King St. florist gears up for its 75th anniversary

It's been 75 years since Charleston Florist opened its doors at 184 King St., and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, the family-owned florist is in full bloom.

Lucille Styles opened Charleston Florist Feb. 3, 1933, with $300 and one employee. Her husband, Homer Styles, owned Palmetto Floral Nursery and provided all the flowers and plants for the shop.

With the business in its fourth generation of family ownership, Styles' great-granddaughter Kelly Hunt is gearing up for one of her busiest times of the year.

"Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are the two biggest holidays for us," Hunt said. "But we pull in all the troops to help."

In keeping with the family tradition, Hunt's two children, who are 18 and 22, work at the flower shop, and her parents come in to help during holidays.

Hunt recalls visiting her great-grandmother at the King Street floral boutique when she was a little girl, eventually becoming an employee while in high school and college, when her grandmother owned the shop. During that time, Hunt said, Charleston Florist was hired to do the floral arrangements for the 1981 wedding of Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on the soap opera "General Hospital."

Hunt's aunt took over the business next, until April 2002, when Hunt bought it from her.

The family florist has grown and blossomed significantly over the years, now employing at least seven designers and four delivery drivers, and wiring more than 3,000 orders worldwide every year.

Under Hunt's ownership, Charleston Florist arranged the flowers for "The View" when the popular daytime television show came through Charleston in 2003. Also, one of the shop's current designers worked on the floral arrangements for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while he was working in New York.

But some things never change.

"Valentine's Day is a big rose holiday — it always has been," Hunt said. "Women expect roses and nice flowers."

So that's what Hunt will be focusing on for the next couple of weeks, filling the growing heap of Valentine's Day orders that began budding weeks ago.

Once the day of love passes, Hunt said, she can begin planning the shop's 75th-anniversary celebration, which will take place sometime at the end of the month.

Reach Abi Nicholas at 937-5524.