Flower business proves “life-giving” for Lily of the Valley florist
Andrea Patten started arranging and selling bouquets as Lily of the Valley Floral just for fun. But just a few months into the venture, she’s selling bouquets at a local grocery store regularly and has done special orders for holidays and events.
Patten told WTIP that she’s always enjoyed working with flowers, but never saw a flower business as an option. When Terra Bella Floral, Grand Marais’s long-running floral shop, closed, Patten said she knew she couldn’t jump right into a full-scale shop. But with encouragement from her husband, she decided to begin small.
In January, Patten ordered her first bulk delivery of flowers to experiment with. By February, she was hosting a pop-up Valentine’s Day event at the DMV with help from former Terra Bella owner, Sandi McQuatters. That pop-up led to becoming the flower supplier for Johnson’s Foods, and more arrangement for special events and holidays like Mother’s Day and the YMCA dance recital.
Though Patten is selling the flowers as a small business venture, she said the goal is to keep things light-hearted, and not lose the fun she has found in it.
“I’m the type of person who tends to be a hamster wheel type of person,” Patten said. “I just keep going on all the things I’m responsible for and things I need to get done. And so to really pause and take time to do something that involves beauty and creativity has just been really life-giving for me.”
Even the name Lily of the Valley Floral aims to capture the joy she feels in providing beautiful flowers to help people celebrate life events. She said the name was inspired by a gift from her husband of lily of the valley earrings, which included a card that explained the symbolic meaning of the flowers. According to Kate Greenway’s Language of Flowers, the lilies of the valley symbolize a “return of happiness.”
Patten kept the card that came with the earrings.
Patten said she is not sure at this time where the flower business might lead, but she isn’t in a rush to grow the business. “Big picture, maybe eventually I will be able to do more, but for the next while here, just kind of picking up things as we go,” she said.
As Patten navigates the early months of Lily of the Valley Floral, she offered a reminder to the community. She said, “Take time out of the busyness of life to enjoy life and all that you’ve been working for.”
WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke to Andrea Patten of Lily of the Valley Floral. Audio of that interview is below.
Kirsten Wisniewski May 16, 2026
