Flowers have been used to commemorate important moments and to communicate emotions for centuries. In Victorian culture it was considered rude to verbally express one’s emotions so Victorians used flowers, specifically assigned to emotions, to convey their innermost feelings to the receiver. Nasturtium represented loyalty, lavender for distrust, and red roses for romantic love. However, red roses given to someone upside down indicated anger.
It’s safe to say that our modern Missoula doesn’t follow this strict floral code but maybe we can agree that flowers remain a way to reinforce our verbal love and support, or perhaps say the unsayable.
Lindsay Irwin, owner of Bitterroot Flower Shop, is full of energy, ideas, and loyalty.
“I’ve always been a builder. A creator,” said Lindsay. While her husband attended law school at the University of Montana, she worked for the previous owners of Bitterroot Flower Shop and absolutely loved it. Life then took her and her husband to Helena, where she completed floral design classes and worked as a designer in a shop there until her former boss called with news of her retirement and an offer for Lindsay to buy the shop on the corner of South Higgins and South 6th Street. She knew two things right away. She wanted to do it. And she wanted her mother there with her.
“Family relies on each other to be real,” Lindsay said. It took no convincing and soon Lindsay and her husband relocated to Missoula and her parents joined her from Colorado.
Thirteen years later, Lindsay and her mother Nancy Larson continue to work side by side and in balance with each other. The two of them, combined with their very impressive staff of designers, managers, customer service assistants, and deliverers make their own kind of beautiful bouquet. It is an incredibly large and complex operation with each person contributing their own unique colors of abilities and strengths.
“I surround myself with smart, wonderful people because I still don’t know everything. It would be silly to think I have all the answers,” said Lindsay. Three months after purchasing Bitterroot Flower Shop, Lindsay’s first daughter was born and then later, a second. The girls grew up in the shop, carried around by Mom, Grandma, or whoever had an empty arm. They learned to walk in the design warehouse, the little niche offices, and the plant areas. Lindsay’s own little sprouts thrived among the flowers, the customers, and the staff family.
Today, Bitterroot Flower Shop is more than a building to pop into for a quick bouquet or that all-so-precious prom corsage. It’s a constant expression of Lindsay’s commitment to Missoula—a commitment that spans wide and quietly. The shop donates over $1,000 in flowers per month to nonprofits throughout the city. They provide color, aroma, and beauty to the Missoula Food Bank’s fundraisers, CASA’s events, and MCT’s productions (just to name a few). They decorate the Florence Building for Christmas. Heather, Plant Manager, even travels to a few businesses to care for and water their plants. Lindsay and her team are constantly looking for ways to support the good work of others.
In-house, Lindsay also looks for ways to support Missoula. She proudly sells local art, including glazed flower pots created by people with disabilities through Opportunity Resources. Each of the artists receive a majority of the sale of their own pot. She also created a recycled vase program in which customers can bring in their used vases and in return she repurposes those vases and donates $1 per vase to local nonprofits such as AniMeals. The charity changes every two months, allowing for both a worthy donation and the opportunity to help multiple local causes. She’s so excited about the exchange of vases that she even asks people to buy up 25 cent vases at garage sales and bring them in. Better yet, rather than selling those vases at your own garage sale, bring them in to her.
It’s not only nonprofits that Bitterroot Flower Shop are helping. They’ve teamed up with businesses such as Big Dipper Ice Cream, Frolic, and Florence Coffee to include gift cards in their bouquets. A Mother’s Day arrangement can include a mani-pedi, while a Father’s Day arrangement may come with a growler fill from one of the local breweries.
“Flowers only last so long but a gift card can extend the gift even longer,” said Lindsay. It’s a win-win for the customer and also for the other businesses. The last year has hit the floral business hard in many ways but Lindsay has found resourceful avenues to negotiate Covid-19 restrictions while supporting businesses closer to home. While many flower shops across the country were completely shut down, Bitterroot Flower Shop was able to continue operating. However, they were not able to import inventory from their usual suppliers. Traditionally, flowers are purchased from growers in places like South America, Hawaii, and Canada.
Last Mother’s Day was their first real challenge. Thanks to Covid-19, transportation became completely unreliable. Lindsay scrambled to find Montana growers as well as farmers from California and Washington. The end result was the most amazing tulips from local lands and new relationships with Pacific Northwest farms.
“It was amazing,” said Lindsay. “It felt so good. We were just coming out of Covid-19, other state’s flower shops were still shut down, and I was able to support more local farmers.” She plans to continue purchasing from these growers moving forward. The need to find inventory closer to home has also led Lindsay and her team to look at herbs and succulents as possible ideas for arrangements. It is a creative moment born of necessity.
Covid-19 has also been an opportunity for Bitterroot Flower Shop to think outside of the proverbial flower box. One great example is red roses, which traditionally come from South America. In the past, the flower shop received weekly boxes of the crimson petals which arrived to the U.S. via Florida and then onto Missoula.
“I’ve always wanted to look at eco roses and more sustainable alternatives but I just didn’t have the time,” Lindsay said. Now that she’s made new local relationships, thanks to the last year, she feels she can begin looking into those possibilities.
Bitterroot Flower Shop is not only committed to Missoula’s nonprofits and its businesses but it’s monumentally committed to their customers, wherever they are. One thing Lindsay would like to stress to her customers is to use the shop’s website when ordering online. Often times we don’t think to do so, or we’re unfamiliar with an area’s floral options so we simply use a national chain. The problem is, the customer is not ordering from an actual flower shop. They are ordering from a call center. The telemarketer then takes the order and sends it through a computer system until it makes its way to BFS’s team.
There are two big issues with this process according to Lindsay. The first is that the national chain takes a big cut right off the top. A customer may see a picture of a beautiful arrangement for $150. They love it and purchase it online. However, when she receives the order it is now for a $60 arrangement. Her team cannot create the arrangement the customer saw on his or her screen for less than half the price. The second problem is that Lindsay and her designers have no relationship with the actual customer so if they need to make a flower substitution they have no way of communicating that to the purchaser. The end result is sometimes rightful disappointment. Ordering direct from Bitterroot Flower Shop’s website will ensure that you get exactly what you order at the value you expected.
Another way Bitterroot Flower Shop goes above and beyond for their customers is weddings. While they do offer complete packages, they also offer bulk flowers in case a bride or family wants to arrange their own pieces. This can help with costs but according to Lindsay it can be more than that.
“Sometimes it’s incredibly meaningful when a bride’s mother (or someone special) makes an arrangement for her,” said Lindsay.
Proms are also a celebration of flowers and yet there’s a lot of pressure to get the perfect wrist piece or boutonniere. Lindsay suggests “too much control doesn’t make a good corsage.” Instead, her team loves when a young lady brings in a picture of her dress or gives her date a swatch of her color(s) and then opens themselves up to suggestions. The designers at the shop are at the top of their game and allowing them a little artistic leeway will result in a more memorable piece.
Bitterroot Flower Shop’s trust is well placed and evident by their customers’ cycles. Often times, a prom corsage eventually turns into wedding flowers that eventually turns into a bouquet for a new baby. Even so, Lindsay’s mission for the shop is, “to be an everyday flower shop, not just weddings and such. And to be community driven.” She explained that there is plenty of research to show that flowers help with mood and subconscious stimulation. While they are essential for important days and events, they’re also appreciated on ordinary days, for no other reason than making us feel good.
While we may have lost the flower language of the Victorians, we still feel loved and thought of when we open the door to find an arrangement on our step. We know what we want to say to that special someone when picking out a bouquet. The meaning between the giver and the receiver is as strong today as it ever was, it’s just spoken in a less formal flower lingo. It’s also spoken in the way Bitterroot Flower Shop cares for its town and its customers.