Military family puts down roots in N.S. with mobile flower shop

After moving around the continent for years, a military family is putting roots down, literally, in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

Krista Adams' husband Brad was posted in Colorado when the two decided they wanted to move back to Nova Scotia — they fell in love with the province during Brad's previous postings at CFB Greenwood.

"We were just kind of done with moving around," Adams said in an interview with CBC's Information Morning Monday. In August 2020, the couple bought a house in Avonport sight unseen.

"We were kind of trying to figure out what to do next," she said, adding that they saw there was a flower shop for sale nearby.

Listen to the full interview:

The purchase "didn't really work out," but from then on, the couple had their sights set on starting a flower business.

They planted a field of flowers on their new property, renovated an old school bus, and have spent the summer driving to farmer's markets in the valley to sell their arrangements.

"[It] kind of just put a whole different spin on the typical kind of florist shops that you see in towns," she said. 

The pink bus is equipped with a "flower bar" — a wall of galvanized buckets full of flowers.

"The idea was just kind of to let people come aboard and kind of build their own bouquet," Adams said. "I wanted to kind of take away a little bit of that, maybe, nervousness or not really knowing what to do and just kind of let people have the freedom to be creative."

Adams said the transition from military service to owning a mobile flower shop has been "quite a change" for the family, who moved around frequently 

"Moving around a lot, we never really planted anything," she said. "I never really wanted to put a garden in [because] it was always, 'We're never going to see this really develop.' "

Adams said, before the couple decided to start planting at their new home, they didn't know much about growing flowers. So, they did a lot of research, including reading books taking a six-week flower farming course.

"This year, in May was when we first really started going at it," she said, adding that the couple has also been learning through trial and error. "Just like any kind of farming, there's going to be certain seasons where some things do better than others."

She said the recent heat has been "trying" — the flowers have needed plenty of water.

The bus has traveled to farmers' markets in Windsor, but lately, Adam's says they've been staying closer to home.

"It seems like lots of people like to come down to the actual flower farm," she said. "I've had quite a few people that have just specifically driven down [from the city] just to see the bus, so that really makes us happy."

Adams posts the daily location of the bus on their Instagram page: theflowerbusns.