Osborne Florist celebrates 50 years

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/12/2022 (1033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BY KELSEY JAMES

STAFF REPORTER

RIVERVIEW

Osborne Florist (565 Osborne St.) celebrated its 50th anniversary in October.

Oriana Marinelli took over the business around 2001, but she has lived in the area her whole life and frequented the flower shop as a child after she became friends with the daughters of the previous owner, Angie Loscerbo.

“She was well-known in the area and in the Italian community,” Marinelli said. “Angie was a business owner and a woman, and back in the ’70s nobody did that. She was somebody we recognized in the community, and any time we needed flowers we would come here.”

In 1999, after her father passed away, Marinelli reached out to Osborne Florist for help with funeral arrangements. While Marinelli had always had an interest in opening her own business, she never knew what she wanted to do or how she would do it. It was that experience with Osborne Florist that pushed Marinelli to take a flower course.

“I came and asked Angie, ‘Can I hang out here? I’m feeling really sad and flowers make me feel better,’” Marinelli said. “I started talking to her about it, and she offered to teach me everything she knew.”

Under Loscerbo’s mentorship, Marinelli learned the tricks of the flower trade. A couple years later, when Loscerbo decided to sell the business, Marinelli purchased the flower shop.

“It’s an art, and it’s not easy,” Marinelli said. “You have to learn how to deal with fresh flowers, design containers and vases … what lasts and doesn’t, how you can manipulate a flower. A lot of it is talking to your customers and trying to interpret whatever they’re saying into the design. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

To mark its 50 years, Osborne Florist has been doing giveaways and proudly marks the milestone with a large outdoor sign.

“The fact that I was born and raised in the area, and so was Angie, is kind of cool,” Marinelli said.

It can be a difficult line of work, too. While Marinelli and the Osborne Florist team are a part of their client’s celebratory moments, they’re also involved with the difficult ones.

“There’s tears on the phone sometimes,” Marinelli said. “You can deal with one person on one call whose getting engaged, and the person on the next call can have a different emotion.”

For more information, visit www.osborneflorists.com