The Strip’s floral industry contains a range of florists, including a recently established sophisticated floral company, a family-owned business passed down through generations, and a wholesaler supplying flowers to those two and many other businesses throughout the region. The three companies share a common focus on all things floral, but still play individual roles within the floral marketplace and within the neighborhood of the Strip. The owners of these businesses — Hens and Chicks, Blumengarten, and Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company – all point to their location in the Strip District as an integral part of their operations.

Hens and Chicks is the newest of the floral businesses. Started in Shadyside in 2011, the company moved to the 2700 block of Penn Avenue in 2014 into a space that features a sleek aesthetic with appropriate green flourishes. While the front of Hens and Chicks serves as a storefront and space for meeting clients, the rest of the building provides a large work and prep area.
 
Nathan McCarthy, co-owner of Hens and Chicks with Thomas Cabral, explains how space was one of the catalysts for the move from Shadyside.
 
“We realized that it was important to have good visibility in an established neighborhood like Shadyside to start our business,” McCarthy says. “However, as our business grew, it became increasingly important to have a larger work space, as well as be much closer to our suppliers in the Strip.”
 
In addition to the availability of space, McCarthy says the Strip is a great location for Hens and Chicks because of the proximity to flower wholesalers and the easy access to Downtown.
 
“Deliveries to Downtown, which previously would take 30 minutes round-trip, are now a matter of a few minutes,” McCarthy says.
 
The new location for Hens and Chicks has been key to increasing productivity for the business, which is becoming the go-to florist for weddings and events needing a conceptual approach.
 
“Our clients come to us not just for centerpieces and décor but also rely on us to collaborate in conceptualizing their events and designing the room or event space from start to finish,” McCarthy says.
 
Jim Ludwig’s Blumengarten
Around the block from Hens and Chicks is a flower shop with a longer history in the Strip and an even lengthier history in Pittsburgh. Blumengarten is a family-owned business with origins that reach back to the 19th century, when owner Jim Ludwig’s great-grandfather started the business in Allegheny City, now the North Side of Pittsburgh. Although there was a small break in the ownership of the business, the current iteration of Blumengarten has been in operation since 1929.
 
Given the long trajectory of the business, Ludwig is especially proud that he will be handing down Blumengarten to his son.
 
 “I’m very happy to see that my son will be taking over from me and will be the fifth generation of Ludwigs in this business,” Ludwig says.
 
Even though Blumengarten spent 70 years in the Koppers building Downtown (with a few suburban outposts), Ludwig is very happy with the current location in the Strip, where the business has been since the late 1990s.
 
“We wanted to have a free-standing facility that we could own,” Ludwig says of the original impetus for the move to the Strip District. While Blumengarten’s previous locations offered the benefit of more foot traffic, Ludwig said the company now does more than 95 percent of its business over the Internet or phone.
 
Despite the loss of impulse sales, the Strip District offers Blumengarten benefits including building ownership, space to create and store designs, and proximity to incoming flower arrivals.
 
Blumengarten is among the largest florists in Pittsburgh, which allows the company to buy direct from flower brokers and from wholesalers. The business designs flowers for special events as well as individual orders for holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and other occasions. Ludwig said that Blumengarten provided flowers for weddings every weekend between March and November 2014.
 
Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company
A wholesale distribution business, Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company supplies flowers to places like Blumengarten and Hens and Chicks, but does not sell directly to consumers.
 
Bob Luthultz, President of Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company, says that the key to his business is logistics; he needs to coordinate shipments of flowers in connection to the needs of his retailers. This includes getting the majority of his flowers imported into Pittsburgh. Most of the flowers are grown in South America and shipped to Miami the day they are cut. Once in Miami, the flowers must pass customs and then are shipped on a refrigerated truck to Pittsburgh. From there, the staff of Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company is charged with distributing the flowers to various other businesses.
 
Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company is a large part of the history of the neighborhood and has been a fixture since 1950. When Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company moved to the Strip in the mid-20^th century, the Strip almost exclusively housed terminals for the arrival and distribution of perishable goods. While the Strip still serves the purpose of a terminal for wholesalers like his, Luthultz says the neighborhood overall has really changed in the last 50 years.
 
The changing Strip
In the last few years, the Strip District has grown in surprising ways, most notably its emergence as a residential neighborhood. The flower proprietors have noticed and welcomed the Strip’s change in residential status.
 
While McCarthy points to the ongoing construction in the area as one of the biggest changes, both Luthultz and Ludwig mention the increase in foot traffic. Ludwig says that Blumengarten’s current location at 2650 Penn Ave. gets less foot traffic than previous locations, but he noted that the walking area is expanding out from the Strip toward the 2600 block.
 
Luthultz offers that he has also seen pedestrian traffic increase recently, and he enjoys the changing atmosphere of the neighborhood. He is aware of more people out at lunchtime during the workweek and finds it exciting to be working in a vibrant part of the city.
 
All of these business owners point to the Strip as being a significant part of their businesses. When asked about the downside to being located in the Strip, none of the business owners could come up with very many. While parking is starting to be a little more difficult, they said they are all pleased to a part of a lively neighborhood like the Strip District.