Benjamin Schwartz, blooming florist and shoemaker

Wander to the back of the Warehouse Artist Lofts Public Market and you’ll find an adorable little stand stocked with mums, peonies and other flowers that are definitely more interesting than carnations. Shoe craftsman Benjamin Schwartz (Benjamins) founded the Nice Stems flower shop with fellow WAL dwellers Ali Setayesh (Kechmara Designs) and Peter Chiu (Fish Face Poke Bar) a few months ago. They assemble custom bouquets depending on your budget, deliver flowers by bicycle and offer subscription services for folks who just need flowers on a regular basis. In honor of Valentine’s Day, SN&R chatted with Schwartz about the power of roses and other very important floral matters.

Why do you think people like flowers so much?

I think it’s in our nature to want to be surrounded by things that are alive. Plants remind us of being outside when we’re trapped in our offices or when the weather is bad.

Do you remember the first time you received flowers?

No. (Laughs.) Doesn’t it just feel like something that’s always in your life? It feels like an event, but at the same time it’s always there.

Why open a flower shop at a time that so many flower shops are closing?

If you go to Europe or even New York or some other big cities, there are little flower stands all over the place. The overhead is low—it’s just this tiny stand. You’re not paying for a lot of space, you’re not paying a bunch of employees. It’s really just flowers and customers. So, I think the reason a lot of flower shops are closing in California is because of the model behind flower shops. There’s a really low profit margin with flowers, so to get rid of as many other obstacles as possible—number of employees, rent, utilities and everything else—and really just bring it down to flowers helps. … But for me, the original reason to do it was because of that wall. It wasn’t really like, “I wanna do a flower shop and I wanna find a space for a flower shop.” It was more like, “There’s this space in the market and the perfect thing for this space is a flower shop.”

When you go shopping for flowers, do you already know what you’ll pick?

No. Sometimes we get requests. People can ask us ahead of time, like, “We need 50 stems of white roses,” and we can order that with enough notice. But when it comes to the holidays, like Valentine’s Day, it’s a little bit harder because all the florists are all getting similar things. Sometimes they’re kind of fighting over flowers for people. But usually we just see what looks the best when we’re there. … We’re trying to pick up things that are a little more unique or are not just the average flower. I feel like there are some flowers that seem like drugstore flowers—carnations or something really basic—so we try to have something that looks really nice and will last a little longer, too.

It’ll be your first Valentine’s Day. Nervous?

A little bit. (Laughs.) It’s difficult because we don’t really know what to expect. I guess if we run out of flowers, we run out of flowers.

Do you have a background with flowers?

I think of it as no, that I don’t have any experience with flowers. But I did grow up with a lot of flowers in the yard, gardening with my mother. More recently, we’ve been learning as we go. I think in some ways it’s an advantage, because we’ll do something that’s not the traditional way. But a lot of flower shops having been doing it so long, they just do it that way because that’s how they’ve always done it.

What are you looking for when you design bouquets?

It’s really about color and picking things that work well together from a color standpoint. It works well for me at least because I do that a lot with fabrics for shoes.

What flowers best say, “I love you”?

I think most people would say roses.

But would you say roses?

I mean, yeah. (Laughs.) I wouldn’t say roses don’t say that. I don’t think it would be fair to say that somebody is wrong if they say roses.

Fair enough. What flowers best say, “This is just a one-night stand”?

Oh, I don’t know! Not a plant. Plant says long-term. Ali [Setayesh] thinks anything tropical. They’re flashy, and they’re cut flowers so they don’t last so long. They remind you of vacation.

Last one: What flowers best say, “Let’s just be friends”?

Oh, harsh. (Laughs.) Well, dead ones are probably not a good sign.