Julia Testa's two florist locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn have remained busy through the entire pandemic.
"Being a florist is an interesting career choice because you get to be part of people's emotional moments, their highs and lows,” said Testa, the owner and lead designer of both shops. “We know when the city is sad. We know, during COVID, when people were sending each other get well arrangements.”
She started her business during 2008, a challenging time through the recession. But it was her drive that had her hit the ground running ever since. "My parents basement, I would work out of my apartment, I would go door to door," Testa said. Now, she's battling delays in shipments that have slowed down deliveries.
"It has been unusually cold in both South America and in Europe and it has been challenging to get some types of flowers," Testa said.
Her advice for getting flowers for mom? She said it is all about the the timing. "The longer you wait the less products are gong to be available because people have been pre-ordering and using online," Testa said.
Aside from Mother's Day, Testa is expecting a surge of orders this fall.
"It's going to be twice as many weddings there would have been per weekend because of the reschedules and then you have corporate that had all of these budgets and marketing dollars and PR campaigns, all these things in the pandemic and they were never properly celebrated," Testa said.
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