Nestled into the bustling town of Redondo Beach, the effervescent flower shop, Magical Blooms, rises up among other surrounding stores along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Featured Photo: Magical Blooms Facebook
Shop owner, Jenny Barker, transcends her job of flower assembling and hand-makes her arrangements into something never seen before. Her warm and home-like studio welcomes visitors with an overwhelming feeling of joyful energy and music. A warm fire welcomes you inside, accompanied by bursts of cheerfully colored Gerbera daisies, deep red pigmented roses and delicate accents of greenery.
Barker started her business as an ambitious eighteen-year-old with $500 and a dream. She’d always been in touch with her connection to flowers and life’s purpose of creating beauty. Her clairvoyant abilities with floral arrangements led her to coin the shop’s name, Magical Blooms. She understands the unique spiritual powers that flowers hold in each color, texture and meaning.
After 21 years of growing her business, “The Flower Prescription” is Barker’s most recent creation. A magical journey shipped directly to your front door, The Flower Prescription is the COVID-friendly way to get the live, hands-on experience of floral arrangement with the unique and personable flower professional who wants you to enjoy every step of the way.
Magical Blooms fills you in with everything you need to start building your own arrangements from the comfort of your home.
Sprinkling in fresh tips, tricks and laughter into every minute of your time together, Barker hosts straight from the flower farm and coaches you on the ultimate importance of the stems in your life.
Photo: Magical Blooms Facebook
LASM: What is your favorite thing about designing flower arrangements?
Jenny Barker: When I’m designing, it’s never the same thing. I can always switch it up, even if I’m doing centerpieces for a party or an event … Even [if] it’s a sunflower, they’re always different shapes and personalities. It’s never the same day, never the same design.
LASM: What would the energy be like if someone were to walk into a Magical Blooms?
Jenny Barker: Just as a side note before I introduce that, most flower shops [can make you] kind of nervous when you walk in. You don’t know what you’re doing. My intention for Magical Blooms is to make sure it feels like you’re walking into a warm home. It’s a welcoming feeling even though I can’t have that right now. It’s, “Welcome to our shop. What can I do? What kind of flowers can I make special for you and design one-of-a-kind designs?” It’s like a hug, that feeling like I’m hugging someone.
Photo: Magical Blooms Facebook
LASM: How has your business changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Jenny Barker: Well, it’s interesting because most of us survive on events and weddings and funerals and different things happening. What’s cool is because people are not seeing each other, I feel like people are calling more. More than ever, because there’s that loss of connection to friendships. Right now, people really want to have a connection through flowers, like the bond of relationships. It’s still happening. In fact, our business is doing better than ever right now.
LASM: How would you describe your connection to flowers?
Jenny Barker: We’re tight. I’ve always liked flowers since I was little. I know that when you have a room of flowers, you have a room of life. That is a dedication to my lifestyle. When you have flowers around, it instantly zaps negativity. It’s just nothing but greatness, nothing but good vibes.
The secret sauce of that, by the way, from our shop is that I pray on my flowers. I make sure that when I’m making an arrangement, I’m completely in alignment.
When I make the design, I’m not anywhere else but with that client. When they receive that in flowers, they’re like, “Whoa.” My goal is to make someone cry when they receive flowers, not because they’re sad. Because it’s like, “Ah, I’m connected. I am special and important. I’m loved. I’m not alone.”
LASM: What does it mean for you to be a “clairvoyant of flowers?”
Jenny Barker: It’s a lifestyle. A few years back, I mentioned, “Okay, I hear flowers. I see flowers.” What it means to me is that a clairvoyant is all about energy. It’s all about an aura. It’s all about vibration. When you can align those to flowers and align those to the right client, then it’s like a grand slam.
LASM: Was that something that you learned, or is it something that you are?
Jenny Barker: I think that I was fortunate, and I was taught at a young age by my mom and a creative family to have free range, free will. When you are not confined as a kid with artistry, you’re kind of like born into it more. For me, I’m self-taught and self-educated. Now I teach, so that’s my heartbeat. I love teaching.
Photo: Magical Blooms Facebook
LASM: How has your 21st year of business been compared to the previous years? You said you’re doing better than ever?
Jenny Barker: I am around a lot of really positive people right now. I feel like I’m back to my beginning. The key is how I made that happen. There are certain things you can do. I’ve been asked a lot about how I keep myself around what inspires me. That brings back the youth of when I started. I was 19, on my own professionally. The cool thing about flowers is that there’s always a new season. There’s always a new flower. There’s always something new happening. You have to always reinvent yourself … It’s like, switch it up, switch it up, switch it up, switch it up.
LASM: What would you say inspires you to do your work?
Jenny Barker: My son, a hundred percent. I want to leave a legacy for my son, Jack Golden. For him to talk about me in the future, like, “My mom’s awesome!” I have a reason to wake up, to be a role model, an inspiration and that’s my biggest inspiration –– my son.
Interviewed by Ellie Howard
Read next: May Chioma Odiakosa: An Unstoppable Woman of Determination
