Korean couple retires, passes bouquet at 45-year-old flower shop

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On Valentine’s Day in 1980, Insook Kim and Kwangduk Kim, a young Korean couple, sold their first bouquet of flowers. Forty-five years later, on Friday, Feb. 28, they’ll sell their last — but their Balboa Green Garden Florist will continue on with new owners.

Before coming to San Francisco, Insook never worked a day as a florist. The day after she arrived in San Francisco from Seoul, in 1979, she began work at a senior home owned by Kwangduk’s sister — “a queen,” as Insook calls her. The sister, who helped all four of her brothers emigrate to the United States, had a job waiting for Kwangduk too — at a liquor store near Van Ness and Lombard.

“The next day,” she said, like so many other immigrants arriving in San Francisco then, “we just went to work.”

Back then, Balboa Street was nothing like it is today — no wine bars or record stores, just restaurants and dumpling shops. There were no flower shops either. Seeing that void, Insook’s sister-in-law suggested the couple open one.

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They liked the idea. “I don’t like cooking,” says Insook. “I’m not good at anything else. Everybody loves flowers. When they look at flowers, they feel calm and relaxed and happy,” she said. “Sometimes after the market, my husband buys all kinds of fresh flowers. Ah, that makes me feel good.”

Running the flower shop was a struggle at first. There were language and cultural barriers. On a foggy night, Insook was haunted by the sound of the long, bellowing foghorns. “I felt so lonesome.” She missed her mom, who stayed in Korea alone while Insook was in San Francisco and her brother away in military service. At the time, she didn’t “have a friend, nobody.”

In the early years, people were confused as to whether she was from North Korea or South Korea. That changed. Now customers quiz Insook about her favorite Korean actor. “They knew them better than me,” she said.

Forty-five years after opening the shop, the couple, 75 and 72, are ready to move on. Kwangduk has the “old generation mind” of a hard worker, Insook said. Even though Kwangduk suffers from pain in his back and fingers, he has still taken care of purchasing and delivery.

Every year since their kids were in kindergarten, Insook took them back to Korea for the summer, hoping they would remember their Korean roots. Kwangduk always stayed behind to keep the shop open.

In Korea, Insook recalled, the kids were obsessed with Korean ice popsicles that have some 20 different flavors. “Every day they open the refrigerator and try a different flavor,” she said. “So the shop owner was yelling to my kids, ‘Close the fridge! It’s all gonna melt!’ He didn’t know they came from out of the country.”

After the pandemic, the flower business has also changed, Insook said. Local nurseries, markets and factories have closed, driving up costs of flowers and supplies, Insook said. As more people from their generation retire, Kwangduk sees fewer and fewer familiar faces at the flower markets.

So they sold the business — to another Korean couple. One of the duo, Heeseung Lee, a 53-year-old woman who looks in her 30s, shadowed Insook on a recent Wednesday. Lee, who sports a red bob cut, used to run a wholesale orchid business. When she saw a post about the shop on a Korean community website, she decided to take over.

“I want to run a flower shop. That was one of my dreams,” Lee said.

The two moved through the narrow path flanked by buckets of fresh flowers in the shop. The air was almost overwhelmed by the floral aroma. On the window, faded stickers of the Korean character “꽃,” meaning flower, decorated each side of the entrance.

The couple will continue to help out the new owners through the transition in March — after all, they’ve known some customers for decades. One man who called in an order for Valentine’s Day flowers said he had started ordering flowers from the couple while he was still dating. Now, he’s been married for 33 years.

But they are also moving on. Already, they’ve booked a flight to Seoul in April. It will be the first time Kwangduk will see his homeland since he arrived here decades ago.

Working at the flower shop, Insook observed that almost every woman loves the peony, big and bold like those in Chinese traditional paintings. But for Insook, small, white flowers are her favorite — those that are usually considered cheap, filler flowers.

Does Insook like receiving flowers on Valentine’s Day?

“No, no, no,” she said, laughing at this ridiculous question. Last week, she worked late into the night, arranging bouquets and sweeping up leaves and thorns.

Though she added, “One is okay. That’s good enough!”

The owners invite neighbors to “Stop by on Feb. 28 to mingle, enjoy some snacks, and say farewell.” Balboa Green Garden Florist is located at 3637 Balboa St.

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Junyao is a California Local News Fellow, focusing on data and small businesses. Junyao is passionate about creating visuals that tell stories in creative ways. She received her Master’s degree from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Sometimes she tries too hard to get attention from cute dogs.