Florist duo to stop, smell roses
When you’re ready to call it quits after 40 years of running your own flower shop, it’s the memories, all those memories, that make walking away difficult.
You fondly remember when a welcome bouquet of flowers created in your shop — A Flower Patch on South Military Trail in suburban Lake Worth — was carefully handed to the late Princess Diana by a local student when Diana and Prince Charles visited Palm Beach County in the 1980s.
Or how the community unselfishly rallied around your business five years ago after a devastating fire the day after Valentine’s Day practically gutted your life’s work, reducing it to charred ashes.
Then there are all the customers you met for the countless weddings, baby showers, proms, funerals, birthday parties, graduations and Valentine’s Days that floral shops were made for.
But they weren’t just customers. They became family as you shared in their joys, their heartaches, their triumphs, their sorrows.
For Betsy and Todd Hillman, married for 42 years, selling the business and the 4,000-square-foot space it occupies is bittersweet. But the time is right. “We’re worn out,” says Todd, 66. Betsy, 65, agrees. “We’re not getting any younger,” she says. “The shop is very demanding and stressful.”
The site has been on the market for only a few weeks. The asking price is $735,000, with the listing being handled by Copeland & Co. Real Estate in West Palm Beach. Kevin D. Thompson
Todd says the business too is for sale, for $150,000.
Todd and Betsy want everyone to know that A Flower Patch isn’t closing. While the couple will no longer be involved, the plan is to sell the shop and keep a smaller version of it in the Lake Worth area, preferably near its current location at 3435 S. Military Trail.
The Hillmans, who have two children, Lauren, 30 and Dylan, 26, plan to see the world — or at the very least, the country.
The goal is to pack up the RV with their four Yorkies ranging from 6 to 10 in age, and head off to parts unknown.
“Our fantasy is to take off and not have to worry about where we’re going or what we’re doing,” Betsy says. “That would be heavenly.”
The seeds for A Flower Patch were sown in the 1970s in Miami, where Betsy was in the floral business and Todd was a buyer for a lawn and garden company.
“We both loved gardening,” Todd recalls.
Both also caught the entrepreneurial bug.
“We knew if we ran our business and we were going to get fired, we’d know ahead of time,” Todd says, laughing heartily. “We saw so many people getting fired because they were reaching retirement age and the company didn’t want to pay their pension.”
The Hillmans scouted cities — Tampa, Miami, Fort Pierce — but kept coming back to the Lake Worth/West Palm Beach area.
“We felt Palm Beach County was going to be a growing county,” Todd says.
The couple moved into a 1,000-square-foot space west of Lake Worth that they would rent for six years before buying the building they’re in now in 1985.
It’s often been said mar- riage is hard work, and yes, it can be. But it takes a special person to be married to the person they’re in business with.
“We see each other 24/7 so it’s not like we can come home and talk about our day because we shared our day,” Todd says.
The key to making it work, Betsy says, is setting up clearly defined roles and not overstepping.
Todd, an old-school guy who prefers personal contact with customers rather than online ordering, handles the business end, while Betsy is in charge of the flowers.
“I don’t stick my nose in what he’s doing and he would never say, ‘Why did you order all these yellow roses?’” Betsy says.
Employees say the Hillmans will be missed.
“They treat us like family,” says Lynn Hull, a floral designer. “We have celebrations and eat a lot around here.”
Ashley White, another designer, said Todd and Betsy have given her rides to and from work when her car wasn’t working.
“Whenever I needed help, they were there,” White says.
Now, it’s time for the Hillmans, after decades of service to the Lake Worth area, to help themselves, to embrace what else life has to offer.
“We want to do some new things while we can still do them,” Todd says.
And you can bet that all those memories — good and bad — will be tagging along for the ride.