P R OF I L E
SARA YORK GRIMSHAW AS TOLD TO The Urban Electric Co.
PROFILE
S
IN THE WORLD OF FLORAL DESIGN, FEW LEADING FIGURES PROFESS THEIR
LOVE—PASSION EVEN—FOR INVASIVE SPECIES AS READILY AS SARA YORK GRIMSHAW. A SEASONED AND EXPERIENCED HORTICULTURALIST AND INDUSTRY VETERAN
WHOSE EXPERTISE RANGES FROM CREATING LIVING ENVIRONMENTS FROM SCRATCH TO BREATHING FRESH LIFE INTO EXISTING SPACES TO ENHANCING EVENTS AND
PHOTOSHOOTS THROUGH HER TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO NATURE, SARA IS THE ULTIMATE FLORAPHILE. SHE JUST LOVES PLANTS—ALL PLANTS—FINDING BEAUTY EVEN IN NATURE’S LESS DESIRABLE SPECIMENS.
The roots of Sara’s calling run deep, all the way back to a small Ohio farm town called Andover, where the designer grew up in an idyllic world punctuated by fences overgrown with peonies and a can-do culture of canning. If not for a series of pivotal events that led to Charleston, she might well have stayed there and lived out her days contentedly tending to her own plot of land. But when her path turned southward, Sara dug in, establishing herself on the Charleston floral design scene while still in college and building a following that eventually led her to found her own floral design studio, SYG. In the process, she has been commissioned by everyone from interior design impresario Ken Fulk, who introduced us to her wow factor early on, to movie producer Joel Silver, who enlisted her services to enliven Auldbrass, his Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home (see page 104), to the work she did bringing trees, greenery and other living elements to our new factory here at Urban Electric. A consummate partner who anticipates her clients’ needs and desires even as she brings her own vision into verdant focus in unexpected ways, Sara describes herself as a “salt of the Earth” type of person, who derives joy and satisfaction from enhancing the environments of others. She is an aesthete but also a naturalist—hence the embrace of a botanical spectrum that encompasses both weeds and wonder—and her talents continue to bloom through additional ventures, such as Gnome Café, the vegan-curious dining destination she runs from the space adjacent to her floral studio. But, then, hard work is in her DNA, as Sara continues to make clear, and her approach to cultivation is rooted in community, whether it applies to plants or people.
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Harvest born: Sara at a favorite foraging spot on Johns Island.
“I HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART FOR INVASIVE SPECIES AND THE PLANTS THAT ARE SO ABUNDANT THEY ARE BEGGING TO BE NOTICED.”
I
SARA YORK GRIMSHAW in her own words...
was very much a tomboy growing up. We didn’t
Florida because, for me at that point, Florida was the
have a working farm, but it was close to it. We
farthest away I had ever been in my life. I didn’t get
always had a garden; we canned a lot of vegetables,
accepted to the school there that I applied to, though,
froze a lot of food. We had seven horses that I rode. I
and the College of Charleston was my backup. I honestly
baled hay. There were peonies along the fenceline. It
thought when I moved here that I would stay for one
was magic, the kind of childhood that I wish everyone
semester and reapply, but then I got here and I was
could have. I remember thinking even then, ‘I wish I
like...‘Woah! This place is amazing. I am definitely not
could just stay in this moment forever.’
moving to Florida.’ I immediately fell in love with the landscape and got a job working at Charleston Florist,
At a very young age I was super attracted to cutting
a flower shop that used to be on King Street. I was there
plants and flowers to design with, but my father is
for two years and loved it. After that, I got married
highly allergic to flowers, so we were never allowed
and took a brief hiatus to teach when my husband got
to bring anything into the house. As a result, we were
a teaching job, but I would come home weeping every
always looking for excuses to use them, like, ‘Oh,
night, and I left after seven weeks. I freelanced for a
Mom, are we having people over? I’ll do something
bit but never could fully find my footing doing that,
on the picnic table,’ or ‘Are we doing something
either. I kept wondering, ‘What is my thing that sets me
outside? Maybe it could use some flowers?’ And I was
apart?’ So I started focusing on my own work and put a
just gathering what was around, going out on the
walk-in cooler shop in my house in 2008.
old railroad tracks and harvesting bundles of Shasta daisies and that kind of thing. In high school, I worked
At that point, I had been in the business long enough
at English Rose Floral Shoppe, which was a local place,
that I figured…‘If I keep my overhead low and get this
and our specialty was making these gigantic red rose
off the ground, it’ll be okay.’ And when our current
arrangements—the two-dozen special—and 90s-style
space on Spring Street became available in 2010, the
prom corsages. I loved working there, but my heart was
studio found its permanent home and I couldn’t be
always more into wild blooms and organic cuttings,
happier. We do events and installs in all shapes and
which is what I still love to do.
sizes, and the people who are exposed to what we create may not even realize that their overall experience was
Even today, I will go back home and cut armloads
elevated by the flowers; they’ll just know that it felt
of things that are just interesting. I’ll wrap them in
good, and it looked amazing even if they can’t pinpoint
newspaper, tape them up, water-pack them and take
why. That’s always my question, ‘Was it fun? Did they
them as my carry-on back to Charleston. I have had
enjoy themselves?’
some epic adventures traveling with flowers. Like, me in airport bathrooms, trying to keep them alive,
This work is part of who I am, the fabric of my life. I’m
watering them down in a sink.
still an avid gardener—my husband and I have a little bit of land on James Island and most of it is greenhouse
The first passionate love of my life was tragically killed
space. And at work, I’ve really tried to recommit myself
in a car accident, right on the street at the corner of
to being an earth-centric florist or designer. I source
my parents’ house, and it sent me on a path away from
plants regionally, instead of shipping from all around
home. Up until then, I could see myself going to school
the world. I also have a special place in my heart for
in Cleveland, somewhere closer, and kind of embracing
invasive species and the plants that are so abundant
Midwest life. And the moment that happened that all
they are begging to be noticed. Everything has a
went away. I immediately started scouting schools in
purpose, and it’s my job and my joy to put them to use.
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SARA GRIMSHAW’S SECRET FORAGING SPOT JAMES ISLAND T H U R S D AY, O C T O B E R 8 , 2 0 2 0 8:38AM
BANANA BLOSSOM THE CRESCENT F R I D AY, D E C E M B E R 4 , 2 0 2 0 12:36PM