Jun 21, 2007

Floral store blossoms for mom, daughter; Boutique grows in larger space downtownBy Steve MonroeGazette.net

“We’ve been looking for a place for two years, so this is like heaven,” said Ellie Bonde, co-owner with daughter Rene of Blossom & Basket Boutique in Mount Airy.

The Bondes found just the space they were looking for at 3 Main St., in a 2,400-square-foot two story building that had been the home of a plumbing contractor. They now have room — four times as much space as their previous store on Main Street — for Rene, who does the flower arranging, to design and arrange floral bouquets without bumping into her mother or other workers.

“We had to turn sideways just to get past each other in the old place,” said Ellie Bonde. “We were constantly saying, ‘Excuse me … excuse me. That’s what it was, all day.”

“It is a dream come true,” said Rene Bonde of the new store, which had its grand opening June 14, “because now we’re able to do a really good job for our customers, take care of them really well, with parking and everything.”

Rene said she now has a room upstairs to talk to customers who want to plan weddings, funerals or other events in privacy, rather than in the midst of a busy small shop with workers trying to serve other customers nearby.

Their growing business simply required more space. Blossom & Basket Boutique has grown in six years from a strictly local mom-and-daughter floral arranging operation to a thriving small business with three full-time and 12 part-time employees and two delivery vans — with a third badly needed, Ellie Bonde said. The store now makes deliveries for weddings and other events as far away as Baltimore, Salisbury and Washington, D.C.

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