Baltimore Florist Pivots To Dried Flowers As Industry Hit Hard By Pandemic Event Cancellations
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Inside Alyssa Zygmunt's Hampden store, The Greenhouse, the flowers are always in bloom.
The flower industry was hit hard by the pandemic, with weddings and other events cancelled, many fresh cut flowers went to waste. But Zygmunt pivoted her business and is thriving because of it. All thanks to dried flowers.
Her shop - filled with flowers and planes - are all dried to stand the test of time.
"To me, it's like opening and broadening the things that we bring in from outside into our lives, into the inside, to celebrate nature," said Zygmunt.
She originally meant to sell fresh flowers but when COVID hit, Zygmunt had to rethink her business.
"Growers who had whole years planned of flowers to be harvested and many of those just had to be destroyed and the flowers that were at the wholesalers - they couldn't sell them so they started drying their own and also that became a new market," she said.
And customers embraced the low maintenance and beauty of the dried flower arrangements.
"I don't have to do anything, they're just like, they're beautiful. I set them where they are and I don't have to touch them again," said one Greenhouse customer.
But their popularity blew Zygmunt away who said, "the amount of response was amazing, we had no idea that people would be that into dried flowers."
And another perk? These forever flowers could be coming at a time when we just might need them the most, said Zygmunt.
"Having things that are forever is a nice way to kind of combat the fact that mortality was sort of a new thing that we were all experiencing together with the fear of COVID," she said.
