Farmers Branch Surrey House Floral Designs officially opens July 7

by Minnie Payne

FARMERS BRANCH — Although Farmers Branch’s newest floral shop, Surrey House Floral Designs, opened its doors March 1 to a brisk business, the official ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at noon July 7.

Owners Joyce and Bob Standley are a youthful 75 and 73, respectively. Joyce designs the arrangements and Bob is the delivery person. The staff consists of four employees.

“As long as I can brighten someone’s day with flowers, I will always feel young,” Joyce said. “I don’t see retiring in the near future, and I feel so blessed that the Lord has fulfilled my dreams in making people happy.”

Joyce opened her first floral shop in partnership with Truly Delicious Cakes and Catering, serving the Dallas area for over 18 years, in 2000. Both businesses are housed within the elegant registered historic home The Surrey House & Gardens built in 1910, used for private events such as weddings, receptions, parties and business conferences, as well as an area for making wedding and special events cakes.

“Owners Mark and Carol Barratt and Cheryl Reeves were doing a good business and requests from clientele for floral arrangements started coming in,” Joyce said. “That’s where I came into the picture.

. “They asked me to open a floral studio within The Surrey House & Gardens, so that they could offer clients a complete package.”

She said that by having a second shop in Farmers Branch, she can provide her customers with even more service. She continues to meet by appointment at The Surrey House & Gardens, but makes the floral arrangements at the Valley View location, taking them to McKinney. If an arrangement is too large to transport, she makes it in McKinney.

Joyce hasn’t always been a floral designer.

“I worked for the government in the accounting field for 20 years and was aspiring to be a CPA until my two daughters left for college, and I got the empty nest syndrome,” she said. “Bob was a field engineer for NEC Electronics and traveled, so I decided to do something I really enjoyed, floral arranging.”

In 1978 she graduated from Dallas Floral Design School and liked it so much that she decided to change her career from CPA to floral designer.

“I worked for a florist for two years and then went into business for myself in Farmers Branch, working out of our home, until I started to work in McKinney,” Joyce said.

In 1992 she earned a Texas Master Florist certification from the Texas State Florists' Association. She and her staff-member daughter, Karen, also studied with Dutch Floral Masters in Holland.

“I taught adult evening classes in floral design at Brookhaven College from 1985 to 2003, and also taught at Collin County Community College for five years,” Joyce said.

Surrey House Floral Designs’ flowers come from the best wholesalers in the area, she said, and are of top quality.

“We guarantee our flowers to be fresh, and we instruct our customers as to how to get the full value out of them,” Joyce said.