Beach Plum Floral

Jill Landry lives in a world full of color.

All year long, she’s surrounded by orange birds of paradise, white baby’s breath, red roses and yellow carnations. It feels natural for her, she says, to build a life around nature, creativity and blooms.

“I grew up on a farm and come from a family of gardeners. I started growing flowers on my own and playing with designing what I grew,” she said. “I really fell in love with it naturally.”

Landry is celebrating the 10th year of Beach Plum Floral, the event florist she runs in Marshfield. What started as a front yard hobby has evolved into a flourishing business with 11 employees in the busiest season, which runs from June to September. Beach Plum specializes in floral installations and statement pieces for weddings and other events.

“It’s a far cry from just centerpieces on a table,” she says of her work. “We have a very garden-ish style, it’s very lush and organic. We love to support local farms and growers, so anything seasonal we absolutely love.”

Her work isn’t for everybody, Landry admits, and the floral designs by Beach Plum are much more at home in a vineyard or a lush field than in a fancy hotel or stuffy ballroom. The flowers speak for themselves in the Marshfield florist’s bouquets and installations, and the business has drawn a client base with a similar mindset and love of nature.

Landry says her own taste is constantly evolving with the seasons, and nature will forever be the biggest inspiration for her work.

“We are at a great point in our business where our audience knows our style and knows we will be a good match,” she said. “We work with a handful of designers and planners who know what we’re going for and many of our clients come from referrals.”

Last summer, when pandemic restrictions canceled plans for large weddings across New England, Landry said the company did dozens of “mini-monies,” elopement and backyard affairs.

“It was actually very peaceful,” she said with a laugh. “It was so nice to get to be part of those small, intimate weddings. You could just feel the love coming from all of these people who were getting married because they wanted to be married, not because they wanted the show of a wedding.”

Before she found her love of botany, Landry worked as a wedding photographer and in marketing. Her connections in the industry allowed her to launch her business with friends of friends and former clients. The first summer of Beach Plum Floral, she provided flowers for six weddings. This summer, she’s set to do 108 across New England.

“And it all started in our little one-car garage,” her husband Mike Landry said.

This week, the Landrys and a team of floral designers descended on Scituate Harbor’s Lucky Finn Cafe to assemble a storefront Mother’s Day installation that has become an annual tradition since 2018.

“I was pregnant and having a coffee inside with a friend. I wanted to celebrate becoming a mom in a huge way, so I asked the owner if I could put flowers on her building for Mother’s Day,” Jill Landry said. “And she said yes.”

Each year, Beach Plum puts thousands of stems on the cafe’s storefront, and before the pandemic, sold bouquets out front to benefit mom-centric charities on the South Shore. This year, bouquets were sold online and will benefit empowerHER, a Hingham-based organization that works with young girls who have lost their moms.

This year’s rainbow-themed instillation will be up at least through the week, and Landry said she hopes it brings joy to South Shore residents in need of a pick me up.

“This is the time of year people really get excited to see the colors and get out of the house, especially with COVID,” she said. “This rainbow represents the end of a storm for all of us.”