Maloy Love of Mountain Brook Flower Shop in Birmingham, AL., credits his mother (who was a teacher), with instilling in him the instinct to treat everything as a learning experience.  Love also garnered inspiration from the generations of family members who tilled the soil to earn a living.  He was taught at an early age, to plant a seed and watch it develop.  He recalls his interest in some of his uncle’s farming techniques and confesses that he originally planned to go into growing himself.   However, life led him down other paths.

Love humbly explains that the only training he has had, which has anything to do with his floral arranging, is years of art studies from grammar school through college.  He realized that his eye caught sight of things that other people just didn’t see.  His artistic instinct and love of the tactile interaction with organic materials have served him well over the years.

Mountain Brook Flower Shop opened in the late 1940s and Love bought the shop after having been employed there for a number of years.  He feels that his devoted clientele is the reason he is still in business today.  Love thinks of the shop as being a bespoke tailor of the flower business. Their style is inspired by nature and has a strong Asian influence combining a curved line of beauty with the angularity of the straight line.

The flower business has become Love’s calling because it allows him to be a part of his client’s lives from birth until death.  In good times and in bad times he is doing his utmost to help them to feel better.  For Love, it is all based on a trust which cannot be betrayed.