The Power of a Flower

In South Minneapolis, a pinstripe awning reads “Flowers” in bold white letters. The quaint brick-and-mortar shop is home to Floral Art by Tim, owned and operated by Twin Cities native Tim Boken. Boken boasts upwards of 25 years of experience with designs that are distinct from impersonal online retailers. Every arrangement that leaves Floral Art by Tim is from the heart.

The shop’s flower cooler dazzles with bright roses, tulips, hydrangeas, carnations and blossoms of every color. Many of the roses were in full bloom, petals stretching outward in spirals of velvet. Grocery store displays pale in comparison to Boken’s selection, with colors more vivid and petals so perfect they almost seem artificial.

Boken’s selection is curated to include only the utmost quality flowers. Multiple times a week, sometimes even daily, Boken makes his way to a temperature-controlled warehouse where pallets upon pallets of fresh flowers are stored. Boken considers the floral wholesaler his happy place, despite the frigid air.

“I’m very hands-on,” Boken explains. “I like to see what I’m buying.”

In going to the warehouse instead of ordering online, the designer can find the best the wholesaler has to offer, working within a color palette rather than a predetermined arrangement. His method lets him construct his work with the highest quality flowers instead of trying to make do with a flower that is not up to standard.

“Whenever I’m designing, I let the flowers I pull speak to me,” says Boken, emphasizing that each arrangement is singular and cannot be replicated. “When I pull out a dozen roses, sometimes they’ll be stick straight, sometimes there are bends in them. I work with that.”

But Boken didn’t start as a designer.

More than two decades ago, Boken was working as a flight attendant when a friend invited him to work as a driver. He delivered flowers, watched the designers work and began shaping a creative voice of his own.

“I started putzing around with them, and it went from there,” Boken says.

Since then, floristry has been Boken’s means for self-expression and connection. Floral Art by Tim is “creating floral art from the heart,” as per the business’s catchy slogan.

Florists play a quiet role in some of the most precious moments of our lives, bookending the beginning of a life or the end of one. Boken infuses the utmost intention into developing his designs.

Celebration-of-life work is fulfilling for Boken; his arrangements take care to honor the family and the deceased.

“I try to search through the obituary, to try to get to know the person who has passed,” Boken says. “It’s a visual for the family, and it’s the fragrance. It gets people to talk. When people call me up afterward, after they’ve been through something horrific, it is one of the greatest compliments.”

The phrase he dreads most? “In lieu of flowers.”

“People say, ‘I don’t want flowers, because they’re just gonna die,’” Boken explains. “Everything has a timeline. … You enjoy them while they’re with you.”

When his parents passed away, Boken channeled his grief into a spray of bright flowers for each of them — a final gesture of love. He honored his mother’s request: carnations. A shared favorite between them, the flower is often overlooked for its plainness, but they knew better. Carnations are known for their longevity and fragrance.

Flowers are woven into the fabric of Boken’s family, spanning three generations. Sometimes his daughter comes along to the flower warehouse. She heads straight for the stock, plants her face deep in the blooms and inhales deeply.

“She’s my right hand — and my left,” Boken says, with a soft, sentimental smile.

When his mom was alive, she would help out around the shop.

“If something broke off, she would start making a little vase,” he remembers affectionately. She would always insist that he might use the discarded flowers later. “I would take all these bits and pieces and make something for her.”

When his daughter got married, Boken didn’t have a shop at the time, but after being a part of so many others’ life events, Boken, of course, had to make his own daughter’s floral arrangement. Boken worked out of his basement.

“The fact that I made her bouquet was really special to me,” Boken says. “As a dad, not only being able to see her first look, but being able to pass off her bouquet was really neat.”

Now, Boken’s daughter has her own children who come into the shop. At just 11 years old, Boken’s grandson insists upon making his own creations.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, people seek Boken out, knowing his shop is a safe haven. Boken is a seasoned florist with more than two decades of experience, and he was working in the industry long before queer people were accepted in the mainstream. Boken reflected upon the cultural shift in the last five to 10 years. Now, Floral Art by Tim is outfitting young queer couples with boutonnieres and corsages, and they’re going to mainstream prom.

Boken recalled a particularly special moment when a mom reached out with a last-minute request:

“There’s somebody going to prom for the first time as a girl, and their parents weren’t supportive, so I need to get a corsage. They had prom just like everybody else.”

Boken’s flowers are fleetingly beautiful, but the heartfelt memories they hold remain steadfast long after their petals wilt and fall away.

Floral Art by Tim
4751 Chicago Ave.
Minneapolis, Minn. 55407
(612) 824-4526
www.floralartbytim.com