04/29/2021
Dear flower friends,
It is the end of an era. The time has come sadly to say a permanent goodbye to our beloved, wonderful Windflower. Little did we know last March when we closed at Nesters to flatten the curve, that it would be for the last time.
This year has been a rollercoaster for sure, for us and for so many of you. While I have felt gratitude for the intrinsic blessings that have gone along with a shift to a more insular existence and the opportunity to dial it all back, the challenges of this past year have unfolded. We’ve watched the pandemic play havoc with many industries, the flower industry being no exception. With each and every hopeful attempt to reinvent ourselves as time went by, it looked a little less hopeful. While our good friends at Nesters have been diligently waiting for PHO guidelines to allow for our return, the reality somehow became further away rather than closer. At Garibaldi Village (our LD location) the high year-round lease we paid for our six-month operation left our hands tied.
It has been twelve years since I began the process of nailing down a business plan and jumping hurdles to bring Windflower to life. Back then the climate for a small florist blossoming into the world looked promising and exciting. Since that time, many elements have changed; including prices for the amazing, locally grown flowers which have been the foundation our business, which have steeply inflated year-over-year. Costs associated with growing flowers have climbed and the industry and global market has shifted. Recently, I heard a comparison that was made to the lumber industry, where the cost of building materials has also skyrocketed to shocking heights. This pandemic-time has now completely tipped the scale and put the flower industry into crisis. By all accounts, there appears to be no end in sight.
What we will walk away remembering, though, will be so much more than these challenges.
Windflower was SO SPECIAL. It was a gathering place; a place where incredible flowers drew everyone in. It fostered friendship, togetherness, and community amongst the blooms. It had a special heartbeat all its own, giving and sharing beauty, love and joy with the community every day. It carried wonderful people along for the journey, staff and customers alike. Countless wonderful friendships and rewarding business relationships were sparked there and built through flowers. I like to think it also inadvertently helped create a culture of thoughtfulness around our town, helping to normalize the giving of flowers as an everyday gesture – something which I hope will prevail even in the absence of our convenient little bouquets. Creating all this and managing Windflower gave me the opportunity to lead with a caring, supportive heart, to teach a skill and share my creative spirit with the many terrific people I was fortunate to employ - and to navigate it all with passion, determination, and resilient spirit. There has been another little human alongside me every step of the way that has spent his full ten years of life in-and-around the daily operations at Windflower and has learned and grown with a similar conviction right alongside his mama. I will not be the only one with a sorrowful heart, saying goodbye.
Thank you, Squamish friends, for all the years of support and fun. We have loved, absolutely loved, sharing our flowers with you!
It is with those same values of love, openness, and deep care for creating a meaningful, positive impact on the lives around me, that I look ahead. The direction of the next chapter is yet to unfold, but surely carrying forward the essence of Windflower will lead to marvelous places. See you along the way!
With gratitude and from the heart,
Jill Beardmore
Owner, Windflower
