Home & Garden Vermont Keeps the Bloom On in Burlington 

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• Daria Bishop
• Jana Qualey, co-owner of Home & Garden Vermont, arranging fresh flowers in Burlington

One day in late May, Jana Qualey stepped back to survey her vibrant arrangement of pink, spiky larkspur, white snapdragons, sprigs of violet columbine and yellow clusters of cottage yarrow, looking for a missing color or shape. She plucked a bulbous, pale green cabbage rose from a nearby flower bucket and inserted it among the other stems in a shallow, rectangular vase. It would soon embellish the food table at a Burlington engagement party.

"It's supposed to look like a garden," Jana said of the arrangement, which a longtime customer had ordered from her downtown Burlington gift shop, Home & Garden Vermont. "It's going to take me a while. It's going to be a lot of layering."

Most days at the College Street shop, Jana plants herself at the small florist counter in the back, buried in blooms. Home & Garden abounds with color, texture and variety — and not just from the flowers. Most of the products, from pillows to ceramics to wall décor, fit the theme of the store's name, evoking nature and the outdoors.

Jana's husband, Jack Qualey, manages the front counter and takes flower orders by phone. Their dog, Camper, a diminutive white bichon, often joins them in the store and likes to perch on that counter. Jack hands notes to his wife with instructions for arrangements.

"Two bouquets, honey, for tomorrow morning," he said as he put down the phone. One would go to a graduation party and another to a patient at the University of Vermont Medical Center. "She saw the flowers we did for the ICU," he added of the customer.

Every two weeks, Jana designs an arrangement for the Church Street lululemon athletic-wear store, which requires all white flowers. For Zabby & Elf's Stone Soup café across College Street, she asks co-owner Avery Rifkin what he wants. He always replies, "What you do," she said.

In addition to custom orders, Jana sells fresh bouquets, for $20 to $40 apiece, to walk-in customers. Or she'll custom-design a bunch on the spot.

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• Daria Bishop
• Fresh flowers at Home & Garden Vermont

This time of year, 75 percent of the shop's blossoms come from nearby flower growers, including June Farm in Burlington's Intervale and Sparrowhawk Farm in Charlotte. Each week, the growers call to tell Jana what's available, from the recent lilacs to peonies to June Farm's snapdragons — a particular favorite.

"When she dropped these the other day, I was just giddy," Jana said, fondling sprigs of white and apricot-colored buds that looked like pursed lips. "I mean, they're beautiful."

When local options wither in winter, Home & Garden relies on shipments from Green Mountain Florist Supply, a wholesale dealer in South Burlington with a year-round supply of imported varieties, including roses from Holland. During Vermont's growing season, imports account for only about a quarter of Home & Garden's mix.

Jana paused her garden-style floral arranging to help a customer with a bouquet of tulips. They were the last of the store's seasonal selection from von Trapp Flowers in Waitsfield.

"It was out of my way," customer Allie Dousevicz admitted. After seeing a von Trapp post on Instagram, she drove from Essex to snag a bunch of the fringe-tipped pink tulips for $20.

Dousevicz made the trip to Home & Garden "because then I can also find other trinkets and stuff that I love," she said. Past treasures have included elegant journals and a mushroom-embellished sweatshirt that her 10-year-old daughter wears on repeat. "It's always stuff that you can't find anywhere else," Dousevicz said.

Next to Jana's florist counter is a selection of Geometry recycled-plastic microfiber dish towels ($16), which are among the store's bestsellers. Along the upper walls, an array of vintage-style posters ($20 each) features flora, honeybees, woodland foraging and owls.

The shop offers at least half a dozen brands of candles, including the popular orange-scented Volcano collection from Capri Blue and Linnea's floral fragrances with double wicks for $40 each. Baby gifts in the back corner include a surplus of impossibly soft Jellycat stuffed animals.

Home & Garden also carries Beekman 1802 body soaps and lotions from upstate New York, Erin Flett-designed cotton canvas bucket hats and bags from Maine, and Grace and Liliko'i jewelry made by a Williston mother and daughter.

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• Daria Bishop
• Megan Meinen arranging products at Home & Garden Vermont

A smattering of books includes flower-focused titles on dahlias and ranunculus along with signed copies of Homegrown: Cooking From My New England Roots, written by renowned chef Matt Jennings of Charlotte. Racks of ceramic vases and pitchers, felt flowers, and floral pillows dominate the center of the store.

Another of Home & Garden's bestsellers is a $52 poster titled "ABCs of Life" that suggests an alphabetic philosophy: "Build something" for B, "Ignore the skeptics" for I, "Plant a seed" for P and so on.

The Qualeys raised their two children on Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Jack, now 71, had a thriving law practice. Jana, 62, was his office manager and dabbled in flower arranging. She took a workshop in North Carolina from a floral design expert who became a friend; in 2016, Jana opened a gift and florist shop near her South Carolina home.

In April 2018 the couple moved to Vermont "to get away from hurricanes and be near our grandchildren," Jack said. Their daughter, Megan, lives in Burlington and works part time at the shop during busy seasons. Her yard was the source of spirea sprays in the engagement party design.

The Qualeys meant to retire when they settled into their condo in the College and Battery building. They would stroll downtown on College Street and pass the little stand-alone brick building that then housed a Vermont Farm Table showroom. Jana figured she was merely fantasizing when she suggested opening a store there if the space ever became available.

In September that year, it did. Jack called the landlord the day they saw the rental sign and had a lease within a week. After some sprucing, Home & Garden opened in November 2018, just in time for the holidays.

Jana realized Home & Garden wouldn't do well selling the nautical-themed merchandise that dominated her store shelves in South Carolina. "I used to do oysters and shrimp," she said. "It was very coastal."

There, she also sold a ton of paper goods, monogrammed items and plaques with Bible quotes that didn't fly in Vermont. For locals and tourists alike, she needed "moose and cows and mushrooms," she said, and learned through trial and error.

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• Daria Bishop
• Products at Home & Garden Vermont

Jana views Home & Garden's niche among other downtown Burlington shops, including Slate and Common Deer, as a source of gifts for any budget. "I just want to find nice things at affordable prices," she said. "And that's why people come from Essex."

Sales have climbed slightly but steadily every year, with retail items accounting for about 80 percent of them, Jack said. "You have to have all of this," Jana said, gesturing around the store and then pointing to her florist counter, "to do this."

"We rely so much on foot traffic," Jack added. "Most people who walk by aren't looking for flowers. They're looking for gifts."

When the shop closed for nearly two months during the COVID-19 lockdown, the owners set up their first e-commerce site and continued to take flower orders, offering free regional delivery. In a single day, Jack said, he drove from North Hero to Basin Harbor in Vergennes. Bloom stems covered the floor of Home & Garden, Jana recalled.

She credited loyal customers for Home & Garden's survival: "They stayed with us."

It was one of those early supporters who had placed the engagement party order. As Jana added the finishing touches, tucking branches of her daughter's spirea around the cabbage rose, she deemed the arrangement satisfactory, "like you're taking a walk through an English garden."