Everytime I wander into the garden, I feel like I might stumble upon a fairy tea party. It's the magical landscaping out back, with paths, a gazebo, a pond, even a little train that runs on a track around the gazebo, that sends me into a reverie and inspires my own gardening ambitions.
"It's Half Moon Bay's best kept secret," Alena said one day when I wandered in with a friend. "But tell everyone!"Okay, Alena, I'm telling everyone.
In addition to maintaining the nursery - a fun and unusual collection of plants that you won't find at every other nursery - Alena is a gifted floral artist. She does big events like weddings, and I often have her make up arrangements for my house. They tend to be gorgeous and playful, and for the same price as a bouquet at Costco or Safeway, say $20, I can buy a small arrangement that is much more artfully put together. Alena also sells fun, garden-y gift items, including gnomes, little mushroom men, and succulent wreathes, to name just a few items.
When you stroll into Alena's, you're likely to find friends gathered chatting about the latest news. The store has an old time, small town feel that the larger nurseries lack. The barn where her store is located is part of Alena's family compound, including the house next door where her parents live, and the cottage out back (that used to be a chicken coop) where her brother lives.
The Whitings have been there for 34 years, but the buildings are actually 134 years old. Known as the Martin Carty house, it looks like a fairy tale homestead. Alena's father has long run his landscape design and installation business - Florafarm - out of the same location.
In keeping with a small town, word of mouth-driven business, there isn't a great website (yet), but here are the details:
Alena Jean's Flower Shop and Nursery
340 Purissima Street
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
Phone: (650) 726-3662
Shop hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday - 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Thank you so much for highlighting such a talented floral artist and her beautiful grounds! Alena Jean is awesome and a joy to visit!
ReplyDelete/what fun to see your lovely photos and read your great article about my beautiful neice Alena in Half Moon Bay. I live in NYC and have a house upstate NY. I plan to forward your blog to my family in Oregon. Give Alena a big hug from me next time you're at her nursery. Thanks from her Aunt Annie
ReplyDeleteAlena makes such a difference in our lives. Her garden is my safe haven when I need a break from running my business. We are so blessed to have her talent, expertise and guidance in flowers, garden plants and art! She is an amazing human being and and I'm so blessed to call her my friend. Lisa Clayton
ReplyDeleteAlena is the best! She was the florist for my wedding last June, and she did such a beautiful job. :) My husband and I didn't really know very much about floral arrangements for a wedding (our big joke was "Well... we don't know because we've never been married before!"), and she was such a great guide and so incredibly helpful.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad she is getting the recognition she so definitely deserves. :)
~Angela Duffy :)
thats awesome sis great job thanks for sharing great writing about a great lil place
ReplyDeleteJohn Barragan
The garden may be pretty, but Alena's attitude towards myself and family was not. We went into her shop to talk wedding flowers and she was very rude. You would tell she was irritated that we had set up a time to meet with another florist and asked us about it a few times. It's like, of course, i'm going to shop around for my wedding florist! She made me feel bad about my flower choice, calling gerbera daisies "so smiley face" and that "they're hard to work with". She made me feel bad about my ribbon choice for the flowers. The whole experience was stressful and i am so happy i decided to go with someone else for my flowers.
ReplyDeleteYeah, pretty garden, but the service sucks.
ReplyDelete