Via Community News Service, in partnership with the University of Vermont for Shelburne News
SHELBURNE — Huge arrangements of snapdragons, lilies, roses and other flowers greet customers upon arriving at the In Full Bloom florist shop. Seconds after seeing the flowers, visitors are often met with a warm welcome from co-owner Britta Johnson.
Johnson and her mother, co-owner Kristine Engstrom, create floral arrangements with a personal stamp designed to make sure that customers feel the love and care that went into them.
“We hear oftentimes from people who work at hospitals or the funeral home that they can tell, without even looking at the card, that the flowers are from us because there’s such a contrast to what they’re seeing from other florists,” Johnson said.
In Full Bloom, located in a gray shingle house on U.S. 7, purchases from Vermont farms when their flowers are in season and often finds unusual blooms in the process. They partner with Shelburne Farms, Understory Farm, Four Blooms Farm, Renaissance Farm and Talking Well Farm.
“They’re not only customers, but have kind of become friends and people that we care about deeply,” said Gregory Witscher, the owner of Understory Farm in Bridport. “I look at it as us supporting each other’s businesses, so us trying to do the best we can to grow the nicest flowers possible, and them doing the best they can to arrange them in inspiring ways. We have a very reciprocal relationship as two small businesses.”
In Full Bloom is the product of years of hard work. Engstrom opened the shop’s initial location when Johnson was 18 months old. After renting a second location, she decided to buy the current spot from the Shelburne Museum, bringing new life into the old building. Engstrom has now been in the florist business for 54 years.
Engstrom graduated as a horticulture major from Michigan State University, intending to work in landscaping. She realized how difficult it was for a woman at the time to have a career in landscaping, so she refined her focus to flowers.
“I found I could be in that space and make it work,” Engstrom said. “I liked it because my family’s always been artists, and I liked the art of the design of the flower as well as I love the flower.”
Engstrom and Johnson did not always plan to work together, but Johnson, who had worked at a flower shop in college, decided to come help out after graduation. Johnson focused on graphic design in college, but she was more interested in art and designing, rather than the digital aspects.
When she joined In Full Bloom, she brought a fresh perspective to the flower shop from her prior experiences. However, the transition to working together was not always easy.
“I fired her three times before we came to an agreement, and we had to readjust a lot of things to make it work,” Engstrom said, with a smile. “But we both kept trying, and we did it.”
Owning a business as a mother-daughter duo may have come with a few bumps, but Johnson and Engstrom kept at it and made it successful partly through shared vision about the creations that come together in the shop.
“You want someone who does an arrangement for you that’s got something special in it, not just throwing flowers together,” Engstrom said. “We care about everything we do here, and I think that’s different.”
The shop currently focuses on custom bouquets for occasions, such as weddings and funerals. Though Engstrom is still involved, it is mostly Johnson running the shop.
“It’s not the most lucrative career, but it’s something that I really enjoy, and also being my own boss is very satisfying,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s artistry with flowers comes through in a way her customers notice.
Johnson makes planning the floral arrangements for special events more enjoyable because of her personality, said Dee Pomerleau, a long-time customer of In Full Bloom. “The event itself is far more beautiful than ever imagined because of Britta’s unique gift with flowers. Britta is truly an artist who paints with flowers.”
Flowers don’t last forever, but the memory of them can linger, which is a theme for Engstrom and Johnson.
“The art that I do is ephemeral,” Engstrom said. “It doesn’t have lasting power. The only thing that it does is it puts something in people’s lives. You can’t hand it down to your children, but you can hand down that feeling to a lot of people and it’s a good way of exposing them to something beautiful in the world.”