About Us

Strelitzia Flower Company is celebrating 40 years in business. Thank you to everyone for their support over the years.We are committed to offering only the finest floral arrangements and gifts, backed by service that is friendly and prompt. Because all our customers are important to us, our professional staff is dedicated to making your experience a pleasant one. That is why we always go the extra mile to make your floral gift perfect. Let Strelitzia Flower Company be your first choice for flowers!

Hours of Operation

History

Thirty-Nine Years Of Homegrown Business Sense

Strelitzia Flower Company began as a simple "bucket stand" in 1971. To pay for his education at UCD and support his new family Dean Labadie took a friends advice and began selling flowers to students on campus. At the time Dean was also driving around in a truck selling produce to locals between classes along with a landscape maintenance business. That was over 38 years ago and Dean has no regrets.

Building a business from the ground up in Davis would require an enormous amount of dedication and flexibility. Dean felt he knew his community and wanted to make sure their needs were met. Fresh flowers with a wide selection were always his focus. At the time a typical florist shop would be very rigid in their format. Roses, carnations and mums arranged in a pat formula was the resounding theme.

Dean's concept was to give the customer the access to the product, much like florist in Europe do. Full buckets of the best product available, displayed in an open style market with every variety and color of flower being sold to the customer one stem at a time. It's a fresh, wild, almost Monet-esque approach to floral design and it has served Strelitzia Flower Company well for almost three decades. Today you can still go to either location and browse through the oversized refrigerator collecting just the right flowers for your taste and desire. Dean Continues to understand the customers need to have input into what pleases them or the recipient they have in mind. "Hands on" is Dean's style of marketing and ownership.

After 22 years of buying flowers from the San Francisco Flower Market, Dean and his wife Janice took a leap. They stopped the three nights a week (2am- 8am) trek to the city and hit the road to the coast. It was the farms they wanted access to. They began an overnight buy trip from Davis through the city, down Hwy 1, through Half Moon Bay, to Social, Aptos, Watsonville, Pajarosa, Aromas, Gilroy, Salinas, Ripon and home. They knew the product would be fresher- sometimes even waiting for the truck to drive up from the field with fresh cut babies breath. The improved quality and longevity of the product they discovered was striking. They have been doing their once a week, over night coast run since 1993 and pride themselves in passing the savings on to the customer.

As part of our move from the downtown, Strelitzia Flower Company has merged our different divisions (retail, wholesale and growing) under one roof to offer better pricing and availability to our c customers.

We have now expanded our "bunch pricing" to include "Strelitzia Wholesale" pricing which offers wholesale pricing when you buy flowers by the bunch. This change makes our prices very competitive with big box and supermarket stores and much less than most florists. We do offer greater variety, fresher flowers (because we go direct to the growers) and we deliver. You can also special order colors and items not in stock. Check out our wholesale price sheet for more prices.

Meet the Staff

Jill Bettencourt:

• Job Description: Manager (a little of everything)
• Favorite Flower: Gerber Daisy
• Favorite part of the Job: The people I work with, and being around flowers all day
• Additional Information: I love spending my days off with my wonderful husband and our new baby girl, Taylor

Ellen Kimble:

• Job Description: Flower Flinger (greet and assist customers)
• Favorite Flower: Daphne
• Favorite part of the Job: Customer service
• Additional Information: Ellen has been a long time faithful employee at Strelitzia

Renee Reibel:

• Job Description: Wedding Specialist & Design Expert
• Favorite Flower: Antherium, Bells of Ireland, Flame Calla, Stephanotis
• Favorite part of the Job: Meeting and consulting brides, then designing the bouquet of their dreams
• Additional Information: Renee is a third generation florist and has taken many classes to study the art of floral design

Debbie Downie:

• Job Description: Petal pusher
• Favorite Flower: Hydrangea
• Favorite Part of the Job: Working the cut night, helping with the social events (BBQ's, pumpkin giveaway, etc), working with flowers, and working with my daughter and my childhood friend.
• Additional Info: Spends her spare time in the garden and with her grandchildren.

Jenny Allison:

• Job Description: Designer
• Favorite Flower: Lilacs and the ones my mom grew when I was little like stock and marigolds.
• Favorite Part of the Job: When my favorite seasonal flowers come in. I enjoy working with lilacs, daffodils and dahlias.