The clergy in a neighborhood know a lot about its residents. They welcome babies into the world. They perform wedding ceremonies. They give comfort at funerals. But florists know even more about the people in their neighborhood. They are the first to learn when someone is hospitalized. They know who is throwing a party. They are understanding when a man calls up. “I’m in big trouble,” he will probably say to the florist. “Send two dozen roses.”
Larry Bowling of Bunker Hill Florist in Charlestown said a man who called him the other day told him to get the roses there quickly. Bowling said it is always the man who calls and it’s usually roses. One wonders if the men could branch out a bit, so to speak. Some women might prefer calla lilies or ranunculus.
Bowling and his life and business partner, Joe Sadroui, operate Bunker Hill Florist in Thompson Square with their long-time staff, Tom Cobb, Christine Kerans and Kate Flynn. Each of the employees has a following, said Sadroui, and many customers show up just to chat even when they are not ordering flowers.
Winston’s in the Back Bay has grown large since its founding more than a half century ago, but it still is local. A smaller operation, Fresco, came to the Back Bay a few years ago and now has another pretty operation on Cambridge Street on Beacon Hill.
Bowling used to be on Cambridge Street too, and then later at Charles Street Flowers. When that business closed, maybe five years ago, he moved over to Bunker Hill Florist, which Sadroui had been operating since 1981. He said it made sense to work with his partner.
Losing Charles Street Flowers was a blow to many Beacon Hill customers, and when Bill Rouvalis died last fall, Beacon Hill residents were fearful about losing another florist.
But Bill’s legacy will live on. His family recently sold the business to Sean Murphy, age 25, who worked for Bill less than a year before he died. “We worked out a good deal,” said Murphy, “I could afford it, and it worked for them too.”
Murphy, who is getting a degree in landscape architecture from the Boston Architectural College, grew up in Worcester helping his parents in their yard and hopes to expand the gardening and window box part of the business, which Bill had eased up on in his later years.
Otherwise the business will remain the same. It will still carry the name Rouvalis. Rob Moran, the master designer, and Emily Montany, a floral designer who helps with the window boxes, are staying. The shop will still brighten the corner of West Cedar and Pinckney streets. Murphy said he does need to hire more people so he can continue to develop the gardening and window box parts of the business.
Murphy’s favorite orders are babies’ births and proposals. “They call back and tell you the answer,” he said. “They’re ecstatic.”
Murphy said the only deliveries he doesn’t like to make are to Children’s Hospital for obvious reasons.
Boston’s florist know one another because they all gather every day at the Boston Flower Exchange, the market on Albany Street where all the wholesale purveyors congregate in stalls under one roof. The city’s florists head to the market about six a.m. after the suburban florists, who arrive at 5 a.m. leave before the commuter traffic gets bad.
Flowers aren’t the most important thing in life—food, clothes, gas for the car, and soap for the dishes probably rank higher. But then it turns out that they are necessary—they mark all important passages in life. And in a city sometimes as much famed for its grime as it is for its history, the shops themselves are a welcome sight.