Hartsfield does 'soul work' at Crown Heritage Flower Shop
Danielle Hartsfield owns Crown Heritage Flowers
By Lance Matzke
reporter@highlandsnews.com
In 2018, Danielle Hartsfield took over the Cosper Flowers. She had worked in the store for more than two years, learning how to create arrangements, place orders, and the ins-and-outs of running the business.
“I’m just a kid with a dream,” she said.
It was a dream that surprised everyone around her; a dream that surprised even herself.
“It was definitely something that came out of nowhere,” Hartsfield said. “Before this I was working in technology. I definitely did not consider myself creative whatsoever.”
Once she had made the decision to trade screens for greens there was no looking back.
“The change was a breath of fresh air – trading a stressful environment for something organic and freeing,” Hartsfield said. “It’s therapeutic. I see people celebrating their highs like a wedding or a graduation, and I see people when they’re dealing with something traumatic, like a funeral arrangement … it allows me to connect, to process and allows for that ‘soul work’ to happen.”
That connection and commitment to her customers is what Hartsfield said motivates her to make every arrangement a unique and beautiful expression befitting the occasion.
Like any creative individual, she said she is her own worst critic and holds herself to high standards, often recreating arrangements on her own time that she wasn’t quite content with. She has a mini production studio set up within the flower shop and sometimes these “second takes” are featured in a Youtube video tutorial.
Hartsfield said taking on the business brought many challenges and has made her life complex. As one of only two black business owners in Highlands, Hartsfield said, “I have definitely had times where I felt like I was on the outside looking in. Especially with everything that was going on in the world politically … socially … culturally over the last year.”
What’s more, she is also one of the youngest business owners in town.
“My friends my age who are the working class of Highlands look at me a little bit differently than they did before, because of the business, yet I still sometimes struggle to be taken seriously by some of the Highlands establishment,” Hartsfield said.
Then there was COVID-19, which shut her down only a few months after buying the business. However, she said she overcame her initial disappointment and used the time to redefine what she wanted from the business and what she wanted it to be for her customers. She painted and reconfigured, and is moving forward with a new business model based around working with clients to perfect the florals for their event and her own creatively crafted “Designer’s Choice” bouquets that are ready in-store.
“Thankfully we were able to re-open right before Mother’s Day,” Hartsfield said. “Local clients emerged and business flooded in. It was the locals that kept us afloat.”
This year she and her husband will welcome their first child, and with trademark optimism and industry she’ll soon be creating a nursery within the shop.
Crown Heritage Flower’s is located in the Bryson’s Plaza. Orders can be placed by phone or on their website Crownheritageflowers.com.