Hillside Floral looks to continue tradition of Valley Flowers, joins with Wild Edge

The long-time community staple Valley Flowers has a new name, along with new ownership, and now shares a building with another long-standing local business. 

May was quite the month for 154 East Main Street.

Shelley Hill has had a career that’s spanned from being an elementary school principal to event planner, but when her family moved back to Powell after 10 years in Texas, she entered a new career when she bought Rayven’s Flowers and Gifts  in Powell in 2021. 

She has now expanded that business in Lovell, taking over the renamed Hillside Floral on June 1. 

Alongside that development is the relocation of Wild Edge Screenprinting & Custom Apparel within that same building. Wild Edge owner Cindy Asay said the two businesses are a natural partnership.

Hill said her foray into the flower business is a natural extension of her past in event planning. Running the flower shop helps her to continue to provide those services, with a nice bouquet of flowers attached. 

“Mostly for me, it’s about really opening up and helping people plan for events,” Hill said.  “For example, we have a bride coming in at 3. So, we sit down with the bride, and we go over what she wants and how can we help on the flower end. If she needs help coordinating, I have a past coordinating weddings, as well, so it works pretty well.”

Hill, who grew up in Powell, said that her family has roots in Lovell, which played an important role in her choosing to take over the business.

“I love the community,” Hill said. “My husband Jeff’s grandma and grandpa (Buck and Phyllis Hill) used to live here. They loved Lovell, and his dad grew up here with his siblings. I was like ‘why not? That would be fun.’”

For the most part, Hill said, customers will not see too many changes from what Valley Flowers offered the community.

“I’m all about tradition. It’s an entity that you don’t want to break. There’s nothing broken here so why fix it?” Hill said. “But, I also want to bring my ideas in. We brought the balloons back. We’re bringing wood flowers. We’re going to bring in some DIY classes, like floral design and craft classes. We’ve been doing those in Powell, and they’ve been great. We’re not fixing but enhancing things.”

Classes have not been formed yet, but Hill advises residents to keep an eye out for their announcement. 

The shop will offer custom floral arrangements, with specialty flowers available to be ordered in with advance notice, balloons, candy bouquets, stuffed animals, baby shower and wedding gifts, custom fruit and snack baskets among other items and services. 

“It’s not only about flowers,” Hill said. “It’s about gift giving.”

Hill said Wild Edge joining her is one of the most exciting things about the new venture.

“Bringing (Cindy Asay’s) element of the gifts in is going to be huge,” Hill said. “If somebody wants to come in and say they want to get a mug for my mom but I want her name on it, that’s where Cindy comes in and we can provide the flowers. It’s going to be fully customizable, very personable and very unique.”

Asay said she called Maci Lucht, the former owner of Valley Flowers, to propose moving in with her and sharing the space, but Lucht informed Asay that she had just sold to Hill. Within the hour, Hill called Asay equally enthusiastic about the idea.

“We’re two separate businesses sharing the same space,” Asay said. “We’re like a mini mall.”

But while they are two separate businesses, Asay said the two make natural partners. 

“We make so much stuff now, so many gift ideas and home décor things that it crosses over very well,” Asay said. “Maci would always send people to me and I would always send people over to Maci, and now we can do everything in one spot.”

The new location also gives her access to more customers, with the new location now in the center of town. 

Asay said she’s not planning to make many changes in her business, but will be making more items to match the rustic flair of the gifts the flower shop will offer.

“We are a very rustic western community,” Asay said. “I want to keep that flair here. I don’t want it to get too uptown-y.”

Funny enough, before Hill and Asay talked on the phone and decided to join the businesses, the two knew each other back in their college days. It wasn’t a fact they discovered until Asay moved into the shop. 

“We met not even three weeks ago. So we’re sitting there while we’re moving in on the first day, and apparently I was laughing. Cindy said she was lying in bed wondering where she recognized that laugh,” Hill said. “She figured out that we went to college 24 years ago at the University Outreach Center in Powell. We discovered that we knew each other back in 1997 when we both went to college. I need to change my laugh.”

The new shop  is open to customers now but will have its grand opening on June 22,

“We’re hoping to meet everybody,” Hill said. “Come in and have some refreshments. I won’t be baking, but I’ll be having somebody else bake.”