“These days, everyone is looking for something new,” NaNa Florist’s founder Sean Maruo says. “We’ve seen more and more people come into our store looking for the unique, Japanese-style flower arranging that we do.”
Founded in 2013, NaNa Florist is a family-run florist's shop with strong Japanese roots. While he was born in Toronto, Sean and his parents moved back to Japan when he was very young. When they returned 20 years later, they decided to open a flower shop. “My mother, Theresa, was arranging flowers for about 15 years when we were in Japan,” Sean says. “She’s trained in the art of ikebana, Japanese flower arranging, and when we moved back, I knew I wanted to open a business that used her talents and experience.”
The ikebana flower arranging style is different from the usual European style of floral design seen in North America. Ikebana practitioners arrange flowers based on shape and line, not simply colour, so they tend to use the whole plant in asymmetrical designs instead of focusing solely on petals and bulbs. The result is a very different flower arrangement that’s perfect for people who love something a little out of the ordinary. “It’s simplicity,” Sean says. “Not too many florists offer the true Ikebana style. It uses the greens and the stems, and we put it all in a unique container — that’s very important as well.”
