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Sonny's Flowers
Sonny's Flowers is located in the Exploits Valley Mall on Cromer Avenue in Grand Falls-Windsor. This place opened in 1975 and it is owned and operated by Sonny Hawkins. He employs four to five people depending on the time of year as some months are busier than others. For example, they would be busier in the summer because of weddings and graduations. Sonny's Flowers provides fresh flowers and arrangements for all occasions—Fall, Thanksgiving, Winter, Christmas, Birthday, Sympathy, Get Well, Maternity, Anniversary, etc.. You can light up your Christmas holidays with a beautiful holiday arrangement filled with a poinsettia and a variety of other fresh flowers. Also, you can brighten the spirits of loved ones, if they are sick or feeling sad, with a colorful and cheerful arrangement. Graduates can get a handcrafted corsage or a bracelet of golden flowers to wear around their wrists like living jewelry at their graduation. They also sell a wide variety of houseplants, especially the flowering plant that lasts for years, the African Violet.
Most of the flowers that Mr. Hawkins sells - between 80 and 90 percent - are transported from greenhouses in South America by refrigerated air freights, and reach his shop within 48 hours of being cut. If you want to send flowers to anyone in Canada or even to many places in the world, all you have to do is call his shop. He is a member of the Teleflora florist wire service. So he is connected to the rest of the flower world, allowing him to ensure that a flower gets to an address in London, England as easily as it would get to an address in our town. Last Christmas Ms. Warr’s brother, Darren, who lives in Thompson, Manitoba, sent all of his brothers and sisters beautiful flower arrangements through the Teleflora network. He even sent one to his two favourite aunts, Marina and Margie Hollett. Mr. Hawkins knows that people’s tastes change very quickly in the flower business and he tries to keep up with trends and techniques, especially as more varieties of flowers become available, and ways of arranging flowers change. Some of the flower arrangements that are among the best sellers are: Teleflora’s Be Happy Bouquet, Dashing Daisies, Birthday Fireworks, Plant and Fruit Basket, and Warm Wishes.
When four of my classmates and I visited Sonny's Flowers one day after school with our teacher and Denika Lewis’s mother, we brought our Flat Pen Pals from Tany’s Dell School in Harlow, England with us. My flat pen pal, Flat Nicola Purser, loved seeing all the flowers. After we saw all the wonderful flowers, Mr. Hawkins presented every one of us with a rose. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. They were beautiful and as Joan Hawkins, the host of Grand Central on Rogers Television, said when she was interviewing Sonny Hawkins, “Nothing makes a statement quite like a flower.” If you want to view all these wonderful flowers you can visit their web site at www.sonnysflowers.com.
Joanie Pinsent (2006-2007) |
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