TheBurg

38 | theburgnews.com | 04.18 r ather poetically, in November of last year, the west end of the Broad Street Market suddenly looked as if summer had shown up half-a-year early. Credit goes to D. McGee Design Studio, the embodiment of Dolores McGee's lifelong love of plants. Her stand is now the first thing market-goers see as they enter the courtyard end of the brick building at the market. "It's surprising the number of people who come through the doors and say, 'Wow! Look at all this color! What are these?'" McGee said. With an arresting display of buckets brimming with vibrantly colored blossoms and greenery, the stand is hard to miss (or resist). As we talk, she shares a colorful and particularly formative experience she had as a child. "I was lying on the ground in my grandmother's garden, gazing up through the flower heads waving atop their long green stems," she said. e beds, she said, were exploding with irises in blue-violet, dazzling yellow and peach, juxtaposed with white dahlias and zinnias. In addition to her grandmother, McGee credits former market flower vendor, Margaret Kocevar, and a few other people along the way, for nurturing her love of horticulture. "My grandmother was really the key to my interest, and I ignored it for decades," McGee said, laughing. "I think you tend to do that—especially my generation. You tend to not look at the things that make you happy. You look at the things that will make you money, without realizing they don't necessarily make you happy." Following the more traditional track, McGee pursued an HR career that spanned 25 years. "I mean, how far removed is that?" she said. But, during this time, she took dozens of horticulture classes—from botany to biology, plant ID, soil development, landscape design and sustainability, to name just a few. "Had I been smart about it and taken them all from one institution, I'd have another degree," she said. "But I still had fun." Gradually, McGee began sharing her knowledge and love of plants with the world, eventually branching out to events, workshops, weddings, a range of custom floral design. rough this, she slowly built a client book via mostly word-of-mouth referrals. Flower Finds A burst of color at the Broad Street Market. bY norAh grIFFIths Johnson hbg smALL busIness ArtIcLes Are ProuDLY sPonsoreD bY:

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