Not far off five decades of floral finesse

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This article was published 14/12/2015 (3615 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What Jim Fuller doesn’t know about flower arranging isn’t worth knowing.  

At the end of the month, the longtime owner of Top Hat Florists (569 St. Mary’s Rd.) will celebrate the start of his 50th year in business. Having acquired the shop from previous owner Kirk Stanley, Fuller first opened the doors under his stewardship on Dec. 28, 1966 — and he hasn’t looked back since.

Various ideas about how to mark the monumental occasion have been touted by family and friends. Fuller said there could be various anniversary events spread across 2016, as there won’t be much time for celebrating while his team gears up for the insanely busy holiday period.

“By Dec. 28, me and the whole family will be totally wiped,” Fuller said.

And despite the extra demands the festive crush brings, the 71-year-old would rather be bustling and busy than bored and sat twiddling his green thumbs.

“At this time of year, when you start working 18 hours a day, you sometimes think ‘oh my God, it’s overwhelming.’ In those situations, I can’t go home until it’s all done, but I still love the floral industry,” Fuller said.

As well as his love of flowers, Fuller said his passion for people is another reason he keeps coming to work every day, especially when there are opportunities to make small acts of kindness mean a lot.

“I find, too, that this is the time for giving. For example, there was a lady that received some flowers for her next door neighbour and she told the delivery driver that she knew they weren’t for her because nobody ever buys her flowers. She doesn’t know it yet, but we’re giving her some for Christmas because she deserves that kindness,” Fuller said.

“I love people and I think my customers are aware of that. We very rarely get complaints. It’s about 1 in 100 and when that happens, I tell my customers to automatically replace the item. That’s very, very important to me. The customer is always right. It’s as simple as that.”

He said the highlight of his long career was making bouquets that were held by Her Majesty on her last two visits to Winnipeg. At least, photographic evidence suggests it to be two separate visits. Fuller “can’t say too much,” because of royal protocol.

“The greatest pleasure I’ve had was being asked to do bouquets for the Queen. That, I think, is the highlight of all my years. Today, I still do accompaniments for the lieutenant-governor, which is quite an honour, too,” he said.

Fuller has also seen some changes in market trends and industry techniques in the last five decades.

“Back then, we knew less about to take care of tulips and daffodils. Now we know that daffodils secrete a poison in the water that kills all other flowers. So now we know if we’re going to mix with daffodils not to cut the bottoms off the daffodils,” Fuller said.

While Fuller isn’t planning on continuing in business indefinitely, he said he won’t be retiring just yet.

“I figure I’ve got a couple of years left,” he said with a smile. 

    
For more information, go online at www.tophatflorist.net or call 204-233-2426.

simon.fuller@canstarnews.com

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