Garden City Floral

LOCATION ESTABLISHED OWNER(S)
5707 Langston Boulevard 1994 Hoang (Nancy) McKay and Robert McKay

Tucked into an unassuming mid-century commercial strip along Langston Boulevard sits one of the top 100 FTD florists in the United States, Garden City Florist. This family-run florist shop has served generations of Arlingtonians, and if you have ordered flowers from FTD, there’s a good chance one of the McKay family either prepared or delivered them. Garden City Florist was first established up the Langston corridor on Sycamore Street in the Garden City neighborhood. The McKay family took over the shop in 1994, and after around twenty years at that location, they moved to the current location on Langston Boulevard. 

Owner Nancy McKay immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in 1975 after marrying a US serviceman. Nancy had been arranging flowers since she was young and has always loved making people happy through beautiful flower arrangements. When the flower shop became available, she jumped at the opportunity to run her small business. She has relished getting to know the local customers personally and has made many friends through the shop. Nancy is known to be somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to the quality of their flowers. Her son tells a story of one year when they ordered 10,000 roses for Valentine’s Day, and Nancy went through every box to ensure they met her standards.

Nancy’s oldest son and co-owner, Robert McKay, was born in Bangkok, Thailand, shortly before the family moved to the US. He started working in the flower shop when he was a junior in high school and has been working with his mom since. Robert enjoys the opportunity the business gives him for artistic expression and especially likes being a part of people’s lives in the community. Many customers have come into the shop and told him about getting flowers for their proms or weddings when he was still a teen. Robert is planning on continuing the family legacy in the shop, learning from his mom over the years to take the reins someday soon. Robert is, however, not the only McKay you might find working there. Nancy says that when they are busy around holidays, all six of her children and sometimes nieces and nephews pitch in to get the orders done.Garden City is a full-service florist, servicing repeat customers from near and far. Through the years, they have supplied flowers to politicians, Supreme Court justices, sports stars, and celebrities, and were even the local florist for season 10 of the reality show Married at First Sight, where they had to design five weddings in 3 days. Despite this, Nancy and Robert say that all their customers are important to them, and each is treated equally. They believe that no matter who your customer is, you always treat them with respect, try and understand what they are looking for in their flowers, and convey that in the final product. Everything at the shop is custom-made for the client. Making people happy and standing behind everything they do is key to their success. The difference between small legacy businesses like theirs and large corporate entities is that they know their customers and have been part of their lives over time, creating a sense of comfort and familiarity.

Photo Gallery

All images © Cindy Kane Photography

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