Flower shop grows, opens second Camas location

Mystic Gardens will hold grand opening July 15

By Dawn Feldhaus
July 6, 2017 10:30 am
Business

Leslie Rick, owner of the Camas-based Mystic Gardens florist shop, prepares a bouquet for a preschool graduate. Rick recently expanded her business to include a second location at 1924 N.E. Third Ave. Mystic Gardens also has flowers available to purchase from a stand in the Camas Produce parking lot at 2940 N.E. Everett St.

A local floral business that has sold flowers outside Camas Produce for about nine months is expanding to include a storefront, also in Camas.

Mystic Gardens has blooms in a colorful array of yellows, purples, pinks and other pastels and bright hues. There are roses, daisies, carnations, lilies, peonies, sunflowers and poms.

Mystic Gardens’ owner Leslie Rick, a Camas-Washougal native, sells bouquets and individual flowers from a stand in the Camas Produce parking lot at 2940 N.E. Everett St.

Rick purchases her flowers from floral wholesalers in Portland and Vancouver.

Her best friend, Tim Carroll, assists with selling and arranging the flowers, and is in charge of the shop’s flower-dyeing lab.

“We cater to colors, whether it be dying or painting,” Rick explains.

The new Mystic Gardens storefront is located at 1924 N.E. Third Ave., Camas., at the former site of Groff’s Grab and Go! market and Big Lou’s Texas BBQ. A grand opening celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, July 15.

Rick said weather dictates when she can open her stand in the Camas Produce parking lot, but the new location will enable Mystic Gardens to be open during any kind of weather.

“We needed somewhere where we could be without shutting down for months at a time due to weather,” Rick said regarding the new shop. “Flowers don’t like to be frozen or melted. … Being outside is unpredictable because of Mother Nature. That’s why the shop is so important — to maintain our stability and capability to help our customers and the community.”

Rick — who has been called a mystic most of her life because of how she connects with people — started her florist career in the 1990s and spent more than 20 years helping her ex-husband’s aunt at a floral stand after graduating from Washougal High School in 1985.

Describing her business as “a people’s florist,” Rick says Mystic Gardens provides flowers for weddings, dances, banquets and other special occasions, but that the floral shop also helps connect her to her community.

“There are no words to explain the feeling when a child is able to buy a flower for their mom, sister, grandparent or teacher — that smile that they get melts our hearts,” she says. “Or when high schoolers can show spirit … it lets us know we are doing what we’re supposed to.”

Both Mystic Gardens locations are open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and by appointment on Sundays. Deliveries are available upon request.

For more information, call 360-210-4694, email info@mysticgardens.biz or visit www.mysticgardens.biz.

Related Stories