POST January/February 2015

What did your uncle
and your father do?
They built things
at the store. My father wasn’t
happy about me not becoming an
accountant or something. But after I made up
my mind, he was front and center. Whatever
you need. He had sleepless nights over it, you
know, but then he was always that way. If I
bought a house he thought I shouldn’t have,
he would tell me his worries. And if I decided
to do it anyway, he’d be right by my side.
Wow, that’s awesome.
And he never said, “I told you so,” or
anything.
Was your mom the same? Did she have the
same excitement?
My mom played more of a role of calming
my father down. You know, like, “Oh, you’ve
got to let go—he’ll be fine,” that kind of thing.
A little bit more of a cheerleader capacity. She
used to do all of my billing and paperwork at
home on the kitchen table.
Wow, that’s crazy to think about, isn’t it?
It is! I remember our first big wedding. I
didn’t have cooler space for it. So my father
turned the air conditioning down really low
and took all the furniture out of the dining
room, and he made a cooler for me in our dininterview
gating. Who propagates at 10? Go do your
homework! Go play a sport! My parents
couldn’t get me to do anything that the other
kids were doing. I was incredibly introverted.
Incredibly introverted. All I wanted to do was
be old enough to do what I wanted to do. And
that was pretty much my dream. I would go
to greenhouses with my parents. That was like
Disneyland to me.
So where did your love for nature go after
that?
When I was about 11, I started mowing
lawns because I wanted to make money. I had
a checkbook. And I had something like 15
lawns that I would cut. So I started this landscape
business. And I was really busy. As a kid,
if I was ever in trouble, it was related to work.
It was working too much or not coming home
on time or not focused on my schoolwork. It
was the most bizarre thing. … I was late for
my prom because I was making close to 100
corsages. I would take orders at school. I was
the kid that did the flowers. Nobody picked
on me or anything. It was just my thing.
Actually, I don’t think I would have noticed if
they picked on me. I didn’t give a shit. I really
didn’t give a shit. I was just doing my own
thing.
Did you go to college?
No. My parents were
horrified. I never took
the SATs because I had no
business. So to make everybody
happy, I went to MCC for retail business
management. The first semester interfered
with the holiday season at Josh Gardens. And
then the second semester interfered with Valentine’s
Day. One day I just realized it was too
much. I had to choose.
So you left school.
Yes. I opened my own business with
$1,200, and my uncle and my father and my
other uncle helping me with this little store
that was 250 square feet. [Note: Charles’s
father quit his job as the quality control manager
of a cutting room for a clothing manufacturer
to help at the store]. I was living at home
until I was 24 because I had no money. Every
penny I made I put back in to the business.
Where was the store located?
Irondequoit. It was in Irondequoit on
North Clinton.
What was it called?
Arena’s. It was 1980. I just knew that if I
was going to make it, I had to do something
the other florists weren’t doing. I would take
the order, process the flowers, design the arrangement,
and get in my car and deliver it.
18 POST | Issue 9 January / February 2015