Karen Halverson, manager of Lougheed’s Flowers, is celebrating her 50th Mother’s Day as the flower queen of Sudbury, and the thing she said she loves most about her work is the ability to say so much to another, when perhaps words are failing you.
“In a matter of seconds, flowers can express emotions that most of us have a hard time conveying with words,” Halverson told Sudbury.com. “I have witnessed it time and time again.”
And whether those emotions are the joy of a new baby, graduation or even expressing love, or on the other side, the grief of losing a loved one, flowers will always know the right thing to say, she said.
Halverson began working part time at Lougheed’s Flowers when she was a student at Marymount College.
“I didn't know what I was going to do for a living, like most high school students.” Halverson said she knew she wanted to continue her education, but wasn’t sure what to study, and the part time job sparked a life-long interest in flowers. She said she found the best program she could at the time, the Humber College Retail Floriculture Program. A two year program, Halverson doubled up on her classes, completing it in one year, while also working at Lougheed’s on the weekends.
There have been many changes through the years, said Halverson, from more formal arrangements to now casual “cottage garden” styles, but Halverson said the biggest is the knowledge base of modern customers.
“What was popular 50 years ago, or 40 years or 30 years ago, it's different now,” said Halverson, and that’s not just the formality of the arrangements but the flowers themselves. for instance, Gerber daisies,” she said. “When I first started, we never even heard of them. Now, they're kind of very common, almost like a carnation.”
As for Mother’s Day, and the many flower-worthy events that happen through the year, Halverson said preparation starts much, much sooner. Between ordering containers, ribbons and packing boxes, all of which needs to be done months in advance, not to mention ordering the blooms — and getting them in time to keep them fresh and fragrant.
But there is also a piece of advice she learned from Marguerite Lougheed, who founded the flower shop with husband Gerry Sr.
“After a busy time, she instilled in me that we would always write a synopsis of the day,” Halverson said. It meant she could read her notes from the year before.
On Mother's Day, 2023, I would read 2022 and see what notes are in there, do this, or get more of this, she said. “You learn every year, little tips and tricks that help. It's always a work in progress.”
And through it all, it’s the creative process that keeps Halverson in floral design, with no sign of stopping anytime soon, she said.
I enjoy the immediacy of this creative process,” she said. “You have to produce something meaningful, cost effective, creative and stylistically-sound in a very short time frame, sometimes minutes.”
She also loves being able to put together a funeral arrangement, allowing her to put something together that “truly represents the bereaved family’s thoughts and feelings.”
And if you’d like to someday get flowers for Halverson, think roses or tulips.
“It’s a pretty common favourite flower, but really, roses are pretty fantastic,” she said.
Also pretty fantastic, for Halverson, are what flowers, and her life’s work, convey.
“Whether it is joy, anticipation, celebration, appreciation, pride, love or sorrow, flowers provide the perfect conduit to express these messages … and I’m glad to be a part of that.”
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com.
