A year or so ago, Sarah Callahan, owner and operator of Flower Girl florist in Wellsboro, agreed to help with a fundraiser for a cheerleading competition at Wellsboro Area High School. Sure, she said, she could put together bouquets to sell. She figured on doing about thirty or forty. Over two hundred bouquets later…she smiles about it now.

“No matter how big or how small, I’ll help you out,” she says. Sarah, who grew up in Little Marsh, says that when she was in school she knew she wanted to do something with agriculture, but, short of going into farming, she wasn’t sure what that would be. She got an associate’s degree in floral design and interior plantscapes from Penn Tech, worked one summer for Martin’s Garden Center and Landscape Services in Middlebury Center, and then, in 2003, moved to North Carolina with her husband. Eighteen years later, the couple returned to Tioga County and moved into her husband’s grandmother’s house on Conway Street in Wellsboro. She’d been working for an event company in North Carolina, but, during covid, “all events just stopped.” She wasn’t out of work long, though. By the time they’d moved into the family home and remodeled (there was a lot of work to do in the house, she says), it was 2022, and, in February of that year, she was ready to open her own shop.

Sarah doesn’t have a greenhouse in the backyard. She is able to get some things locally and has a wholesaler who comes regularly from Bloomsburg (great name for a flower delivery service, right?). The delivery system is one that works well for her. Nick, the wholesaler, comes after hours. He has a key, lets himself in, fills her cooler with fresh flowers, and disappears into the night. She says she sometimes leaves him a snack or invites him to help himself to water or soda that’s in the cooler. At Christmas, when she left Nick holiday goodies, she says “I felt like I was leaving milk and cookies for Santa.”

It’s a perk of doing business in a small town.

“Here, it’s personal,” she says. She knows people, she can remember the last time she made something for them, and, since she knows the area, deliveries aren’t a logistical hitch for her. She’ll deliver within about an hour’s drive of her shop, which can take her to most of Tioga County, and says she’ll go a little further for weddings.

Sarah welcomes in-person consultations, but says it’s fine to talk flowers over video chat if needed, or make arrangements via Facebook Messenger (find her at Flower Girl Wellsboro on Facebook). She’ll ask about favorite flowers and favorite colors, but most people just tell her to make something pretty or seasonal. Her turn-around time is quick, but for weddings she says it’s nice to have a month or two, at least. Sarah offers classes occasionally, and hopes to do succulent classes on her porch when the weather warms up again.

Call her at (919) 818-1539 or drop her a line at [email protected] to get started.