Flowers Are Like Family, The Roots Run Deep at Blumz
(Sadie Quagliotto, Blumz by JR Designs, June 22, 2015)
Flowers have all kinds of different meanings to different people. They are given to celebrate joy, happiness, the arrival of a new baby, a birthday and even the loss of a loved one.   Flowers are the universal symbol of love and care.  But, for Jerome Raska and his family flowers are a lot more important and their roots go a little bit deeper.
Cecilia Kula married Leo Raska when she was only 17 years old.  Together they ran a large dairy farm with over 80 livestock.  They also had four children, two boys and two girls.  As soon as the kids were old enough, they helped maintain the farm.  As you can imagine, Cecilia was a very busy women but somehow she always made time to plant and maintain a large garden on their property. Attending to the garden became one of the children’s favorite pastimes, especially for her son Jerome.  Little did Cecilia know that while she was cultivating a beautiful garden she was also raising a future award winning florist.
Jerome learned gardening from his mother and turned his passion for flowers and plants into a career.  For over 30 years he has worked in the floral, event, and design industry and he has become a leader and educator in his field.  Jerome opened the Detroit location of Blumz by JRDesigns with co-owner Robbin Yelverton over 14 years ago. Since then they have opened another shop in Ferndale, Michigan and a private appointment only showroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The business has grown throughout the years and so has the family.
Jerome now has four children of his own, Christina, Rochelle, Heather and Zachary. All  four of his children have worked in the floral industry throughout the years.  In fact, Rochelle and Zachary are still integral part of the Blumz team.
Both Heather and Rochelle recently had children and decided to pay homage to the couple that started it all, their grandparents Leo and Cecilia Raska. They named their latest additions after their great grandparents and set up a time for great grandma Cecilia to meet her namesakes.  Cecilia has 14 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren but this meeting was extra special to her.  She said it meant a lot to know that her name would be carried on and when she held Leo for the first time she said “ I never thought I would get to hold Leo again” ( sadly her husband Leo passed away over 30 years ago).  It was a touching and heartfelt moment for four generations to gather together to celebrate love, life, and of course flowers.
Cecilia is proud of her family and proud of the fact that even at 93 years old she is still able to attend to her garden.  She currently grows lots of tomatoes and some of her favorite flowers including tulips and begonia’s.  She said that even when her garden isn’t growing outside her son Jerome keeps her house full of fresh blooms. In fact, she said that this Easter he brought over the biggest Easter Lily she has ever seen.
During this special visit Jerome snapped a picture of three generations of their family together (four if you count him taking the picture).  It is a beautiful picture and a beautiful story that we wanted to share with all of you.  Flowers are much more than a special gift to make mom smile, growing flowers together can become a family tradition for generations to enjoy! For more information about flowers, gift giving, and gardening visit Blumz.com. We have a new blog up on the website that has lots of tips and tricks!  Flower and gardening a great way to bring generations of people together.