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Blumen, Caasi – 2 businesses in a single store on Broadway

August 12, 2015   ·   0 Comments

As Orangeville becomes more well-known for its unique shopping experience, it’s no surprise that more interesting, niche-style stores are popping up in the downtown core.

With the variety of interests in things like arts, home decor, gardening, and more, Broadway is the perfect location for many of these hobbyists to shop.

In June, a new store unlike any other in Orangeville opened up, designed to meet gardening, antique and floral needs in the town. The store consists of two separate businesses – Blumen, a home and garden shop offering hand-crafted and vintage selections for indoors and outdoors, and Caasi Floral Design, a specialty shop which provides custom-designed fresh and silk flowers for all occasions, including weddings.

“Sue, Susan and I had spoken a few years back about the idea of opening a business together,” said Michele Edwards, owner of Caasi Floral Design. “It was a dream of ours. We had been looking at properties and trying to find the right spot. We shared the same vision, and when we saw this place in February, we knew it was right for us. It’s been a wonderful ride so far.”

Susan Feindell and Sue Edwards, the co-owners of Blumen, have been involved in the gardening market for a long time, and the shop has become an extension of sorts of their main business, which focuses on garden installation, design and maintenance.

“We really felt this was just a natural extension to that business,” explained Sue.

Susan added that one of the benefits to having both businesses in the same realm is that it provides them with the opportunity to be able to work at both.

“We can focus our work on Blumen on rainy days or during the winter,” she said. “The store is really an expression of how we decorate our own homes.”

For anyone who has a hobby in gardening, home decor, antiques or floral design, the store on Broadway is like walking into a dream. Bright colours, chalky colours, antique equipment, and all sorts of delightful items meet a rustic charm in the old building, with painted brick walls and a welcoming atmosphere.

Everything in the store is garden and floral-inspired, and in the coming year they hope to expand the gardening aspect by introducing bulbs in the fall and by next spring bringing in more small garden tools that people can use.

Sue says the shop “gives greater access to our garden clients, with more inventory, but it also gives us the opportunity to reach out to a newer and possibly different client base here. Creating this business together just had a natural synergy. It was serendipitous, and it really was the perfect timing. Everything just came together smoothly.”

Since opening in June, Blumen and Caasi Floral Design have seen a great response from the community, and a lot of positive feedback.

“Everyone has been so welcoming to us,” said Michele. “They love the feel of the place, and the atmosphere we have created.”

Susan added that 95 percent of the people who have come through the doors have used “lovely” to describe what they have built together.

So far, most of the customers and people through their doors that they have encountered have said they like having a flower and garden shop on Broadway. It’s easy to access, and provides a very different experience from the different floral and garden shops around Orangeville.

And that’s exactly what the three ladies hoped for.

“We aren’t looking to be in competition with other flower shops or garden centres locally,” explained Sue. “What we want is to offer something a little different, something a little more unique that doesn’t exist here currently.”

If there’s one aspect of their work together that they feel will help this venture be a success, it’s that they are completely passionate about everything they do at the shop, and spending a couple of minutes with them makes that abundantly clear.

For more information on Blumen/Caasi Floral Design check out the store at 151a Broadway, or contact them by phone at 519-940-4844.

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