New flower shop features local, regional blooms

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

A lot of folks probably know Kim Wortman and Jesse Plevel as longtime Realtors with Remax/Mountain View real estate in Columbia Falls.

But recently they branched out to open a floral shop in the Ruis building across from City Hall that specializes in locally and regionally grown flowers, called Creative Floral.

Plevel and Wortman noted that 80% of the flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from South America and Africa. Since invasive pests are a big problem, the flowers are heavily sprayed with pesticides and then often individually wrapped in plastic, bundled, and then wrapped even further with more plastic.

So they decided to start a shop that features homegrown and regionally grown flowers that aren’t sprayed and, just as importantly, support local and regional businesses.

Most of their flowers come from Oregon, Washington and Montana. Varieties like zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers and cosmos, just to name a few.

They’re trying to be as “earth minded” as possible, they noted.

The resulting flowers are fresher and look gorgeous, as they haven’t been shipped halfway across the world.

The pair have also studied floral design and the small shop has an artistic flair, with local original gifts as well as artwork and other items.

The shop is having its grand opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21. There will be food and drinks.

The shop’s normal hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and online all the time at cultivatefloral.com.