[Posted Dec. 12, 2007]

Making The Holidays Come Alive

SPARKLE & GLITTER:  PLUMERIAFLORIST

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide  

      Although Plumeria Florist and Gifts has been open for only two years in downtown Portsmouth, its proprietor is helping to add sparkle and glitter to some of the twinkling homes in the city’s historic district.
      “It’s a lot of hard work,” Plumeria proprietor Cheryl Landy said of the French ribbons, beautiful bows, feathered trees, and colorful pheasants and birds decorating homes in the Portsmouth area. Her store is located in downtown Portsmouth at 462 Washington St.
       Her top sellers this year are wreaths, trees, garlands and other unusual items made from feathers, which are part of her permanent collection. Ranging from $30 to $75, these unusual wreaths can be used year after year.
       A course in floral design, 28 years ago, led Landy away from her desk job at a weekly newspaper in Boston, back home to her roots in Portsmouth. Then she decided to open her floral shop while vacationing with relatives in Hawaii.

     “I was reared by a mother who gave me the impression I could do anything,” said Landy, who actually took up floral design as a hobby in Boston after enrolling in Ikebana, a Japanese floral design course. By day, she worked as the associate publisher of a weekly newspaper. By night, she honed her floral arrangement skills, acquiring knowledge.

     “I’d get up every morning to do flowers,” she said. “Cut flowers can’t drink water. They look alive but won’t stay alive long if you don’t hydrate them. People tend to say that my flowers last a long time.”

Landy’s floral shop is named after the plumeria, a flower in the lai she’d worn in Hawaii. Photo by Alvin Swilley

      Why? Landy focuses on treatment and preservation. She knows how to make cut flowers last. “I’m in the process of building my reputation and business one client at a time,” she said quietly. Then she laughed, clearly delighted that her 28-year hobby has finally turned into a satisfying occupation.
      She enjoys being back home. When the holiday season ends, she will continue to create colorful sprays for funerals, weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries. Some people spend a lifetime looking for their calling in life, Landy said, explaining how she found her her own specialty.
       It was while she was on vacation in Hawaii with relatives. Suddenly, the idea surfaced in her mind. She even saw the building. Returning to Portsmouth, she opened her floral shop, naming it after the plumeria, a flower in the lai she’d worn in Hawaii. “It is so fragrant; but it (plumeria) would die outside of Hawaii.”
       Now that she is back home in Portsmouth, living near her mother who loves beauty, as well as other relatives--some are farmers and famous for their green thumbs, Landy said she is satisfied.
“It’s natural,” she said. “You don’t get your typical floral design with me. All of the great events in people’s lives I touch with pleasure.”
  

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