Haworth's Flowers Celebrates 106 Years

At Haworth’s Flowers and Gifts, flowers have run in the family through thick and thin and over 106 years. The family recently celebrated the anniversary with an open house at the store at 47 Garden St.

Art Haworth grew up in the Garden Street house and in the family business, started in 1905 by Art’s grandfather, Joseph.

Joseph Haworth moved to Farmington from New York, Art said, and brought the business with him. There were already greenhouses on the property and the family started the floral shop.

When Joseph Haworth died, Art’s father, Joseph Charles took responsibility for the business, running it together with his mother. His brother later began to help, too.

Art began to work with his father after high school and eventually bought Haworth’s in 1960. He and his wife ran it until 2003, when his son David and daughter-in-law Susan took over.

“It was, for me, a very hard business, especially with the greenhouse. You had to live with it seven days a week. But I enjoyed growing our own poinsettias, Easter lilies,” Art said.

Eventually the costs of growing all the plants became so high that when the greenhouses caved in last winter, the store moved away from it. They instead began to focus on designs. The store hired a few designers, including Robin Weir, who recently won first prize in the Wadsworth Atheneum’s Festival of Trees and represented Connecticut in the Designer of the Year competition.

The pair brought in changes of their own. They decided to move the business upstairs to the family’s home, which was built in the 1880s.

“It gave us a whole showroom, a whole workroom in one,” said Susan Haworth, who oversaw the design. “Before we had no place to meet with brides or people who had to make funeral arrangements.”

The space is now sectioned into different areas for design, delivery, small meeting areas and showcase space for the store’s varied gift products.

“We’ve been having a wonderful time,” she said. “We enjoy this work. We’ve been doing weddings, events, decorating houses for Christmas…”

“We make the world brighter and make it smell good,” Weir joked. “Flowers make people happy.”