By: Alonna Gibbs
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| Paula "Pj" Roberts, owner of Magnolia Oaks Florist and co-worker Dee Barfield work together in the small town of Tyrone, Georgia doing floral work. Pj moved the floral shop to the small town after buying it and relocating from Fayetteville, GA. |
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| Dee Barfield works on a wedding bouquet for a clients who is getting married in a few months. "I never intended on working in floral work. My sister got me into it", says Dee. |
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| Dee Barfield stated that her sister got her into floral as a hobby but she says that she could not get away from it. "Initially I was in child care work in Lake City, GA", says Dee. |
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| "We are actually busier now than before the pandemic happened," said Paula. "Since the start of the pandemic, we have been doing more flower orders than usual because all people could do was send their loved ones flowers." |
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| Paula and Dee were working on funeral and wedding arrangements on Friday. "We service areas within a 10 mile radius," said Dee |
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| "Its actually surprising because people don't typically die during the summer months," said Pj. |
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| "The difference was unbelieve-able once we moved our shop here," says Pj. "It wouldn't be fair to give all the store sales to COVID," says Pj. |
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| "People see their mama and immediately send them flowers," says Dee. Cushion mumins are commonly used in floral work. |
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| "These are carnations that people love to order because of their look", says Dee. Dee begins naming all of the flowers located in the small shop. |
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| "Granted we have been busy because of the pandemic, it's still hard to believe the pandemic happened", says Dee. |
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| Magnolia Oaks gets very little calls during the week. The floral shop gets more online orders. |
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| "The biggest struggle we have is the production of the flowers", says Dee. "We get a lot of orders but depending on the production we can't always fill the customers request or at least we try to fill their request with alternatives." |
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| The "Blessing Box" sits outside the Tyrone floral shop. Inside are can goods that citizens put in there to help those in need of perishable items. |
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| "I love the location", says Pj. "It's a small town but there are good places around here, we all support each other especially since the pandemic has happened". |
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| Sundaze Blaze Strawflowers are bright orange with yellow undertones. "People see these as seasonal flowers because of the bright colors", says Dee. |
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| Dee and Paula's workspace for arranging flowers sits in the middle of the shop. On the back wall there are cups, mugs and other types of vases that customers like to buy. |
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| Paula works on a funeral wreath that she fills with sunflowers. "People get different arrangements everyday," says Pj. |
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| "There is different material that we use for different flowers depending on how the customer wants it arranged", says Pj. |
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| "We can't give an accurate number of how many orders we do off the top of our heads but since the pandemic has happened," says Pj. |
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| "We have an array of vases for each occasion", says Dee. |
