When I first started selling at the market, I thought I understood why people buy flowers.
Because they’re beautiful.
Because they make a good gift.
Because they brighten a space.
I was wrong.
April — The First Week
I opened my table at Granville Island in April.
For the first few days, I mostly observed.
People would stop, lean in, touch the flowers, and take their time choosing.
And then, something unexpected happened.
Without me asking a single question, they began to tell me their stories.
I had never asked why they were buying.
They just told me.
“I Have a Flower Allergy”
One customer stood quietly in front of the table for a while before speaking.
She told me she loved flowers — but had never been able to keep them. She was allergic. So she had simply learned to live without them.
Then she picked one up, smiled, and said,
“I think I’ve finally found my answer.”
I paused.
I knew flower allergies existed. Of course I did.
But it had never occurred to me that those people could be my customers.
“I Can’t Have Fresh Flowers Because of My Cats”
Another customer mentioned she had cats.
Some fresh flowers are toxic to them, she explained, so she had never been able to keep flowers in her home. It wasn’t even a question anymore — she had just accepted it.
But these were different.
She chose one and said, almost with relief,
“This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
She had always wanted flowers in her space.
She just hadn’t had a way.
And that’s when something clicked for me.
I have three cats.
How had I never thought of this?
“I’m Going to Visit Someone in the Hospital”
There was also a customer who needed flowers for a hospital visit — but couldn’t bring fresh ones.
I hadn’t realized how many hospitals restrict them.
She still wanted to bring something. Something small, but meaningful.
She saw the felt flowers and chose one almost immediately.
It felt like another way of saying,
I was thinking of you.
“What Would a Five-Year-Old Do with Fresh Flowers?”
The one I remember most was a grandmother.
She was on her way to her granddaughter’s concert — a five-year-old.
She laughed as she picked out a flower and said,
“What would a child that age even do with fresh flowers?”
They would wilt before she even had time to understand them.
But a flower that stays —
that’s something a child can keep, hold, remember.
She chose one with a smile.
And she was right.
What I Didn’t Know
I had been so focused on one thing:
That these flowers don’t wilt.
That they last.
But what that actually means —
and who that matters to —
that was something my customers taught me.
In just that first week.
For the person who had given up on flowers because of allergies.
For the one who couldn’t keep them at home because of her cats.
For the one who wanted to bring comfort into a hospital room.
For the one who wanted to give a child something that would stay.
The reasons people needed these flowers
were so much wider than I had ever imagined.
And I’m still learning new ones,
every single week at the market.