2nd Story for Tribune--Palisade People

Wild Flower Shop still busy in Palisade

Valentine’s Day is the starting date of the busiest season for florists, according to Pat Sommers of the Wild Flower in Palisade.

“Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are the busiest,” but with Easter, Prom, graduation, birthdays, Sommers predicts her business will not slow down until the middle of summer.

Some people have the misconception that Palisade does not have a florist.

They are wrong.

Sommers started the first flower shop in Palisade, 21 years ago and has moved a few times around town, yet it is still going strong.

“We have never quit doing business,” said owner Sommers who moved back into the original shop behind her house on G 7/10 Road a few years ago.

That’s where it all started in 1984 when Pat and Dan Sommers moved their family to Palisade from Meeker.

They bought land for their peach orchard, but Pat noticed a need for a flower business as well. She asked around, “If we were to start a flower business, what kind of flowers should be have? Everyone said ‘baby’s breath.’”

“It was my husband’s idea. In 1984 we planted one acre of baby’s breath. The next year we put in two more acres. Then we leased two acres from our neighbor. We had a field of flowers, all kinds of flowers, and Dan built me a shop behind the house. That business was just wholesale.”

As her three children grew, the farm became a family affair: Dan and son Patrick worked primarily in the peach business, Sommers Harvest; and Pat and her girls, Kathy and Charlotte, worked more in the Wild Flower business.

In 2000 the girls talked their mom into opening a shop in the downtown building that is now the home of the Palisade Library.

“We shared that space with Palisade Pride. At that time we just grew and preserved flowers,” Pat remembered. 

They expanded their offerings to live flowers and novelty items, and had a good business for about five years on Main Street.

The economy and personal happenings affect every business. The kids grew up, married and were not able to work or help as much with the florist shop, so the Wild Flower moved off Main Street to next door to the Palisade Super Stop for three years.

The new Wild Flower shop over by Taylor Elementary was a success in the smaller single business place, where they arranged flowers for the holidays, school dances, prom, graduation as well as birthdays, anniversaries, get well greetings and funerals.

Pat and her daughters, Kathy or Charlotte, would do single flower arrangements for weddings, parties or whatever the customer wanted. “Sparkle is our trademark,” so any happy bouquet or boutonniere would be dusted with a little glitter.

“I even had one customer order sparkle on a funeral sprays: one for her mother’s and another for her mother-in-law’s.”

In 2008 and 2009 the economy started dropping, and her girls got busy with marriage, children and other jobs.  Pat moved her business back to the farm, back into the original shop. “We had to come back to bare essentials.”

Now her shop is not as expansive as the bigger ones in town, but Pat wants people to know “We are still here. We are in the phone book, on the internet, but we primarily do on-line orders or telephone calls.“

“We work through a wire service called Flower Shop Network. They are a good company to work with.” Customers can select from the pictures posted, and we can follow the design. But Pat and her daughters can also design an arrangement from the customer’s request or “Sometimes I get a little wild. So can Charlotte. It is part of the creative process.”

Pat has heard quite a few times, “We thought you had gone out of business.”

The Wild Flower is still a family business. Pat loves her job. Her husband Dad does the delivery radius from Palisade to Fruita not Glade Park or Mesa. They had to cut back on deliveries up to the Mesa and Glade Park, because of the expense of gas.

Son Patrick has a job as a plumber, but helps in the fields of flowers.

Oldest daughter Kathy Amigo helps when she is needed and can get away from her cleaning business.

Youngest daughter Charlotte Miner helps almost daily in the shop. Remember their trademark is the “sparkle.” Pat loves it when Charlotte brings her three-year-old daughter to work in the shop. “We let her sprinkle the glitter on the flowers. That’s when it is fun.”

Pat Sommers has no plans to retire. “With all the moves, Pat still can say, “I love my job. We are very busy. We have loyal customers. People know where you are and the good quality you do. We give you more flowers than filler because if we don’t want it in our home, then we darn sure don’t want to send it out to someone else’s home.”

So the Sommers have made a complete circle of locations: the original shop behind their home, Main Street shop, at the Super Stop building, and now back to the original.

“I had two very cool shops. We are not flashy out here (the home shop). We just had to come back to the bare essentials, but I have been really busy in the last few weeks. Shocks me, January is generally not that busy, and now we are working on Valentine’s Day orders.”  Pat smiles.

She finishes up an early Valentine’s Day delivery of her original design, called an “all-round” flower basket. The Fire-and-Ice roses, Gerber daisies, dark purple Asian lilies, ferns, small flowers, ribbon and of course “sparkles” of glitter artfully arranged to be seen on all sides of the basket.

Go a little “Wild” with your flower gifts. Palisade’s oldest florist shop is willing to help you.

Just call Wild Flower in Palisade, or order on the internet at any time.