At first, the brooding brick building in Newton Centre’s Piccadilly Square seems an unlikely home for an environmentally focused flower, plant, and garden store. But step inside, and you’ll find Derby Farm Flowers & Gardens—a quaint local stop for all floral needs.
“Derby, as a flower shop, has always been focused on environmental good,” said Lucinda Chrislip, the owner of Derby Farm. “We are a one percent for the climate business, so we give back to other community organizations, like Green Newton, the Charles River Watershed, and those sort of organizations that do good for the environment.”
Derby Farm has not always served Newton. Instead, the store began by providing downtown Arlington with impressive arrangements.
“We opened the shop in Newton about four years ago,” Chrislip said. “So we’re just bringing the beauty of the flowers and things to the neighborhood here in Newton.”
The space in Newton’s Piccadilly Square came with its own challenges, Chrislip said, namely the large store size.
“This location is, like, twice as big in square footage as our store in Arlington was,” Chrislip said. “And so, over the past few years, we’re just trying to understand how to utilize the space.”
Her solution? Sharing the space with other like-minded businesses in need of a stable venue. Today, they partner with a low-waste refillable goods store, but have shared space with a vegetable farm and a Japanese pottery company in the past.
“This partnership has gone well,” Chrislip said. “[We’re both] businesses that are trying to think about ways to live in a good way with the planet and the resources we have.”
Chrislip grew up working at a flower shop, but did not at first expect to make a career out of it.
“My first job in high school was at a flower shop, so it’s not something that I necessarily pursued, but something that I had enjoyed,” Chrislip said. “It wasn’t a linear path, is what I’m saying.”
But after helping her sister move to the area, Chrislip reconnected with the floral world at the Derby Farm location in Arlington.
“I worked for the previous owner for five years,” Chrislip said. “When she was ready to sell, she asked if I wanted to take it over.”
Chrislip originally took over with another business partner, but she ended up buying the partner out just this past summer.
While Derby Farm has a relatively new presence in Newton Centre, customers and employees report a pride in their products.
Rachel Meyers, another customer from Newton, finds the shop a peaceful place with great products.
“I find it very calming when I come in here,” Meyers said. “There’s always something I want—I don’t always buy things, but there’s always things I’m attracted to.”
Despite facing an already difficult business model of dealing with live products and shifting demand, Chrislip commits heavily to minimizing any harm to the environment—a value that manifests as green investments into the local community.
“The previous owner, Barbara, was conscious of making the business and the flowers more sustainable,” Chrislip said, naming some harmful practices in the industry like using microplastic foam and unethical sourcing. “We try to buy as locally or source as locally as possible to support local farms.”
