Here at Colonial Gardens, we’ve been in the floral game since the 1970s. While many things have changed over the years, our commitment to providing high-quality, beautifully arranged flowers from our talented flowers has not.
In 2025, our floral team includes LeeAnn, Beck, and Ashley along with helpers from many other departments from the store who help with deliveries, set up, planting, and harvesting. I wanted to use this blog to introduce the main players on our floral team and to learn a little about what their favorite and least favorite flowers are.
When you work with flowers for a living, you not only get to know the hundreds of varieties, but also their uses, strengths, and “attitude” as LeeAnn likes to put it. You’ll also get to know some flowers that you’d rather steer away from, if you can.
Personally, I’m a plant person, rather than a florist, so I ask our floral team which flowers that they loved to work with and which ones fall in their least favorite category. Of course, these skilled florists are ready and willing to work with any flower you request. It’s still fun to hear what everyone prefers. I thought this would be a good chance to meet our floral team and learn a little about their experience and favorite flowers!
Let’s start with lead florist LeeAnn:
LeeAnn has been with us for three years and joined our team with over 16 years of floral experience. She grew up with her mother in a flower shop, worked professionally for years as a florist, and achieved her Master Florist certification. In her time here at Colonial, she has revolutionized our floral department, allowing us to better serve our customers with beautiful, fresh flowers. She has also been a great teacher for our assistant florists. If you are getting married, arranging a funeral, or hosting a special event, LeeAnn will be handling your flowers and all of the logistics.
LeeAnn’s favorite flower is the Free Spirit Rose. This special rose has a unique color and a very high petal count while staying affordable. Scent is often bred out of floral roses, but the Free Spirit rose maintains its scent, adding another layer to the delight of fresh flower arrangements. LeeAnn’s designed several arrangements with Free Spirit Roses such as No Place Like Home, You are My Sunshine, and From Your Favorite. This flower complements the yellows in sunflowers and adds a nice contrast to purples and greens.
LeeAnn famously prefers limonium to baby’s breath. Limonium has a wispier look with a hardier habit and less of a stinky smell (if you know, you know). Recently, she’s also placed calla lilies in her least favorite bucket. While they are uniquely gorgeous, their thick stems can make them hard to manipulate to create the right shape. While baby’s breath is often still in our cooler at our customer’s request, calla lilies are special ordered in for special occasion arrangements like anniversaries.
Now onto Ashley!
Ashley joined us this spring! With a few years of experience under her belt, she’s been spending the last few months under LeeAnn’s tutelage. She’s catching on quickly and we’re thrilled that she’s part of the team.
Ashley’s favorite flowers to work with are spray roses. Even though they aren’t a focal flower, they add a subtle, elegant touch to arrangements. You get several flower heads on each stem so this accent flower really fills in space while elevating the arrangement. Spray roses are featured in Pretty in Pottstown and Everlasting Love.
Ashley is not a huge fan of statice. Statice is a filler flower with a deeper color than other options, but Ashley isn’t a huge fan of the texture and thinks it feels a little like straw. Luckily, you as the customer get to enjoy it for its looks!
Last, but not least: Beck!
While Beck works mostly in the garden center, they are an essential part of the floral team. With schooling and years of practical experience, they’re a great asset and have the ability to put together custom arrangements and bouquets when LeeAnn is taking her well-deserved days off.
Beck is drawn to spider mums. They say that these flowers provide a high-impact as far as a focal flower goes. They’re a great punch of flower power for a great value. Spider mums are featured in Happily Ever After and are also used in a lot of our custom funeral work as they often come in white.
Beck is less thrilled about roses for the reason you might expect: the thorns! Some varieties are especially thorny and when not properly stripped, they can come back to bite a florist while arranging. There’s nothing quite like a rose in a fresh flower arrangement for a touch of elegance and romance.
Conclusion
I certainly learned a lot about the individual flowers our florists worked with as they talked about their favorites and least favorites. We have an option on our website called “Designer’s Choice,” which allows our florists to create an arrangement at the price point you select. The lovely thing about this option is that it allows our florists to use flowers that they find beautiful, high-value, and fun to work with. You get a little taste of their style and favorite flowers.
