The following news article was published in the Houma Courier on July 6, 2003

July 06. 2003 1:18AM

Mey Florist: A business in bloom for nearly 70 years

By JEWEL BUSH
The Courier

Mey Florist, a business that expanded out of necessity, has been a fixture in the Houma community since 1934.

Before then, according to Harry "Bubba" Mey III, there were no local flower shops. Funeral floral arrangements had to be ordered from florists in New Orleans then sent to Terrebonne Parish on a Greyhound bus.

Mey’s grandmother, Ada Duthu Mey, lived and worked on Southdown plantation with her husband, Harry Mey Sr.

Harry Sr. came to the United States from Germany in the late 1800s. He settled in New Orleans working for a paper company, later moving to Houma to labor on the sugar plantation.

Ada, a Terrebonne Parish native, was known for her green thumb. Neighbors admired her well-kept lilies, daisies, larkspurs and snapdragons.

Mey Florist began when someone requested Ada design their relative’s funeral arrangements with freshly cut flora from her gardens instead of sending to New Orleans for flowers.

She sold the arrangements from her home until 1941, when she moved the venture into 906 E. Main St., a building she rented from her sister.

"My grandmother loved flowers. Her friends knew she did," said Harry III, whose father, Harry Mey Jr. purchased the family-owned and operated business along with his sister, Bertha Mey Baldwin, in the mid-1940s.

When Ada sold the business to her two children, she didn’t retire. She opened another flower shop, My Florist at 716 Wood St., which she later sold to relatives and is now Carriageway Framing and Art owned by Hazel Baldwin McElroy.

The Mey family flower-dealing matriarch died in 1964, only after building a Terrebonne Parish florist tradition, which is continued by her grandson, Harry III.

Harry III, a former blacksmith by trade, has worked full-time in the flower industry since 1970. He runs the business, which he purchased from his father in 1983, at 425 Levron St., the shop’s location since 1968.

"It’s a good viable business to be in," Harry III said. "That’s why I decided to stay in it."

Today, Mey Florist remains a family practice. Harry III employs his wife, Cathy Mey, father-in-law, Alphonse Zeringue, who has made deliveries for 17 years, and sister-in-law, Jan Zeringue, now 37, who has designed arrangements there since she was 16-years-old.

The only unrelated staffer is Sabrina Bouquet, who has worked at Mey Florist as a designer for nearly three years.

"When someone gets a job here, they become family," said Cathy, while naming nieces and nephews, who at one time or another earned a paycheck from Mey Florist.

Cocoa, a 13-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, whose eyesight is deteriorating with age, and Ollie Bird, an Amazon parrot, fond of candy and french fries, make for a pleasant work environment at Mey Florist.

RAISED IN THE FLOWERS
Growing up, Harry III spent every day doing odd jobs at Mey Florist. He raised his two children, Harry Mey IV and Mandy Mey Kinchen the same way.

When the children were young, Cathy reminisced about occasions where she would be holding a baby on her hip and answering the phones.

At one time, Cathy had installed an intercom system that ran from the store to a relative’s home nearby so she could hear the children as they woke from naps.

And after school and in the summers, Harry IV and Mandy spent their days helping out around the flower shop.

"Mandy has flowers in her blood. She has to be around flowers," said Cathy of her daughter who has worked at Ricky Heroman Florist in Baton Rouge for eight years and has been a floral designer since 15.

Mandy agrees.

"I’ll always be in the flower business in some way, whether for holidays or part-time," said the 26-year-old, who as a small girl slept on a pallet under her mother’s desk during the busy seasons.

For Mandy, a recent graduate from Louisiana State University, creating flower bouquets, baskets and arrangements is a creative outlet. Wedding pieces are her favorite.

"I like the detail," she said. "It’s stressful and tedious, but it’s rewarding. It’s a special day you try to make a little more special."

MONEY IN FLOWERS
Harry III, 53, remembers working until 1 a.m. preparing flower arrangements for All Saints Day, one of the shop’s biggest days in the ’50s.

Back then, the flower shop even made graveside deliveries.

Holidays like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are now the top moneymakers, and the handiwork is much fancier.

"(Flowers) are the most convenient gift you can send," said Harry III of the stock he purchases mostly from vendors in South America.

A few years ago, Mey Florist constructed a casket cover for a farmer made from fresh vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, celery, cabbage, potatoes and lettuce.

They once built a funeral piece in the shape of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the Shriner’s colors, green and yellow.

It’s not uncommon for the designers to fashion funeral pieces in the shape of a trawler, a tribute to the parish’s shrimping culture.

They’ve even filled orders for small memorial wreaths for pet burials.

"It’s whatever the customer wants," said Cathy, laughing about including lottery scratch-off tickets, flowers made from $100 dollar bills and diamond engagement rings in gift baskets at the customer’s request.

If Mey Florist doesn’t have it, said Cathy, she’ll find it, especially if it’s in Houma -- no matter what it is, referring to the adult novelty basket she once helped assemble.

Mey Florist also sells afghans, live plants, silk plants, dolls, beaded purses, yard decorations, stationery and cookie jars and lunch boxes featuring everything from the Grateful Dead to "The Wizard of Oz" and Marilyn Monroe to "The Brady Bunch."

The lobby of the store is filled with valuables and family heirlooms including a radio from the 1930s, an antique sewing machine and piano, as well as curio more than a century old.

Harry III said he has "no regrets" to taking on the Mey family business. He hopes to one day pass it on to his son or daughter.

Mey Florist has a loyal customer base, with some shoppers choosing the florist for more than five decades, said Harry III, who enrolls in continuing education classes to compete with the other flower businesses that have sprouted up throughout the area.

The store is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

If necessary, Harry III said he would open to accommodate a customer in a special situation.

"The best thing is dealing with the beauty of the flowers, being able to produce beautiful arrangements people enjoy."