One of New Canaan’s best-loved local businesses has found a new home downtown.
Earth Garden has moved to 13 South Ave. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Located for the past decade in The Playhouse, Earth Garden opened Friday at 13 South Ave., formerly a tobacco and cigar shop.
“We are thrilled we found a storefront and it’s actually working out really well,” owner Nancy Kline Gorkin said.
“We were able to put a sign on the fence in front of the old shop, which the town agreed to let me do, directing people to the new location and of course we’ve let people know through social media,” she added. “We had a very good turnout for Valentine’s Day—I would say our foot traffic was as good if not better. A lot of people seem to like the new location better because the parking is easier on South and Cherry, and then Morse Court is right behind the Mobil station.”
Inside the Earth Garden shop at 13 South Ave. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Earth Garden offers fresh flowers daily and creates arrangements, including its planted creations in vintage and modern containers, for daily delivery as well as events.
“We are, first and foremost, plant-lovers,” Kline Gorkin said. “So I stock unusual plants. I’m a plant collector myself and so I usually have a lot of indoor plants and all kinds of varieties of ferns and begonias, which people love—the leafy begonias, called ‘rex’ begonias—and also topiaries and easy-to-care-for houseplants.”
The shop’s floral designs are “nature-inspired,” she said, “so we have used things that are seasonal first, and try to buy local as much as possible.”
Inside the Earth Garden shop at 13 South Ave. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Earth Garden belongs to the Connecticut Flower Collective, and purchases from its clearinghouse every week, while bringing in flowers from all over the world in the winter.
“It’s kind of like ‘farm-to-table’ for restaurants, we’re farm-to-vase for florists,” Kline Gorkin said.
The shop’s first long-term location in New Canaan had been on Route 123 at Ledge Avenue (15 years), and then it bounced around a bit before finding the location in the ground floor of The Playhouse on Elm Street in 2013, taking over a lease from cupcake-maker Crumbs.
Asked about Earth Garden’s move, New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laura Budd noted that the store, like her own organization, “had to give up their spot in the Playhouse on Elm Street to make way for the new movie theater.”
“We are so pleased they have found a new home on South Avenue and know they will enjoy continued success,” Budd said. (The Chamber is now located in the ground floor of the Town Hall Annex.)
Inside the Earth Garden shop at 13 South Ave. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Asked how important it is for Earth Garden to be located right in downtown New Canaan, Kline Gorkin said that she’d wanted to stay on Elm Street but there was nothing available last summer.
“We found out last summer we would have to vacate [The Playhouse] and I decided to close and work out of our design studio in Wilton until some place became available,” she said. The space at 13 South Ave. became available suddenly and was the right price point and square footage, she said. In all, Earth Garden was “homeless” for about four weeks from January to last week, she said, and the shop’s customers were eager to see it find a new location.
“We have a very loyal following,” Kline Gorkin said. “Some clients we’ve had for 30 years and now their children are becoming our clients as they’re aging out and moving away, so it’s kind of gone in a nice circle.”
Earth Garden at 13 South Ave. is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday (closed Sundays). Deliveries are every day, Monday through Saturday, and same-day deliveries are accepted. Call 203-966-5673 or visit Earth Garden’s website to order. Here’s Earth Garden on Instagram.