Forget Me Not Flower Shop blooms in Bellville

BELLVILLE — Connie Homerick was determined to open a flower shop in Bellville by Valentine’s Day.

After a few hiccups, she succeeded.

Forget-Me-Not Flower Shop is open for business at 18 Mill Street in Bellville.

The journey to opening day was a bumpy one.

Homerick and her husband purchased Forget-Me-Not Flower Shop in Lexington on Jan. 1 with plans to open a second Bellville location a month later. They signed papers to rent a storefront on Main Street, only to find out a few weeks beforehand that it wouldn’t be ready in time. 

Homerick has already ordered buckets of flowers and secured extra staff for the Valentine’s rush. She and her manager Kim Schrack rushed to find another location.

The pair got the keys to 18 Mill Street on in early February. Schrack got to work painting and cleaning, then opened for business two days later.

Less than a week before Valentine’s Day, Schrack and another employee, Sue Van Dyke, were still unpacking boxes. The sign above the Bellville shop still displayed the name of the previous tenant, C.A.L.L. Boutique, which is relocating later this month.

Schrack’s husband Andrew was installing shelves, the sound of his electric screwdriver filled the shop.

But so did the scent of flowers. Purple daisies and red roses, pink carnations and violet wax flowers, white lilies and fuchsia-hued stock. A spray of black pussy willow harvested from Homerick’s farm sat in a vase near the check out counter.

“We’re really excited to go into Bellville,” Homerick said. “I’m a Clear Fork graduate. Kim’s lived in Bellville for 30-plus years.”

Both Forget-Me-Not locations are accepting orders for Valentine’s Day in-store and online. The Lexington shop has a Thursday deadline for Valentine’s Day deliveries.

“We get a lot of last minute walk-ins,” Homerick said. “A lot of Valentine’s Day is last minute because the guys forget.”

Bellville Forget-Me-Not owner, manager founded Lexington location in 2004

Schrack and Homerick both began their floral careers right out of high school.

Homerick’s first job was working alongside Schrack at Lexington Floral. Schrack was already an industry veteran at the time, with more than 20 years of experience.

When the shop’s owner, Larry Kiefer, retired in 2004, the two women purchased the business. They renamed it Forget-Me-Not Flower Shop and moved to its current location at 146 East Main Street in Lexington.

A few years later, Homerick sold Schrack her share of the business and began a career in healthcare. She stayed involved — lending a hand at the shop during peak floral holidays Valentine’s and Easter, doing freelance arrangements and growing her own cut flowers at home.

Schrack continued to run the shop.

“I truly believe flowers are an everyday luxury,” she said. “I don’t know what else I would want to do.”

After 16 years as a nurse, Homerick decided to return to the floral industry full-time. Meanwhile, Schrack was ready to sell Forget-Me-Not Lexington, but not ready to retire.

She and Van Dyke are running the Bellville shop while Homerick leads the Lexington storefront, mentoring the next generation of florists.

“There’s a new generation in the shop,” Homerick said, referring to a trio of 20-somethings arranging bouquets behind her.

“I’m the age now that Kim was when we originally opened (Forget-Me-Not).”

Small town flower shops focus on custom orders, locally grown blooms

Schrack said crafting the perfect bouquet isn’t about rigidly following floral design tradition. She prefers to lean into her own creative inspiration and what customers are telling her.

“You have to listen to customers and see what they want and read between the lines,” she said.

Over the years, she’s incorporated cowboy boots and rock-climbing equipment into funeral arrangements to help tell the story of who they were.

It’s really important to support small shops, especially if they in return support small farms.”

Connie Homerick, owner of Forget-Me-Not Flowers

Those custom touches are part of the reason the women say it’s worth skipping a big box store and visiting a local flower shop.

Homerick said local flower shops like Forget-Me-Not also tend to have higher quality arrangements, fresher flowers and may have certain flower types not available at major retailers.

She added that she and Schrack try to source locally-grown flowers whenever possible.

“Even though it’s very hard this time of year to get local blooms, we still try to purchase American grown,” she said. “It’s really important to support small shops, especially if they in return support small farms.”