Periwinkle Flowers

In 2014 Jessica McEwen was preparing to relocate Periwinkle Flowers when she realized she had accumulated a lot of extra stuff in the flower shop.

“I had to decide what’s coming with me, what can I reuse, what has to get donated, and I just felt like there was so much waste,” Jessica recalls as she stands behind the counter at Periwinkle Flowers. “I wanted everything that I had in my store to have some sort of life behind it and not just be produced offshore somewhere. I wanted everything to have a story and some beauty to it.”

Once she'd moved to Mt. Pleasant Road in Midtown after 13 years on Avenue Road in North Toronto, Jessica began concentrating on carrying handmade and artisan giftware. Now she has things like screen-printed tea towels by local artist Avril Loreti to send out along with her fresh floral arrangements.

“If I can put flowers in it or put it around the flowers or with flowers I will,” Jessica explains.