By Laurie Maemura

Nestled between a store with fresh produce and the aroma of Japanese food coming from a restaurant, Balboa Green Garden Florist in the Outer Richmond greets passersby with its buckets of freshly trimmed, colorful bouquets and a sign with bright orange and green Korean letters.

Inside, a pink porcelain swan rests on a vintage beige column, while large wooden baskets and deflated ‘get well’ balloons hang on the wall. Stacks of brown boxes on refrigerators reach the ceiling, lining the walls all around.

Hee Seung Lee can often be spotted carefully arranging flowers. Known to many customers by her English name Victor, she wears a green canvas florist apron that remains spotless, but her blue gloves bear the marks of a busy morning.

The previous days were filled with large funeral orders. One morning last month, she and her husband, Inn Jun Jong, who goes by the name James, had just finished wrapping a grand-sized bouquet. Lee watches as Jong, a quiet presence in the shop, climbs a metal ladder to pull two clear vases from a box. He places them on the table. Lee examines the wide-mouthed vases.

“I think this is too big because this is for a customer in a nursing home,” she said to Jong. “I don’t think there is much space, so maybe we should use the smaller size.” He nods, then returns to the ladder.

The couple, who recently purchased the flower shop from longtime owners Insook and Kwangduk Kim, are settling into their new roles, learning the flow of orders and the demands of the business. While their new venture marks a new chapter, the couple’s journey into the flower business began long before they stepped into the shop’s welcoming doorway.

Lee and Jong immigrated from Korea separately but met through a mutual friend at San Francisco Airport when Lee’s former employer, Singapore Airlines, hired Jong as a translator.

Jong had spent decades tending orchids on his family’s farm in Korea. With his expertise, the couple started a wholesale orchid business, opening a greenhouse farm in Half Moon Bay. For 18 years, they surrounded themselves with orchids, supplying retailers and distributors while running an established store at the San Francisco Flower Market.

They also sold homemade kimchi made from vegetables grown on their farm, sharing it with family, church members and customers alike.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing them to close their business in the summer of 2020. During this transitional period, Lee decided to explore a different path, working at a special education school for about three years.

“I loved my children. It was so good for me. I still miss them and my coworkers,” she said.

When Balboa Green Garden Florist owners announced their retirement, they placed an advertisement on a Korean community website. The 45-year-old business needed new owners.

“(Insook and Kwangduk Kim) are already in the middle of their 70s,” Lee said.

Lee and Jong stumbled upon the advertisement and reached out to the Kim family.

“There’s a lot of history here. Mr. and Mrs. Kim had a certain business mind,” Lee said. “They were looking for that special person who could keep running the business with the same business mind.”

Lee said although the Kims’ original Korean customer base has declined in the past few years, she is committed to maintaining those few relationships and is actively seeking new customers from the Korean community.

“They wanted me to do the same business way for them, the same service for (their customers),” she said. “I can do that because I love Korean people and elderly people. We can do that. We can understand each other.”

The new owners spent time shadowing the Kims, learning the shop’s operations and preparations.

Lee turned to her Christian faith for guidance on moving forward with the business.

“I prayed a lot to get the answer,” she recalled. “Should I try to run a business again, or should I stay at the school and play and spend time with my students?”

After much contemplation and many conversations with her husband and the Kims for more than a month, she felt it was time.

“There was no stress at all. To make this kind of important decision, I had to change a chapter in my life,” Lee said.

When the Kims officially transferred ownership, Lee said she was “very, very happy. It was very exciting. Now I can work with a lot of different types of flowers.”

A celebration followed on Feb. 28, marking the next blooming chapter in Balboa Green Garden Florist’s journey.

Inside the shop, much remains the same.

“There’s a lot of the nice things still here,” she said. “(The Kims left) a lot of baskets. Some of them are very old fashioned but I can still use them. That’s why James is organizing and cleaning.”

For the couple, retail has been a big shift from wholesale.

“This business is totally different (from wholesale), but I really like it,” she said. “Now, almost every day, we have a lot of (contact with) florists, flower shops and even the flower market. Customers stop by, say ‘hi’ to me, ask me a lot of different things. We can talk.”

There is still a learning curve. Early mornings are particularly challenging as the couple commutes from Brisbane to San Francisco daily, or they go to the Flower Market three to four times a week.

“I have to wake up at 4 a.m. because I have to be there at 5 a.m. Once I get the flowers, there’s a lot of work. I have to clean them, organize them and put them in certain places. It takes a long time. And I have to keep learning. I watch a lot of videos these days of bouquet styles,” she said.

Luckily, Lee’s background in fine art from San Francisco Art Institute helps with her designs. Meanwhile, Jong has been experimenting with creative arrangements using balloons, artificial flowers and crochet flowers.

They think about “color, shape, and composition” on how each bouquet should be arranged.

Although the store has no social media presence yet, Lee hopes to start an Instagram account soon.

“We are going to do that one by one, step by step. Whenever I make a flower arrangement, people are happy. I like to see that,” she said.

Lee has noticed a trend among customers. They are not picky and prefer colorful, mixed-color bouquets.

“They ask me for the happy colors, spring colors, pretty colors,” she said.

Although the couple is no longer surrounded soley by orchids, she has a new favorite flower.

“Right now, one of my favorite flowers is the tulip. A pink tulip,” she said.

Ownership of the shop feels right, Lee said, and she hopes to be here for a long time, keeping the tradition of a 45-year-old shop that will continue to grow and flourish in the Outer Richmond.

“It’s really nice to have good neighbors. They have a warm heart. People stop by and say, ‘How’s your business? Are you doing OK?’ I have already made some friends,” she said with a big smile.

Balboa Green Garden Florist is located at 3637 Balboa St. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Sunday hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.