By Delaney Newhouse | Focus Editor
A new collaboration between local businesses Norma’s Florals and Cha Community will open this spring on 8th street, across from Baylor’s campus.
Norma Benitez-Montelongo, founder of Norma’s Florals and local event planning company Tulipan, shared her excitement about the progression in her business.
“It kind of just happened,” she said. “In that limbo of being kind of lost after graduation, flowers ended up finding me.”
Benitez-Montelongo began creating floral arrangements for fun after her husband began bringing flowers home to her. After a Facebook post inspired friends to begin ordering bouquets, she began an online business that grew into a residency at art collaborative Cultivate 7twelve and Norma’s Blooming Bike visiting local farmers markets.
It was at these farmers markets that Benitez-Montelongo and her husband met Jaja and Devin Chen, founders and owners of local tea shop Cha Community. They grew closer through local BIPOC makers markets and are now opening a shop together where customers can enjoy both flowers and a selection of Cha Community’s menu.
“A huge part of how we’re able to do this collaboration is because we were already previously familiar and built the relationship with and had that trust,” Jaja Chen said.
She shared the coincidence that had resulted in the collaboration, explaining that Cha Community had already been looking to open a new shop in the area. At dinner with the Benitez-Montelongo’s, the Chen’s discovered that it was Norma’s Florals that would be leasing the location they had been looking into.
“I think making that connection was so funny, because we then told them this was the location we were already looking into, but then they said it was already leased,” Jaja Chen said.
Norma’s Florals has inspired the Cha Community team to focus more on floral teas at this new location, though their signature milk boba teas will still be offered. Jaja said she was excited to show customers more specialty teas, allowing them to be educated in both the preparation and sourcing of teas from a variety of cultures, including Taiwan and Nepal.
“One of the things I’m most excited about in this new space — outside of our classic boba tea menu that everybody loves and is familiar with — is actually to have some more reserve tea line experiences to create this even more kind of upscale environment,” Jaja Chen said.
Benitez-Montelongo said she wanted to offer a traditional, grab-and-go flower shop experience, even while creating space for event consultations. Norma’s Florals will offer premade bouquets and a la carte bouquet creations in store, while also offering a place to meet and discuss larger event planning with her company, Tulipan.
“We want it to be a place where people can just come and hang out, like a date night type of space — it’s just a really cool combo,” Benitez-Montelongo said.
In expanding her business, Benitez-Montelongo said she hopes to create more opportunities for freelancers learning about the floral industry by working at events, just like she did and continues to do. She credits freelance workers in the floral industry as being incredibly hardworking and is excited to help them build their futures.
“As a freelancer, and when I hire freelancers, I expect, and I know … I need to be punching out arrangements, and they need to be done well as well,” she said. “Working with freelancers, for me so far, it’s been an easy thing. The times I do need them in here I need them to work really hard. And because they know, ‘That’s my whole role; that’s the reason I’m here,’ they do come in, they do work very, very hard, and it’s so helpful.”
Meanwhile, Jaja Chen said she wants the collaboration between Cha Community and Norma’s Florals to serve as an example to the business community. Collaboration, she said, can create more success in business than competition.
“The more ways that we can really lean into that value of community, the more that we’ll be able to also grow together,” Jaja Chen said.
