense experience, which makes them more accessible. “When we’re making an arrangement for someone in a nursing home, we always try to find out, how’s their vision?” says Jackson. “We try to give them more bright colors, more texture, more aroma, so they can feel it even if they can’t see it.”

She recalls one particular woman with Alzheimer’s, and the flowers that got through to her when little else could. “She was almost 100 and had been just laying in her bed for a while. But she remembered flowers when she smelled them. The sender called us later and said it was the first time in five years that she had smiled.”

Both Tomyn and Jackson have been with Betty J’s for more than a decade now. And yet, the magic of flowers is not lost on them. “We had these roses called Bluebells,” says Tomyn. “They weren’t purple, or blue, or red, or pink; they were a little of all of those colors, melded into incredible roses that we were all going nuts over. We see flowers all the time and we still get excited about them.”

Meribeth Jackson still loves flowers after 16 years at Betty J's

Even after as many years as I’ve been here, the flowers can cheer me up if I’m having a blue day.

—Meribeth Jackson

“When you’re around it all day, it’s hard to be irritable,” says Jackson. “Even after as many years as I’ve been here, the flowers can cheer me up if I’m having a blue day.”

“We’ve been busy decorating for Christmas for a couple weeks now. One of the designers had a few free minutes and they did that truck,” says Tomyn, pointing to a decorated red truck on display in the storefront. “When they brought it out, it was like the whole mood of the room had changed. All of a sudden, everybody wanted to make something for Christmas. It’s contagious.”

Tomyn speaks from experience—she was eventually drawn away from a successful real estate career to join her sister, Rilla Tomyn’s, blooming business. “I was always involved in some way … but when she called me and asked if I was willing to do the gift shop [in Orlando Health], I said, ‘Oh, sister, let’s jump o that bridge and build our wings on the way down.’”

But no one has felt the magnetism of flowers more than Jackson, who has tried her best to retire from the shop four or five times now. “I think the longest I’ve retired was four months,” says Jackson. “I just keep coming back. There’s always a holiday or a wedding or a big move—there’s something happening that I can’t miss being part of.”

“There’s just something about flowers and your hometown florist shop,” says Tomyn. “Calling it a hallmark is too sappy. But there’s a tradition about it that seems to bring out the best in people.”