How This Started
I’m Sarah, and I’ve been doing this since I was old enough to steal my mom’s garden clippers and make “bouquets” for my neighbors when I was seven. For years it was just a thing I did—nothing serious. Then in 2008, after college and a brief corporate stint I hated, I realized I was still doing it. Arranging flowers on my kitchen table at night, making centerpieces for friends’ weddings, turning down decent money because I didn’t think I was “professional.”
In early 2009, someone asked me to do arrangements for their daughter’s wedding. The bride specifically requested “Sarah’s bouquets, not store flowers.” That event led to three more weddings that year, then twelve the next year. By 2010, I’d rented a small space on Main Street in Tipton and started this shop. Eighteen years in, I’m still kind of shocked this is my job.
Who We Are Today
It’s mostly just me—Sarah—working alongside Riley, who started in 2019 and knows the difference between spray roses and garden roses better than I do now. We handle everything from daily standing orders for the bank and funeral home to custom wedding installations for ceremonies three hours away. We also do way more FTD orders than I ever wanted to, but that’s how rural Iowa works sometimes.
The shop sits near downtown. We’re open Tuesday through Saturday; Sundays and Mondays I use for event work and prep. We don’t have a website that takes orders yet—everything’s still phone calls and walk-ins, which sounds chaotic but somehow works because people know us. Regular customers just text me photos of what they need.
Design Philosophy
I don’t follow trends. If the Pinterest aesthetic doesn’t suit your room or your personality, I’m going to push back. I work a lot with garden-style arrangements—loose, not too symmetrical, using things that look like they grew that way naturally. My favorite flowers are ranunculus, garden roses, lisianthus, and whatever weird seasonal stuff I can get from local growers.
One small habit: I always include some kind of textured greenery. Dusty miller, eucalyptus, ruscus, asparagus fern. Something that makes the arrangement read as intentional from far away but rewarding when you lean in. That detail comes from years of watching where arrangements live in people’s homes—usually on a table where they’ll see it from the couch, not close up.
Sourcing & Sustainability
About half our flowers come from a grower just outside Cedar Rapids—they’ve got great garden roses and dahlias. The other half comes from a distributor who specializes in Pacific Northwest and California stock. We source ethically, which in practice means we know our growers, we don’t support mass-market chains, and we’re willing to say “no, we don’t have that, but here’s what’s better this week.”
I stopped using floral foam about eight years ago. Now it’s chicken wire, floral tape, and structural greenery—more work, but arrangements last longer. Customers notice. One woman brought back an arrangement three weeks after Valentine’s Day and asked why hers didn’t wilt like “those other flowers from the other place.” It was our foam-free method.
Quick Facts
- In business since: 2010 (16 years)
- Service area: Tipton and within 45 minutes—Cedar Rapids, Marion, Vinton
- Average arrangement time: 25–40 minutes
- Most-requested flowers: Garden roses and ranunculus, no question
What Customers Say
“I’ve been getting flowers from Sarah for my wife’s birthday for six years. At this point, it’s not even a question—I call Sarah. She knows what I like before I tell her. That’s service.”
— Tom H.
“For my mom’s funeral, Sarah made arrangements that people actually spent time looking at. They were elegant but not sad. Perfect.”
— Michelle K.