Since when has a "liquor" sign called customers to a floral and gift shop?.

Monday, January 15, 2001

Since when has a "liquor" sign called customers to a floral and gift shop?

Since Vicki Trimble opened The Hardy Geranium, that’s when.

On the weekend after Thanksgiving, Trimble carried on the entrepreneurial tradition of her family and opened her own business off of Oakland Avenue SE and Fourth Street SE, in the building where Century Liquor used to reside.

The building was once Peck’s Grocery in 1934. After that, it was a liquor store, changing owners a few times until finally it was Century Liquor. Century closed its doors between two and three years ago, Trimble said.

The outside of the building still holds a sign of the previous owner – letters spelling "liquors," which Trimble plans to keep intact until she can afford the three letters it will take for the sign to read "flowers."

"Women like it because it’s a cute antique; men think this is still a liquor store," she said, referring to the outside sign. That confusion is something she plans to play on for Father’s Day. She will offer a six pack of roses for wives to bring home to their husbands.

The location floods with heavy rainfall and the overflow of the river, so Trimble is hoping that the city does something besides buying properties.

Trimble said that the work needed to renovate the shop was extensive.

"The whole renovation was a family thing," she said.

Her son, Josh Godfredson, is a self-taught carpenter and handyman who built some items for the store, including a unique counter with cooler doors. He is father to her only grandchild, 4-year-old Hannah. Hannah is allowed to walk freely in the store, and Trimble carries that permission to her customers’ children.

"Kids should be allowed to go in anywhere," she said.

Trimble’s sister has sewed items for the shop and her brother created a garden bench out of an antique bed. Trimble said that her "sweetie," Curt Hanna, has given her a lot of support and help during the renovation as well.

Trimble, Hanna and her family tore the drop ceiling out and put in a new one. They tore up the carpet and found the original hardwood floors beneath. Old doors and screens decorate the inside, as well as an old stove Trimble found in Montana and transported back to Austin after a return trip to the state with her son.

Before the opening, Trimble’s sister-in-law and niece spent two days with her, pricing and setting out items for sale.

"My family backs me a lot," she said. High school student Emily Laack now helps Trimble part-time in the shop.

The Trimble tradition of owning a business goes way back. Trimble’s father and uncle started Trimble’s Cycle Center, and several other family members have started businesses as well.

Eighteen years ago, Trimble graduated with a accounting degree from Riverland Community College and worked as an office manager for many years. Last winter she took a course from Riverland which helped students to start their own businesses. Trimble was assigned to research the floral and gift industry and then was graded on the work she did.

"You’ve gotta do this and you’ll be profitable," her instructor told her. She took his advice and purchased a building she drove past every day that she left the home her grandmother used to own, which is now her own.

She knew that the building had a cooler, which would be perfect for flowers and the old feel of the building appealed to the antique lover in her.

"The response has been very good," Trimble said. She said that many customers have come from the east side of Austin, who are happy to have a gift store nearby their homes. "A lot of people just walk in the door. Maybe they need a rose for their wife or they just want to look."

Trimble’s shop is decorated with the same "Welcome to My Garden, Dahhling" air that is posted on a sign on the floral cooler. She is careful not to stock items available at other stores in town. The floral designs she uses are "not the FTD look." She receives shipments of fresh flowers every Tuesday and Thursday. She admits that she is a bit fearful about the amount of business she will be getting around Valentine’s Day. Trimble said that she would rather not have enough flowers than throw any away.

She stocks guaranteed sootless candles from Redwood Candle Co., which are made by a farm wife from Redwood Falls. This same woman makes the Trimble’s most popular seller – hand lotion in the form of a bar, which is activated by the warmth of the user’s hands.

Trimble carries goat’s milk soap and bath salts from a company called Pattie Lamb. Wreaths from California decorate the shop, alongside silk and dried arrangements she creates herself. She also carries items she can’t find for herself, including topiaries.

Other unique items include lamps with hats for shades, special spring vases and potpourri. One item, which combines figurines of a boy and a girl with a vase, is perfect for mothers or grandmothers for keeping the dandelions their children or grandchildren collect for them, she said.

She has continued to take classes in the Twin Cities at the Koehler and Dramm’s Institute of Floristry. Her instructor, Ardith Beveridge, is often featured on HGTV. To date she has taken a class called Sympathy and Celebration Design and hopes to take more in the future.

The Hardy Geranium is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Trimble said she will be in Austin running the shop until she retires: "I’m here for the duration."