New Flower Shop Opens Doors in CdM
Posted on August 8th, 2009 by Corona del Mar Today Staff

Corona del Mar’s newest business opened its doors for the first time at 10 a.m. today, immediately selling dozens and dozens of long-stem roses at wholesale prices.
Fred and Ingrid Kassman opened the shop, Natural Floral 1 800 Rose Big, as part of a larger business of importing flowers from South America and selling them to retail shops. The Corona del Mar shop at 3800 Pacific Coast Highway lets retail customers buy the roses at discounted prices — $9.99 for a dozen roses or $39.99 for 50 roses. The Kassmans carry more than 300 rose varieties, all flown in daily from Ingrid Kassman’s family of rose farmers in Ecuador. (Fred’s mother, Natalie Kassman, is a botanist and famous for being “The Plant Lady” of Great Neck, N.Y., and Ingrid grew up in an extended family of rose farmers. They met four years ago on an Internet dating site and immediately knew they were meant to be together, bound by their flower family backgrounds.)
The couple moved to Newport Beach last September following a vacation from their home in Miami.
“Within two days, we decided to move here,” Ingrid said. They returned home and immediately began taking steps to shut down the Miami flower business and move it to Orange County. Then they rented a truck and drove across country.
“We felt like we were the Beverly Hillbillies,” Fred said. “We loaded the truck with our two rescue dogs and all our stuff and moved to California.”
They currently have about 50 retail shop customers, but they hope to build the number closer to the 126 they had in Florida, they said. They hope to build a wedding business, and they will offer delivery service. Fred said he’s considering holding seminars about roses — his favorites are white vendellas because “they smell like Chanel No. 5.”

By mid-afternoon, the vendellas also were sold out. Their first day in business in Corona del Mar, they said, was off to a great start.
“We’ve had 25 customers and given away 500 flowers,” Fred said. The sales came within hours of their first flowers arriving, and a week before they will install their glass walk-in cooler.
Their first customer was Dana Flood of Corona del Mar. “We bought long stem yellow roses with pink tips,” she said. “With them so close by, I hope I’ll get roses all the time.”

 http://www.coronadelmartoday.com/cdm-business-news/new-flower-shop-opens-doors-in-cdm/