Hometown bloom: Floral shop marks 20th year in community

Its colors and aroma are rooted deep in McKinney. Twenty years deep.

And that's just the shop.

Edwards Floral Design has served the city and surrounding area for two decades. Its owner, Stacy Edwards, wouldn't have it any other way.

"I was born and raised in McKinney, so it's just natural to be here," Edwards said. "I'm not thinking about doing anything other than staying."

She's thought that way since 1992, when at age 27, she opened the shop along U.S. Highway 380 on the city's east side. The next in a long family line of small business owners, Edwards was fairly new to the floral realm, but seasoned in entrepreneurship.

"I was never pushed or pressured, it was just something I knew I wanted to do," she said. "Ignorance is bliss in youth, I guess, because once I decided to do it, I never considered it not being successful."

Long before her flowers, designs and decorations blossomed on its soil, Edwards' love for McKinney was in full bloom. She grew up through McKinney ISD, attending East Ward (now J.W. Webb Elementary), Caldwell Junior High (now Caldwell Elementary), then McKinney High School (home to Faubion Middle School).

Buildings have new names, floral trends continue to evolve, but it's home.

"That just donned on me the other day," she said. "Every school I went to is still here, but it's changed."

Edwards' parents remain in McKinney. Her sister, Linda James, opened her own business, McKinney-based employment agency Quality Personnel, about six months before the floral shop.

And Edwards' husband, a partner for a Dallas architectural firm, was with her every step of the way, albeit just as friends until after high school. They married and lived in Lubbock in the 1980s before returning to the area.

Her floral interest was sparked shortly before, when she worked part-time at a Plano flower shop. Several family-run shops and a Texas Master Florist-certification later, Edwards was managing the floral accounts for the Rosewood Mansion and Rosewood Crescent hotels in Dallas.

Her itch to grow her own business sprouted less than two years later, with her father-in-law's technical support. So became Edwards Floral Design, in a 1,500-square-foot lease near McDonald Street.

"When we first opened, he and I would come to work, I would answer the phone and take orders, make the orders, and he would deliver them and bill them," she recalled. "I don't think it went more than six months before we had to get some help."

Her staff's since grown to 10 members, many also lifelong McKinneyites. With daily fresh-flower and product deliveries from the World Trade Center in Dallas, the shop runs on quality, convenient customer service, often fulfilling same-day requests.

Birthdays, weddings, funerals, corporate Christmas parties -- anything that lends itself to a dazzling bouquet -- call on Edwards. Flowers come from growers around the world, including long-stemmed, large-headed Ecuadorian roses.

Hand-painted wine glasses, jewelry boxes and collegiate spirit wares spruce around floral displays within the front room of the 3,100-square-foot shop off Louisiana Street near Central Expressway, transformed from a Braum's in 2006.

"If they were on 380, they weren't really coming to shop; they were just passing by," Edwards said of the shop's original, 14-year spot. "That was a great location for us for a lot of years, but nothing like being over here."

Harsh economic times have hit, but Edwards Floral's petals haven't withered. Other entrenched floral shops in Dallas weren't as fortunate, with even generational stores closing down, Edwards said.

Edwards Floral has adapted. It's become a one-stop shop for husbands with last-minute anniversary demands. Gift-wrapped flower vases and the shop's trademark logo -- blazoned on delivery vehicles and product ribbons -- reach out to a community it already knows so well.

"Everything is just more," Edwards said of the shop's 20-year evolution. "And it's all tied into the same look."

What started as a depot for silk flower arrangements and wedding rental props has kept up with the growth and times. Using social media like Facebook and an online blog, the shop maintains its relevance, perpetuates its name.

It's a hometown name, spelled out with roots that grow deeper every year.

"You could talk all day about different things that have evolved and aren't needed anymore," Edwards said. "I think flowers are pretty safe on that."

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