July 26, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Grandmom survived the Titanic
‘Botanical’ brings beauty of flowers to Flourtown
by PAT STOKES

Long-time Chestnut Hill resident Mark Petteruti arranges flowers in his shop, Botanical Expressions, at 1510 Bethlehem Pike in Flourtown, just a few doors beyond the traffic light at Bysher Avenue.

While it may be stretching a point, for purposes of this column I’d like to think that “a walk down the garden path” could be called a botanical expression. Indeed the rear route to the Flourtown flower shop of that name (Botanical Expressions) will lead you along a sweet wood-and-pebble path bordered by so many flowers that for the moment you’ll feel you really are in a garden. At the end, walk right, to the entrance at 1510 Bethlehem Pike, just a few doors beyond the traffic light at Bysher Avenue. (See specific parking details at the end of this column.)

Go up the step. Open the door. Where to start? Tiny-but-terrific comes to mind to describe the shop itself. Formerly a house (and at one time an embroidery shop), the main room features a small fireplace and a mantel, the ideal spot to display ever-changing stunning flower arrangements along with flowers in vases and plants in pots on floor and walls and shelves everywhere.

Busy at one of the tables in the rear workroom is none other than long-time Chestnut Hill flower whiz, Jimmy Hayden, now building a gorgeous green and yellow creation for one of the shop’s many clients who like to have fresh flowers in their homes every week. Jimmy is known to Chestnut Hillers for his 25 years of flower artistry at Robertson’s, later at a shop in Erdenheim and at one point in his own flower store right on Germantown Avenue.

So how did this place come to be? Just the natural result of one person’s passion for plants and flowers, namely Mark Petteruti. Mark earned a B.S. degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design from the University of Rhode Island and that same year came to Chestnut Hill to accept an internship from Robertson’s. This led to a 10-year stint working in Robertson’s Conservatory ... what a wonderful start!

The following years included interior plantscaping for both residential and commercial settings, retail sales experience, horticultural consulting, plant design and maintenance, all of which are included in the makeup of his own Horticulture Consulting firm started in 1994 and continuing up to the present. So this dear little shop stems from good solid roots with expertise bursting out of every aspect of its growth.

Perhaps this would be the place to mention a fact covered in detail in a previous Local article, that Mark’s grandmother, Bertha Elisabeth Noon, had actually survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 by leaping from the deck into a lifeboat, “like jumping from a three-story building,” she said. That kind of determination and singleness of purpose no doubt runs in Mark’s veins as he has steadfastly moved his caring and creative interest from one level to the next, building a superb wide-ranging business covering a large area of the city.

Those pretty plant boxes in front of some of the Chestnut Hill shops? Mark’s staff planted and maintains many of them; the table flowers that echoed the theme of that last catered party you attended? Possibly more of Mark’s doing; and the good-looking plantscaping in the offices of that big corporation you visited last week are very likely the work of Mark’s Horticultural Consulting Company.

Anything else? Well, orchids, of course. He’s an expert in orchids and succulents, and is a member of the American and Philadelphia Orchid Societies, and his knowledge commands a large following of orchid lovers. A focal point in the shop always features a variety of beauties, displayed at their best. They’re so elegant and perfect, one sometimes can’t believe they’re real. And well-crafted unreal silk flowers which look very real are available at the shop, too.

Mark’s work is highly personalized. He knows his customers’ tastes, and plans his arrangements and flower schemes to fit their lifestyle and surroundings, from a simple coffee-table design to a total interior plan for the home to a complete plantscaping on the corporate level.