Cope florist makes move to Orangeburg
By T&D Staff Sunday, November 22, 2009A Cope floral business has moved to Orangeburg and opened its doors at the site of a longtime florist shop.
Garden Gate Florist opened Nov. 6 at the former Berry’s LTD shop at 1692 Carolina Ave.
“All our customers kept saying, ‘Oh, how we wish you were closer to town,” Garden Gate florist owner Daryl Cates said. “We had actually outgrown our location in Cope and so many of our customer base is in the Orangeburg area.”
Cates said the move to the 2,250-square-foot building will enable them to double their space.
Cates opened Garden Gate Florist in Cope about nine years ago and had his eye on locating to Orangeburg for the past three years, but his former co-worker Charles Whisenhunt passed away, leaving Cates a sole owner.
“I kind of put it off and wanted to see how the business would go,” Cates said. “Business continued to grow and thrive.”
The Carolina Avenue building has been vacant since December 2007 when Orangeburg florist Julian Berry retired.
Cates said minor cosmetic changes were done to upfit the building for his purposes.
The Cope building will serve primarily as storage space.
Garden Gate employs two full-time floral master designers.
Business regular hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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