Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 15th 2008, 8:55am By Elena Cala Buscarino

Ah, the smell of it. That's a first thought when one walks into Maureen's Wholesale Florist, a pleasure of sight and aroma in the heart of the city. Recently celebrating its 10th year on Ellicott Street in Downtown Buffalo, Maureen's is growing strong.

"I've worked here in the floral district for 27 years," owner Maureen Bartley said. She explained that a hundred years ago, the area she is in was a wholesale district, with the floral suppliers predominantly on Oak Street.

Bartley opened shop 10 years ago when the floral supplies distributor she worked for closed. "The man who bought six of these buildings at auction was a New Jersey developer who I'd known for 20 years because he was a florist supplier," Bartley said. "He told me I should start a flower shop and I said, 'Oh, sure.'" Then her landlord put a cooler in what Maureen described as "just a big cement building," and she was in business.

"I decided to create a different niche and supply wholesale flowers to the public. I opened up as a bucket shop, with prices on the buckets, a very friendly environment," Bartley said. It's not a new idea—they've done it in Europe for hundreds of years," Bartley explained.

When Bartley moved into her shop, the only other businesses on Ellicott were The Golden Swan, McClelland Small Animal Hospital and Buffalo Small Animal Veterinary Services.

And Maureen's opened in a vacuous building with boarded up windows she couldn't afford to replace for an entire year. Her daughter, Suzie, an English teacher in Portland, Oregon is also a very good artist, so she painted the building from end to end with flowers and made signs to put out on the sidewalk. There wasn't a lot of light inside, but the warmth of the paintings advertised well for Maureen's.

Along with big clients who bring regular business, Maureen says she gets a lot of walk-in traffic from the East and West Sides of town. She adds that the churches on the East Side are very particular when it comes to keeping their altars looking good with fresh flowers.

"People come in and know what they want these days," Bartley said. "The public is sophisticated through things like Martha Stewart and bridal magazines." As for availability, "Out of season is really not an issue. We get things from all different countries, and we're at the airport every day picking up shipments. And we've been very, very lucky; everyone here works so hard."

One other way people around town may know Maureen's name is through her son, Aaron Bartley of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH). "He was always a giving, bright, special person," Bartley says about her son, the activist. Schooled at Harvard Law, and devoted to community betterment, anyone in town would echo his mother's words.

With 34 (mostly part-time) employees between this location and a recently opened shop on Main Street in Williamsville, Maureen Bartley is doing her part to vitalize local economy. She's excited about the adjacent Genesee Block renovations and says, "I wish more people would open down here. I would love to see a dress shop and other things come in. It's such a great area."

Maureen's Buffalo Wholesale Florist
441 Ellicott Street
Buffalo, NY 14203
716.852.4600