Walking into Falcon Flowers is like walking into someone’s living room – someone who is completely obsessed with flowers! The entire front of the shop is filled with artistically designed arrangements of flowers and various gift items, including an old window frame, stuffed animals, candles and picture frames. The colors of the flowers reflect the season: yellow, burnt orange, burgundy and brown.Owners Kyndra and Brian Livingstone, along with manager Dave Kempers and designer Colleen Zeien, have created a welcoming atmosphere where patrons can choose a flower arrangement or gift for special occasions, holidays or everyday use. And when the Livingtones are in the shop, so is Paige, their 8-month-old daughter, whose playpen is set up in the back of the store.The Livingstones opened Falcon Flowers in May 2003, when they saw the growth in the area and recognized an opportunity to realize their dream of owning a business. “The flower shop sort of fell into place,” Brian Livingstone said. They found another shop that was going out of business and selling its inventory. Kyndra Livingstone’s aunt owned a flower shop in Pueblo and was able to provide support and advice. Safeway had just opened, and the Livingstones had their choice of storefronts in the shopping center.Brian and Kyndra Livingstone were familiar with Falcon: They had lived in Falcon for two and one-half years before they moved to Colorado Springs. They are now looking for a new home in Falcon so they can be close to their business.Both Livingstones have other jobs in addition to owning the floral shop. Brian Livingstone is an El Paso County deputy sheriff, and Kyndra Livingstone works as a case manager for a private agency that provides long-term Medicaid care management.Kyndra Livingstone handles the bookkeeping and administrative work for the shop. Shortly after opening Falcon Flowers, the Livingstones began looking for a store manager. Finding Kempers “was pure luck,” Brian said. He had managed several floral shops before he came to Falcon Flowers, and he has been in the floral business since 1971. Zeien picked up her design talents from experience: She’s been in the floral design business for almost 20 years. She also creates many of the crafts displayed in the shop.Falcon Flowers can supply just about any type of decorative floral arrangement. They subscribe to the two major wire services, TeleFlora and FTD, and have extensive selection guides from both of these services. A customer can come in and look through these guides to choose an arrangement. Out-of-state flowers are sent through arrangements with participating shops in the other cities.Custom arrangements, including balloons, fruit baskets, gourmet baskets and themed arrangements, are available as well. For the funeral of a man who loved archery, they created a floral arrowhead.”We carry a little bit of everything,” Brian Livingstone explained. Kempers can create silk flower displays, especially popular for decorating new homes. “But the big thing we do is provide service,” he said. The shop delivers to homes and businesses in Falcon, Calhan, Peyton, Ellicott and Colorado Springs.To keep up with the trends, the Livingstones attend twice-yearly shows at the Denver Merchandise Mart and a January show in Dallas. The three local wholesalers also have shows to introduce their customers to new products.The major challenge is to get the word out about their store. “It’s better to focus on where you are and try to do that well,” Kempers said. “The nice thing about a community that’s small like this is that the businesses try to support each other, so you try to do your business locally.”The wire services and supermarkets are formidable competition for the small shops, so Falcon Flowers has to go that extra mile. “A lot of flower shops from other states call us because we’re local and are able to deliver to the homes out here in Falcon,” Kempers said.When new businesses move into the Falcon area, the Livingstones contact the owners and introduce their services. Kyndra Livingstone usually visits the business with a gift from Falcon Flowers and talks to them about the area and the services offered by their shop. They also participated in the third annual Falcon Days festival on July 3, where they displayed their arrangements, handed out balloons and had a drawing for a free arrangement.Falcon Flowers is located at 7661 McLaughlin Rd. (next to Safeway), and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 1p.m. on Saturdays. Call 494-0209 for more information.
