Family owned and operated tradition continues at Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop

DEXTER — For more than eight decades, Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop has proudly served the Dexter community from its Garland Road (Route 94) location, with a tradition of being family-owned and operated.

After being closed for several years, Susan Laferriere reopened Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop in 2015 along with her husband Mike.

“I started here in high school as a delivery driver and helping with the greenhouse,” Laferriere said about this time in the mid-1980s. “Then I worked a while here and we moved away. The shop closed and we moved back and opened it back up. It’s come full circle for us.”

Laferriere said she worked at both Chapel Hill Floral and Lougee & Frederick’s Florist in Bangor while she and Mike lived closer to his job at a power plant in Veazie. She said they moved back to be closer to family and to open the shop back up.

“My husband Mike and I own it,” she said. “He works out of town but he helps nights, weekends, holidays, whenever we need him.”

Susan and Mike Laferriere are the third owners of Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop. Charlotte Webber began and ran it for about 50 years until her retirement in 1972. (http://obits.abbott-library.com/readobit.php?obitid=3236). Carmen and Roger Nelson then bought the business and owned it until the Laferrieres reopened it seven years ago.

“Depending on the time of year, it could be anywhere from six to 10 people,” Laferriere said about the number of employees which can include a lot of family and friends helping out. She said additional assistance comes around holidays such as making deliveries, assisting with hands-on work, helping at the counter, and in the greenhouse from around Mother’s Day weekend to the end of June.

Laferriere said Valentine’s Day is always busy, as is the week of Mother’s Day and the month of December with Christmas and the holidays. Hours are extended at these times of the year.

She said she hopes to hold a Christmas open house after having not had such an event during COVID-19 that will include door prizes and giveaways in addition to the extended hours.

“We service up to 14 towns in the area, quite a few places,” Laferriere said, with nationwide delivery available through their reliable florist network. “We actually have gone to a few others if something has come up, a wedding somewhere or a big funeral. We will accommodate people when we can. We are a small shop but we try to be as accommodating as possible.”

Laferriere said she enjoys “being able to create my own ideas, add whatever we want to.” She said if Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop patrons have an idea they would like to try then this can be done as arrangements and floral gifts are all hand-crafted in house with passion, attention to detail  and great care. 

Floral arrangements can be picked out on the business website and flowers can be ordered online through a convenient and secure checkout page.

Gift items have been added to the flower and plant inventory as Laferriere said she tries to support other area businesses. 

“We’ve got local wines, Stonewall Kitchen, more gift items,” she said. “People don’t feel they have to go to Bangor to get a gift. They can stay as local as possible.”

Flowers come to Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop several times a week from wholesalers based in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Derry, New Hampshire, both of whom Laferriere said are great to work with.

She said the greenhouses are used for annuals and vegetables.

“We do a lot of hanging baskets, the planters, a lot for Memorial Day at cemeteries,” she said.

Laferriere said there are other greenhouses in the area she would recommend for those seeking perennials.

The couple has added a second greenhouse across the Garland Road.

“We just redid the whole outside of the shop, gave it a facelift and painted,” Laferriere said, with the building having been a gray color for a number of years.

She said a few years ago a grandmother brought her grandson in. The child pointed out that they were not at what he thought a greenhouse would be as the exterior was a different color. Laferriere said this cemented the decision on what color to paint the building when the time came.

Spring Street Greenhouse & Floral Shop is located at 325 Garland Road in Dexter, near the intersection of routes 94 and 7. The establishment is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

For information, call 207-924-2161, go to https://www.springstreetdexter.com/ or find “Spring Street Greenhouse” on Facebook.