Power of the flower
Grey-haired and dreadlocked United States Marine Corps veteran Brian Tagliaferro has a vision of the power in a flower. Brian and Tessa Tagliaferro own and operate Eureka Springs Flower and Gifts. When asking Brian, who has a bachelor’s degree in Applied Theology, where this vision comes from he proudly exclaims, “Sheer ignorance and a trip when I was four to the alligator farm in Saint Augustine, Florida.”
Brian has been in business since 2016, after buying the business from a couple who had owned it for 13 years. It was a couple he went to church with who were elderly and wished to retire. “I always wanted to go into business for myself. So I jumped on it and rode it out,” he reflects.
Eureka Springs Flower and Gifts started out in Holiday Island and then moved to Gaskin’s Switch. Tessa joined in 2020, and they were married on their current shop’s back patio. Their flower and gifts shop is located in the old Sonic on US 62E.
It feels like this old fast-food building was designed to house a local florist. It has a perfect day care area for their almost 2-year-old, so they never have to be away from her. It has a walk-in refrigerator and a walk-in freezer. Since the freezer would have killed the flowers, they cut a hole in it and the one refrigerator nicely cools both compartments, keeping arrangements fresh.
Brian worked as a floral instructor for the Institute of Wedding and Event Design. “I hate the floral industry, there’s tons of waste in it,” he said. “We spend hours upon hours on bouquets and centerpieces that just get thrown in the trash.” Talks of tariffs on Colombia around Valentine’s Day made them very nervous, as this is where most of their flowers come from. However, Brian admits that tariffs encourage local shopping.
On Valentine’s Day, distributors normally raise prices by nearly 50 percent, a cost Eureka Springs Flower and Gifts does not pass on to their customers. Their major market is weddings, and they average around 200 of these a year. The year before Covid they did 375 weddings, having their business nearly cut in half since. Roses are their most popular flowers.
“My passion is I just want to grow flowers and work with alligators,” Brian said, adding that he prefers aquaponics to hydroponics. He said hydroponics is a human delivering chemicals to make the grow cycle successful, and aquaponics is basically letting nature do that work for you. “Aquaponics is typically done with fish peeing and pooping in the water. Nitrites are then converted to nitrates that plant root systems feed off. As long as you keep the tank and roots aerated, the cycle works beautifully. Rather than using energy to push through the soil, they are using it to grow. Plants grow four times faster.
“With fish in the tank it takes a lot of energy consumption to keep the fish and plants alive through aeration. So I cut out the fish and use alligators. They are nitrogen producers. You’re not using as much energy to produce oxygen because they breathe just like we do. Basically, they provide the fertilizer and God provides the rest.”
The Tagliaferros own two American alligators, Gambit and Patience. “All alligators are crocodilians, but not all crocodilians are alligators,” Brian explained. “Gambit will eat not just meat, but also fruits and vegetables.”
The Arkansas Game & Fish confiscated Gambit for almost a year’s time. “I was in Chicago doing floral instruction, and on a Sunday, my wife called me up and said the fish cops were there to steal my alligator,” Brian said. [AG&F’s] plan was to relocate him to the AG&F’s J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center. After a year of litigation, during which Brian was forced to represent himself after his attorney quit, and being forced to pay $6,000, AG&F returned Gambit.
Brian said he would like to get his greenhouses fully operational so he can start a vocational rehab facility for veterans. Chuck Jarrett at A Cup of Love got that ball rolling after telling Brian that nearly half of the people who come to the Cup of Love are homeless veterans. “I just want to go back to greenhouses, hang out with alligators and grow flowers. If I get the greenhouses fully running, maybe I can give veteran’s a vocation to learn. This will get them on the right way,” Brian said.
Brian said he would like to create a rest area for homeless veterans in the back. They cannot turn it into a full shelter due to city codes and regulations but envisions “A common area for veterans to hang out and get right. Do whatever they need to do to get right during a 30-60 day transitional period. It comes down to time and money. When we have money, we don’t have time, when we have time we ain’t got no money.”
The Tagliaferros love owning a floral shop in a small town. “There’s a bond and a relationship that gets built within the community,” Brian said. “If people aren’t home when we attempt a delivery, and it’s happened more than once, they tell us the location of an extra key to let ourselves in and leave flowers on a table. It feels really good to have people trust you like that.”
“Tourists tell me they like coming here because everybody is so nice,” Tessa said. “They like the quirkiness and they don’t want to be preached to. They want to come see a weird little town with all of us weird little people.”
Eureka Springs Flowers and Gifts is located at 4036 E. Van Buren Highway 62 and can be reached at (479) 253 6776.