When Mary Ann Brown opened the doors to her greenhouse and flower shop, she couldn’t know her legacy would still be blooming more than a century later.
Victoria is so glad it is!
With three locations – on Fort St. Victoria, Beacon Ave. in Sidney and Jacklin Rd. in Langford – the iconic Brown’s The Florist has been a fixture in the local flower business for generations.
Independently run and locally owned, the business was started by Brown, a British immigrant who arrived in Esquimalt in 1870 and established Fairview Esquimalt Greenhouse. The savvy businesswoman grew the business to include three downtown flower shops that soon gained a reputation for beauty and taste.
The company was eventually purchased by Brown Brothers Ltd. of Vancouver in 1912, and saw few changes of ownership, names and locations over the decades, until it was purchased by the present owner, Natasha Crawford, in 2007.
Crawford and her team – who possess more than 365 years of collective floral experience – continue to uphold Mary Brown’s motto of doing “more than just meeting the customer’s needs.”
“Brown’s The Florist is there for its customers through all of the difficult times, joyful times and all of the big life milestones and celebrations,” says Brown’s Marketing Manager and Senior Floral Designer Katherine Olmstead . “We help people to congratulate, grieve, stay connected and ultimately to convey a message that words alone cannot do.”
New Renovations
The team recently finished major renovations at the Fort St. location – they operated out of a pop-up store just around the corner until reopening on Oct. 4 – and they’d like to express their gratitude to everyone involved.
“We’re thankful for all of the people who helped with this big project,” Olmstead says. “We want to thank our customers for seeking us out and finding our little pop-up store, too!
“This renovation really opened up the shop for our customers – you’ll find there’s a lot more room to explore.”
Same Values
While the look may be new for Brown’s on Fort Street, the values remain the same as they were so many years ago under Mary Ann Brown. In fact, “More” seems to be the goal of the women of Brown’s – more community involvement, more focus on customers, more dedication to providing local products.
More than 80 per cent of the flowers and plants they carry are locally grown and sourced, either from the Mainland or the Island, and any flowers they carry from overseas are purchased from fair-trade growers only. They deliver their products to the Greater Victoria area, Langford, Sidney and some of the Gulf Islands.
“We’re very proud to be celebrating 110 years as a local Victoria business,” Olmstead says. “And we want to thank our customers for remaining loyal for generations!”
Find out more on Facebook and Instagram before heading downtown to check out the newly refreshed shop at 757 Fort St.
