York County’s newest mobile flower shop a family venture that can bloom everywhere

John and Angelica Tupper were looking for a way to expand their farm.

But with only a small parcel, the owners of Five Blossoms Farm in Clover didn’t think a physical store would be best for a customer base extends past York County into North Carolina.

That’s when they decided it would be better to just bring the farm to their consumers.

“As we looked at this big trend towards more food trucks and drink trucks and all of these sort of mobile businesses, we thought that a mobile blossom bar would really fit in with overall what we’re trying to do,” John said.

Using an old converted trailer left over from Five Blossoms’s days as horse farm the Tuppers launched: a fully-operational mobile flower shop named “The Blossom Bar.” John Tuppers’ sister created the trailer’s art design.

The bar features all of the products that the farm sells, such as its flowers and honey. The new venture gives the couple something that no one else in the area has.

“The final reason is we want to be unique,” John said. “The best count we’ve got is that this is probably the sixth- or -seventh one of these in the country, so it’s pretty unique. And we think that probably helps us develop more business too.”

The couple decided to test the Blossom Bar at places where they’ve already established a stable relationship — that included McGill’s Store in Clover on March 30.

The bar sold out of all of its inventory three times, motivating the Tuppers to roll out The Blossom Bar to even more events.

On April 6, the Blossom Bar was at Slow Play Brewery in Rock Hill. The brewery uses some of the farm’s honey in one of its beers.

“Having just rolled it out, we’re now collaborating with some of our existing business partners to help create awareness for what we do and bring more of the farm to the surrounding communities and develop more of a following,” John Tupper said.

Origins of Five Blossoms Farm

The Tuppers started gardening over ten our years ago; Angelica focused on flowers while John spent his time with backyard beekeeping.

But the COVID-19 lockdown forced people to spend more time at home. The couple passed the time learning more about their hobby via watching TV shows and knew they wanted to take it a step further.

“I took two workshops online, and they basically teach you the ins and outs of the flower-farming business and how important it is to our economy now that we’re trying to push forward to have more American-grown flowers versus importing them,” Angelica Tupper said.

“With myself being from Colombia, I have nothing against the industry because we export a lot to the U.S. and other countries. But you can not beat something that you can just pull from your garden, from your farm.”

The couple started growing flowers in their backyard, but with so many mature trees, they quickly ran out of space at their Lake Wylie home.

The Tuppers made the decision to expand, moving to the 15-acre parcel in February 2021 that became the Five Blossoms Farm. The five blossoms symbolize the couple’s five children.

The success of the farm and The Blossom Bar has the Tuppers thinking about other potential ventures. The Blossom Bar has been booked for events as far in the future as Dec. 14. A harvest of 20,000 tulips still came with requests for more inventory.

“There’s a little bit of nerves involved because we’re still learning,” Angelica Tupper said. “We’re very new at this, we’ve been farming for three years. Both of us come from an engineering background. It’s amazing that we’ve been able to pick this up so quickly. I think the challenges come with keeping up with the demand.”

More about Five Blossoms Farm and The Blossom Bar

The Tuppers still work full-time jobs aside from the farm: John Tupper as a sales manager and Angelica Tupper as a project manager for TD Bank.

Because of this, Five Blossoms Farm is only open for appointments from Mondays through Saturdays and closed on Sundays. The farm is located at 1121 Crossland Rd. in Clover.

The Blossom Bar will appearat the Annual Spring Market hosted by the Spring Cafe in downtown York from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.