Woodbine florist celebrates 20-year anniversary this Mother’s Day

Cattails Country Florist in Woodbine celebrates its 20-year anniversary this Mother’s Day. During the last two decades, co-owners Tim and Kathy Weber have provided flowers to commemorate countless celebrations and big moments in people’s lives.

The couple said they took a risk in purchasing the business on May 4, 2004, when it was sold by its original owners less than a year after opening. Tim Weber said that decision has led the flower shop to become a pillar of the community, touching many lives along the way.

“It’s really just a small, family-run business,” Tim Weber said. “Each year we grow a little bit, so we’re really happy with where it’s going and where it’s come from.”

Cattails’ original owners sold the store to the Webers for $12,000 but allowed them to pay around $3,000 down. Tim Weber said the business generated enough money pay for the entire purchase over the course of their first Mother’s Day, making the holiday significant in Cattails’ history in addition to being a busy time of year for florists everywhere.

The florist said he bought Cattails, “on a whim.”

Although Tim and Kathy Weber have each learned every aspect of running the business over the last two decades, Cattails initially relied heavily on Kathy Weber’s accounting experience and Tim Weber’s experience as a florist. Kathy Weber said customers often made incorrect assumptions about the couple back then, directing business-related questions at her husband and asking her about flowers.

“That was definitely entertaining,” Kathy Weber said, “because I couldn’t answer any of those questions at the time. That was definitely kind of funny.”

The Webers’ roles have mostly switched over the last two decades, with Kathy now in charge of design while Tim handles marketing.

“I don’t know what you would think an average florist looks like,” Tim Weber said, “but people would come in and they would always want to talk to my wife. She would say, ‘You need to talk to him because I don’t really know much about flowers.’ They would always say I looked more like an electrician or a butcher.”

The couple were married in 2005, and Tim Weber said arranging flowers for his own wedding and his daughter’s wedding have been among the highlights of his career. Tim Weber has two children from a previous marriage and the Webers have a 4-year-old son together.

Tim Weber said he learned how to be a florist from his former father-in-law, a serendipitous connection that has snowballed to affect many in Carroll County and beyond.

“Being here 20 years now, we have seen a lot of a lot of different things in the community,” Kathy Weber said, “people having babies and then watching them do their prom flowers, and then watching them get married. There’s a lot of people we’ve gotten close enough with that we’ve kind of seen a big spectrum of their life now.”

The business is built upon cultivating relationships with community members, Tim Weber said. Cattails will do things like provide a last-minute prom corsage for someone in need, and coordinate with local funeral homes to transport flowers or ensure they are properly delivered.

“It’s those little, down-home country things,” Tim Weber said. “Even though we’re not really in the country, I learned flowers in Texas and that was the way that you did things; you help the funeral home if they need help getting the flowers to the cemetery. We use that same mentality and it’s just done very well with us.”

More than 200 people subscribe to a yearly service that offers one bouquet a month for $90, with restrictions around the busiest floral days of the year. Tim Weber said Cattails sells flowers nearly at-cost to subscribers but cultivates valuable relationships in doing so.

Cattails has four employees, including Kelsea Gaigalas, who has been a designer with the florist for four years, and manager and design manager Mandy Baiocchi, of Westminster, who Tim Weber said has been a backbone of the business for 19 of its 20 years.

In the past, Cattails has employed people staying at sober living houses, providing them with an opportunity to get back on their feet financially, Tim Weber said.

“It’s nice to see them succeed and grow, and be good members of society,” Kathy Weber said.  “If we help in some way that’s special to all of us, to hear how good they’re doing. Some have families now and so that part’s pretty cool.”

Tim Weber opened two sober living homes in Westminster, known as Weber Sober Homes, where hundreds of men have successfully overcome substance use disorders, he confirmed in an email. Weber Sober Homes are now owned and operated by former resident Brian Kimmel after Weber stepped away in 2019. Tim Weber began his own recovery on Nov. 8, 2003.

“Through the years, I have seen guys go through those recovery homes and they’ve worked for us at the flower shop,” Tim Weber said. “They’ve put their lives back together. We’ve done their flowers at their wedding, we’ve done flowers when they’ve had kids, so it’s been a big gift for me to be able to use it as a gift for others.”

His reputation for community involvement supporting those with substance abuse problems led Tim Weber to become community education liaison for the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2015, he said.

Mother’s Day as a florist

Celebrating Mother’s Day as a family must come after the all-hands-on-deck nature of observing the holiday as a florist, Tim Weber said.

“I love Mother’s Day because I take off and I’m up there for the whole weekend,” Tim Weber said. “A lot of times that’s when we see a lot of people we might only see once or twice a year, so it’s almost like a reunion of people coming in picking up stuff for the moms and the grandmoms, and it’s really cool.”

In the couple’s early years of running Cattails, Kathy Weber said her mom would help the shop fulfil its numerous Mother’s Day orders.

“My mom is probably my best friend,” Kathy Weber said, “so I I love that early on she used to come up and help at the shop for Mother’s Day, but she hasn’t done that in a long time. I don’t know what I do without my mom, and now I’m a mom, so it’s a special time for me to get to spend with my little boy that I’ve wanted for such a long time.”

The Webers plan to have a big dinner Sunday evening, celebrating all the moms in their family. Tim Weber said he does not mind his May 9 birthday being overshadowed by Mother’s Day.

“I feel like I end up working for most of the holiday rather than just enjoying it,” Kathy Weber said, “but it’s definitely a wonderful holiday with a lot of meaning for me.”

“We definitely celebrate,” Tim Weber said, “we just kind of can’t do it until we’ve taken care of all the other moms.”