Struggling Naples florist brings smiles in tough times, giving away flowers

Even as business dried up at their floral shop in Naples, Patrick and Mirela Beneš found a way to make others smile.

Their family-owned business, Naples Picasso Flowers, has taken a huge hit from the coronavirus pandemic, which left the shop with bouquets of flowers it couldn't sell.

Rather than just watch the flowers wither and die, the couple decided to start giving them away, handing them out on the streets and leaving them at doorsteps unannounced, with the spirit of love and hope of receiving donations to help keep their business going.

In recent weeks, the couple delivered the flowers in one-of-a-kind water buckets with designs painted by their 14-year-old son Dario and 10-year-old daughter Letizia.

"I think everyone likes to have fresh flowers," Patrick said.

Especially, he said, in uncertain times like these, with so many people cooped up in their homes, encouraged to "shelter in place."

"We drove through streets in a radius of 2-3 miles from our shop," Patrick said. "We distributed about 200 buckets and bouquets."

One of those buckets went to Patricia Koegler Del Bello, who lives on Galleon Drive. She wrote words of gratitude on the company's Facebook page, after receiving the flowers, urging others to support the small business.

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In her post, Del Bello said while chatting outside with a neighbor (at a safe distance), the company's flower truck stopped unexpectedly.

"This gentleman comes over and puts these flowers at our feet," she said. "They were a gift from this florist."

That gentleman was Patrick.

The delivery came with a message that he and his wife need help to keep supporting their family — and Del Bello shared it with her followers on Facebook.

"These crazy days are calling for creativity and ingenuity to survive," she wrote in her post. "I'm sure they would gladly do an arrangement for you! Let’s help our local businesses!"

Mirela, the shop's only florist, came up with the idea to give away the flowers.

"It's better than to do nothing," she said. "It's a way to at least get something and to try to survive and to keep the business working."

Business dries up

Due to the pandemic, the local flower shop, in an industrial building off Linwood Avenue near downtown Naples, can't accept walk-ins anymore, it's barely receiving any new orders —  and with so many of its partner restaurants, office, hotels and restaurants closed the events market that usually feeds it business year-round is shut down.

The last-minute cancellations of so many local events left the Beneš' with a large inventory of unused flowers in early March. "All of that money went away too," Patrick said.

The Beneš' didn't give away all their flowers, in hopes of getting some orders after making their free deliveries.

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They got a few orders on Tuesday from nearby residents who received the free flowers, so they reopened the shop after it sat dark for several days in a row.

"If this keeps going, it will be amazing," Mirela said. "We will see."

Even if it doesn't keep going this way, she's not going to give up easily.

"It's not only the money," she said. "We invested a lot of money into the business, but it's also the heart. I would say it's our heart's desire to keep it alive." 

Going forward, getting flowers will be more difficult. Their usual wholesalers aren't trucking flowers to this coast anymore, due to the coronavirus scare.

The Beneš' are prepared to do whatever they can to fill any orders they get, even if it means driving to Orlando or Miami to pick up the flowers themselves.

"We are running out of money. We need people to call us. We need people to order with us," Patrick said.

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The couple moved to North Naples in 2018 from Germany, where they owned and operated a larger flower shop. They sold that shop to begin their next chapter in the United States.

"My wife was much bigger in Germany," Patrick said. "She did big events and everything."

The move — a decision that came after a stop in Naples during a Florida vacation a few years ago — meant starting a business from "zero" again.

Asked why the couple chose to live in the Naples area, Patrick said: "They have good schools over here. It's not too busy. It's not too crowded, but still everything is here. So it was kind of love at first sight."

Now, the family faces the possibility they'll have to move away from the place they love — for new jobs. They're applying for jobs all over the Naples area — and the United States as a Plan B.

"I told my kids, 'I'm really sorry. I would love to stay in Naples,' but I mean we have to live from something," Patrick said.

"Total chaos"

After investing much of their savings into the business, the couple finally started to see it turn the corner in November.

"Every month it went better and better," Patrick said, "and finally January and February of this year were the first two months when we haven't had to touch our savings. We were able to live from our income from the flower shop."

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, creating "total chaos," Patrick said.

"It is really tough, especially when you are not employed and you're self-employed," he said.

The couple still holds out hope that their little flower shop can survive this big pandemic. They say they just have to find a way to survive until Thanksgiving, when the busy season returns, and they'll be OK.

"We can just hope for a miracle ... That's what we all can do," Mirela said.

They've started a fund-raising campaign at gofundme.com/f/save-our-local-family-owned-business. So far, they've raised $1,756 toward their $60,000 goal through 13 donors since launching their campaign nearly two weeks ago.

One of their donors? No surprise, Patricia Koegler Del Bello, who gave the most of anyone so far — $300. In a phone interview earlier this week, she said the beautiful flowers the couple gave her were still brightening up her front hallway

"I was so touched," she said. "I mean it was so unexpected."

While the handful of donations — several of which have been made anonymously — are heartwarming, they're not nearly enough to make a difference yet.

"We have probably like 2% of what we need," Patrick said. "It's a really, really long way away."