A flower shop since 2014
About Tansy
A market stall that became a shop on Larkin Street. Still four people, one cooler, one delivery car and a lot of buckets.
The order desk, 8 a.m.
How it started
Rosa Pellerin started Tansy in 2014 with a folding table and twenty buckets at a Saturday market. People kept asking if she delivered. By 2017 there was a shop on Larkin Street, a walk-in cooler and a car with flowers painted on the doors.
We named it after tansy, a tough little yellow flower that grows wild along Maine roadsides. It isn't fancy. It lasts. That felt right.
We still make the first bouquet of the day before 8 a.m., and we still answer the phone ourselves.
- 2014 Our first Saturday market stall
- 4 Maine and New England farms we buy from in season
- 2 Weddings a weekend, at most
- 0 Wire services. Every order is ours
Three things we don't bend on
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01
Direct, never relayed
Every order is taken, made and delivered by us. We don't belong to a wire service, so nobody takes a cut and nobody across the country retypes your card message.
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02
The cutoff, in plain numbers
Same-day orders close at 1 p.m. on weekdays for the peninsula and earlier for towns further out. The fee for each zone is printed before you pay, not after.
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03
Honest about swaps
Flowers are seasonal. If a stem isn't good enough on the day, we swap it for one of the same color and value, and we call you first if the swap changes the look.
Straight answers
Where our flowers come from
From May to October, most of what's in the cooler comes from four small farms in Maine and New Hampshire. We pick it up twice a week.
From November to April, Maine is frozen. Most flowers then come from growers in Ecuador, Colombia and the Netherlands, through a wholesaler in Boston. Roses at Valentine's Day are not local, and no florist in Maine can honestly tell you they are.
Our wrap is paper and cotton ribbon, and our stems and trimmings go to a community compost on the edge of town.
The four of us
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Rosa Pellerin
Owner and lead designer
Started Tansy as a farmers' market stall in 2014. Still makes the first bouquet every morning.
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Theo Marchetti
Weddings and events
Plans every wedding we take, then sets it up on the day. Two a weekend, never more.
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June Okafor
Shop manager
Answers the phone, writes cards when you're stuck, and knows every funeral home in town.
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Sam Whitcomb
Delivery
Drives the afternoon run. Knows which porches get the sun and which neighbors take parcels.
Somebody deserves flowers today.
Order by 1 p.m. on a weekday and they go out on this afternoon's run. Not sure what to send? Call the shop and a real florist will help.