Feature: Tamar’s Trends
One thing that will immediately strike you about flower shop owner Tamar Ford is just how very easy it is to have a conversation with her. You quickly feel at ease, comfortable, and know that you are in for an easy, uncomplicated, and enjoyable shopping experience.
From the moment you walk in to her warm, inviting space at 740 Queen St., you will be warmly greeted by Tamar or her friendly staff and you instantly know you are in good hands. If you are like me and know very little about flowers or gardens, don’t fret! Tamar and her staff know their stuff and welcome the chance to help you.
On the day, I happened to visit, a man walked in explaining he wanted to get some flowers delivered for his mother’s birthday. Tamar politely excused herself, asked the gentleman a few questions to get an idea of his mom’s tastes, his budget, the address and phone number for delivery and within minutes, a thoughtful and meaningful arrangement was well on its way to be delivered the next day right on this lucky mom’s birthday. It was a real treat to see how easy the shopping experience can be with Tamar and just how good at her job she is.
In fact, the whole time that I was chatting with Tamar for this story, she was a flower wizard creating a beautiful arrangement for a funeral.
Tamar, who hails from Blind River, kind of stumbled into the flower business when she got a job at the local flower shop at age 17 when she was in high school. After school she worked part-time at the shop and the fact she even applied was surprising because she hated art and never considered herself to be very creative.
She admits that at first, the job was actually a lot of grunt work, cleaning, lifting bags of potting soil, but during busier holiday times, she soon was given more responsibilities and started making the arrangements and doing more of the floral design and realized she loved it.
At age 19, she got married and at that time she was also asked by the owner of the shop to take a floral certification course offered by Flowers Canada that they would pay for.
However, knowing that she didn’t intend to stay in Blind River, she showed a lot of maturity and consideration and asked if she could still take the course but requested that they allow her parents to pay for it since she would not be staying in Blind River.
She moved to Sault Ste. Marie and given her training and gift for floral creations, she freelanced for several years at a few local shops. The free lancing got tricky with potential conflicts of interest so she decided to stay put for a while at longtime downtown shop Mann Florist where she worked as a junior designer. During that time around 1992, the head designer was retiring and she was asked to take on the head designer job but at 21years old, Tamar didn’t feel ready to take on that responsibility and actually left to work retail for a while.
During that time, she also had two children but the floral industry remained her calling. She was approached by someone from her church to train her for a floral department position that was added to the then A&P at the Churchill Plaza. This woman after working with Tamar soon realized that the floral industry is a lot more than just potting plants and sticking flowers in a vase. It wasn’t for her and she encouraged Tamar to apply for the position which she clearly excelled at. She worked there for seven years but she is quite open in admitting that being at the grocery store while being a mom with two young children had its own challenges and felt like high school all over at times.
One day, after a heated discussion, she quit. Tamar took it in stride and it wasn’t long before an independent grocery store owner approached her in 2010 to operate a flower shop out of the location and for seven hugely successful years, she operated her own business there but as she says, they outgrew each other.
She had built a loyal clientele and very good following because of her tremendous skill and friendly, reliable service. Persistence pays off and one day while enjoying some ice cream with her kids at Elliott’s Ice Cream, Tamar noticed the closed sign at nearby 740 Queen Street E. and from the moment she looked in, she knew that would make the perfect location for a new start, a new beginning.
She contacted the owner of the building, another local entrepreneur downtown and signed a lease immediately. How fast you ask? Well, she left her former location on a Tuesday and opened at the new downtown location on a Wednesday and that very week she did three funerals and two weddings!
If you pay the shop a visit, you will be amazed at how beautiful and peaceful you feel in it. She bought the building in May of 2019 and in July, she will celebrate three years at her current location.
Tamar tells Sault Business Matters that she loves being downtown and feels that there is now more than ever a desire to know who you are buying from and that people want to support mom and pop shops. There is definitely a “shop local” movement underway and Tamar is thrilled by that.
A quote that rings true that Tamar shared with me and may just perfectly explain her raison d’être is that “when words fail you, flowers speak.” For the male shoppers that scoff at flowers with many commenting “but you can’t even eat them,” Tamar’s reply is that flowers feed your soul!
Partnerships with other businesses is something that Tamar loves and she has already worked with Outspoken Brewing, City Meat Market, and is soon to be working with Big Lake Cabin on a joint Valentine themed evening. She says her goal is to partner with everyone downtown if she can!
People may be surprised to learn that in addition to being a floral shop, she also offers garden maintenance service for existing gardens and she and her staff can also be booked to help people with planting raised garden beds of various sizes and that this is great activity to do with your children. Teaching kids to grow a vegetable garden can be a very rewarding and memory making experience. Limited spots are available for the garden maintenance/garden bed program so please book by May if interested in taking advantage of the experience Tamar and her team can offer.
In her quest to grow the business but also educate people, Tamar often offers fun workshops partnering with local businesses for some including an upcoming one on February 15 with Big Lake Cabin. This promises to be a fun experience with a cash bar supplied by Big Lake Cabin, appetizers and desserts served at Tamar’s, a super fun guided dessert rose making activity, with the option to end the evening with a dinner at Big Lake Cabin.
In March, there will be a ‘build a bouquet’ workshop, in April a ‘spring ‘wreath workshop and both include all materials and complimentary wine. Stay tuned for her popular Mother’s Day mother/daughter classes to be held May 16 and May 17. She suggests buying mom some flowers for Mother’s Day and surprising her with the tickets to the class.
For business owners, a gentle reminder that corporate gift giving doesn’t have to be limited to muffins, chocolates, gift cards — consider a small floral arrangement. She welcomes the opportunity to work with businesses for corporate gifts, and flowers and plants are a very thoughtful way to thank people for their business.
Tamar has kindly offered to give any couples getting married 10% off their wedding order if they mention Sault Business Matters.
Tamar would also like people to know that she can work with any budget and yes, she has built a reputation of being able to do extravagant, tasteful events but she is also just as happy to do small scale, day to day floral arrangements for any price point so please stop by and she will work with you.
A very nice service that is also available for any budget is a flower subscription service where once a month, flowers can be delivered to a recipient and this has been very popular for those with parents in nursing homes or for people with aging parents to brighten their day. She will work with any budget for the service.
For more information on Tamar’s Trends Flower Shop, and her upcoming workshop information, you can follow her page on Facebook.
