Radebaugh Florist & Greenhouses sits in the same spot it always has for the last century—the corner of Burke and Aigburth in Towson. So when the business turned 100 in 2024, Kaitlin Radebaugh, four years into her tenure as president and the first woman in her family to lead the company, decided it was time for a refresh.

“We had our centennial, which was awesome,” she says on a bright but chilly day in mid-February. “It’s great to have been here for 100 years, but I felt like we just weren’t reflecting exactly what we were doing.”

The Radebaugh campus includes a green-house for selling houseplants, annuals, herbs, and perennials as well as garden tools, fertilizers, and other outdoor accessories. Inside the house, with its new green-and-white striped awning, is the flower shop—don’t even try looking for a parking spot during prom season—and over the decades it’s also turned into a gift boutique stocked with cards, jewelry, candles, housewares, and accessories. There’s also Flowers & Ice, their seasonal snowball stand, which is a neighborhood hit during the summer.

All of these individual parts worked perfectly, but not always in conjunction. So, one of Radebaugh’s main goals for the renovation was to create a better connection between the greenhouse and the gift shop.

“It’s wild because there are shop people and they’re like, ‘You have a greenhouse?’ Or there’s people who shop the greenhouse for years and have never been in the shop. They’re plant people. And I guess they just thought, like, I don’t know, it’s just cut flowers inside. We’re just trying to make it a little bit more fluid.”

The renovation is also out of necessity. The once powerful greenhouse doesn’t hold as much sway anymore. “That’s changed based on generations,” she says. “The younger generation doesn’t quite garden the way the older generation did. Instead, they love indoor plants, which is great—the funkier and weirder the better.”

They also get a lot of Towson University students who are looking less for heirloom tomato plants and more for snake plants and philodendron for their apartments and dorm rooms. That meant a lot of the greenhouse was underutilized, which started Radebaugh thinking about what else she could use the greenhouse for.

“Let’s make this space more available to the public,” she thought. “Let’s have events, let’s do birthday parties, let’s bring people in.”

That’s how the renovation took shape. “We needed bathrooms, we needed to make structural changes to make it more feasible because we’ve been here so long. These are old buildings—so it’s a big endeavor.”

And since they were planning on hosting events, they had to get creative, like a durable check-out station that can double as a bar.

When her great-great-grandfather, George, started Radebaugh, he probably never imagined cocktail parties one day taking place in his greenhouses. The first two greenhouses were constructed in 1928. Next, they were able to purchase the house next door—that’s where Kaitlin Radebaugh’s father grew up. (Her general manager now lives there.) Eventually they would own other houses in and around the area.

“They all lived on the property as the generations grew,” says Radebaugh.

Those continuing the family business were mostly the men in the family. After George came his sons, Carroll and Joe. Carroll was Radebaugh’s grandfather. And then eventually her dad, Steve.

A 48,000-square-foot greenhouse was constructed on the family farm in Freeland in 1985, which allowed the business to meet the demand for potted annuals, Easter lilies, and poinsettias for their retail greenhouse, as well as for all their wholesale customers. In 1988, a 10,000-square-foot flower design center was built just down the street from the original Radebaugh. Still in operation, it houses a processing room, design  area, delivery facilities, and plenty of refrigeration space for flowers needed for weddings, funerals, and other big design purposes.

“I feel like every generation did big things,” says Radebaugh. “Everyone was doing something, whether it was purchasing land or putting up greenhouses or the design center.”

The third-generation owners included not only her dad but her three uncles, Joe Jr., Doug, and Ned, who took over their half of the business from their father, Joe. “And now it’s just me, the fourth,” she says.

Yes, Radebaugh grew up in and around the family business—she remembers making fruit baskets at Christmas—“but it was kind of a boy’s club. It was always run by men, and I think I just couldn’t ever see that I would have a place here.”

She went to college and got a business degree. “I had been out of school for several years before my dad asked me to come back. And he didn’t ask me to come back in the sense that he thought I was going to take over.” Instead, he wanted her help with marketing—her area of expertise. “So that’s when I came back and then it kind of evolved over a series of events. But I’m certainly very happy that it did.”

But it’s a lot to manage, she admits. “There’s definitely a lot of moving parts. The bulk of our business is perishable, right? We’re growing stuff. We’re importing stuff from Ecuador and Canada. So, it’s a lot to watch over.”

The shop renovation was a nice break, a chance for her to mix some feminine energy with the family business. Designer Stephanie Bradshaw, who also oversaw the complete rebrand and greenhouse space renovation, wanted the shop to both feel fresh while also paying homage to the history.

“It’s so fun and welcoming, right?” says Radebaugh. “You walk in and it’s warm and visually beautiful and then you hit the lavender wallpaper,” she says gesturing behind the check-out counter at the Queen’s Lace wallpaper.

“This was the starting point,” says Bradshaw. “I saw this paper, and I was like, ‘It’s so delicate, so lovely, and Kaitlin is so lovely.’ She’s the new female CEO, it was really kind of embodying this sense of a refreshing breath of fresh air, reimagined, soft but still calming.”

The entire space now features six different wallpapers, a spectacular tulip chandelier in a new consultation area, and lots of surprising paint hues including persimmon and Isle of Pines, a moody saturated green.

“We really wanted it to be a space where everybody felt welcome, and the community would continue to come,” says Bradshaw, who felt especially honored to be working with a legacy brand. “It’s like a dream to come in and have all these colors playing joyfully together in one space. It’s a little escape.”

Back inside the greenhouse, Radebaugh is greeted by shop dog Bonnie, a big, gentle yellow Lab. The greenhouse, where you can get mucky and wet by day but can seamlessly transform into a vibrant party room at night, represents the two sides of Radebaugh Florist & Greenhouses—and of Radebaugh herself.

It feels good to walk around and be reminded of all the changes that have occurred under her leadership.

“I don’t think I do a great job of being like, ‘Look at all the things we did,’” says Radebaugh. “I’m usually just in it.”

Art Space is a recurring element in the UpFront section of our print publication that spotlights a local art project making an impact in the city at large. Here’s what’s going on this month:

There’s no shortage of souvenirs in the Sideshow gift shop of the American Visionary Art Museum. Pins, puzzles postcards. Whoopie cushions, wind-up teeth, and saint candles, featuring a celestial likeness of museum founder Rebecca Hoffberger. And now, in fitting fashion for a venue celebrating outsider art, there is also a growing collection of zines.

Part of a long-held counterculture tradition, including a vibrant scene in Baltimore, these low-budget, limited-circulation, self-published printings are works of art in their own right, offering resources and reassurances for times of need. Submit your own or snag some free copies by the cash register, with topics ranging from gardening and libraries to anti-fascist activism and the LGBTQ+ community.

Stepping into Found Studio Shop, a retail gift shop in Lauraville, feels like the most genuine hug from a friend. Everything is bright, fun, and comfortable—with just a touch of sass—which is exactly how owner Kacey Stafford designed it.

“One of my favorite things to do is get together a collection of things that are beautiful and functional and bring joy,” drawls the Kentucky native. “I want people to walk in here and sigh, ‘Ahhh.’ This is the ultimate retail therapy destination.”

The shop is a veritable emporium of gifting, stocking everything from jewelry and chocolate to bath and body products, pillows and cocktail shakers, and adorable goods for babies and children.

Stafford, 45, carries an extensive collection of paper goods and clever cards and plenty of fashionable housewares. Many of the items are locally sourced from Baltimore-based artists and some of Stafford’s employees are makers themselves.

The store is the brick-and-mortar embodiment of Stafford’s personality, equal parts Southern charm and endless creativity. A mixed media artist—you may be familiar with her “BMORE KIND” sticker—Stafford received a degree in art education at Murray State University in her home state and began her career as an art teacher in public schools.

Eighteen years ago, when her husband, Scott, needed to relocate for work, it brought the couple to Baltimore, where they fell in love with the quaint neighborhood of Waltherson, in northeast Baltimore. They set down roots and have been dedicated to that community ever since.

As much as she enjoyed teaching, and supporting public schools in particular, Stafford didn’t feel it was her life’s vocation. Her father owned a furniture store and her grandfather a nursery and landscaping business. Even though she knew the challenges of entrepreneurship, she always felt called to the world of independent retail. She ditched teaching and, “decided I would listen to what was pulling at my heartstrings—I wanted a shop.”

Stafford joined forces with Carmen Brock and helped open Red Tree in Hampden in 2006—it later morphed into the much-loved Trohv—but left three years later to have her children, now ages 10 and 13. (Trohv closed in 2022.)

“When I left Trohv I said, ‘I probably won’t ever do a store again’—because it’s so demanding and takes over your life,” she recalls. But then an opportunity arose in 2019 for her to have a tiny, 250-square-foot niche shop within Red Canoe Café, right in the heart of her own neighborhood. “I thought, well, this is a good, low-risk way to find out if this is still my passion. And as soon as I opened, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve missed this so much.’ This is my passion. This is my gift.”

The little store took off. While Stafford acknowledges that retail is no joke, she says that Baltimore will turn out for the right kind of store.

“Baltimore doesn’t want a cookie-cutter world, and they don’t want vacant Main Streets or just big-box stores,” she says. “Baltimore supports and shows up for its local businesses and local artists.”

The origin story of what is now Found Studio is as much the story of a building as it is a store. Despite the pandemic being “the universe giving me a slap in the face,” Stafford knew she would need to expand when online school ended—she was home with a kindergartener and a third grader—and the world went back to normal. And she knew just where she wanted to go: a building on Lauraville’s main street on the same block as Red Canoe and near her friend and fellow local retailer, Christina Brunyate, who owns Domesticity Sewing Studio.

The building had history; it had been everything from a pleasure club in the ’80s to, more recently, a DIY home projects store. But it had stood vacant since 2015, and Stafford had always kept her eye on it. In a twist of fate that can only happen in Smalltimore, the building’s owner turned out to be Stafford’s neighbor. It took a year—and a whole lot of that Southern charm—for him to agree to sell.

“It took a lot of negotiations and meetings, and I finally convinced him with my nice Southern drawl and a couple glasses of bourbon,” she quips.

She and her husband acquired the building in November 2022. What ensued was a frantic year of constant work. Dead birds, dust, and detritus were cleared out. Stafford secured a Project Restore grant from the state and a façade improvement grant from Baltimore Development Corporation. Although a contractor did the heavy lift of HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, Stafford and her husband did much of the work themselves, customizing every inch of the store with an artist’s eye. They painted all the floors and laid intricate patterns of tile in the bathrooms, along with designer Gary Godbey.

Almost every piece of furniture was purchased at Second Chance, through Facebook Marketplace, or is a hacked piece from Ikea. A group of volunteers helped paint furniture. The pièce de résistance is the accent wall behind the register area that Stafford painted herself in her signature mixed-media style. The paint was barely dry when Found Studio opened, just in time for holiday shoppers.

The store’s tagline is appropriately “curated by an artist.” A committed member of the Charm City Craft Mafia, where she’s been on the board since 2011, Stafford carries many things by local artists and makers. For example, she says they can’t keep Hon’s Honey products on the shelves. (The Baltimore-based social enterprise sells honey products made by survivors of human trafficking.) She carries cutting boards made by woodworker Deirdre Smith from trees that naturally fall on her Baltimore County farm, prints, notecards, and paintings by local artists like Emily Uchytil and Gertie Smith, and candles and soap crafted by Mount Royal Soaps.

The second story of Found Studio is used as a rotating gallery space for artists and for events. Local papercut artist Annie Howe has a small studio space there, too. In the future, Stafford would like to get back to her teaching roots and offer classes in the space.

“I think this vibe is very Baltimore City-centric,” she says of the store. That local edge is important to Stafford, as she finds retail to be as much about community as it is commerce. “Creating community is the part I love,” she says. “We have a lot of regulars who come in and people come here to be surrounded by beauty and to forget about their cares, if only for a few minutes.”

For all the whimsy of its wares, it is Stafford who brings the magic to Found Studio Shop.

From the number of people who volunteered to help her and Scott get the shop open, to the dedicated customers who swing by just to say hello—and Stafford always remembers everyone’s name—it’s clear that she is a fixture in Lauraville, a splash of Southern comfort in a Natty Boh town.

This piece appeared in our March 2024 issue. For more great Baltimore stories, consider becoming a subscriber.

In 2022, when artist Caroline Hearn moved from New York City back to her hometown of Baltimore, she and her interior designer mom, Karin Chriss, thought about combining their talents to open a gift shop. When they noticed an empty storefront in the same historic “mall” that houses Petit Louis Bistro, they leapt at the chance to move into the nation’s oldest strip center.

The result of their vision is The Pig & the Parrot, which opened its doors last October.

The designing duo have quite the pedigree: Chriss did design work for boutique hotels across the country, and then had a longtime wholesale handbag business; Hearn, a graduate of New York City’s famed Parsons School of Design, created showroom design for the Ralph Lauren store in Manhattan. She also does watercolor portraits and landscapes for the furnishings décor platform Serena & Lily. The partnership is an idea made in creative heaven.

“My mom is very good at putting home décor things together and curating beautiful vignettes,” says Hearn. “And I’m an artist and wanted a place to showcase my artwork in a space that wasn’t a gallery, where my art could be approachable and play with the interior space. We came up with this idea of the store to use as an avenue to showcase my artwork.”

Beginning with the logo—a parrot balancing on the tip of a pig’s nose—the shop couldn’t be cuter. Here, you’ll find a unique mix of curated home goods, accessories, antiques, and jewelry including Freya Rose earrings from London (Kate Middleton is a fan).

Of course, The Pig & the Parrot also features a collection of Hearn’s lush landscapes and seascapes on the walls.

“My husband and I have collected pigs for 45 years,” says Chriss, explaining the inspiration behind the store’s moniker. “I’ve always given him a pig Christmas tree ornament, so I knew I wanted to use an animal in the name. When Caroline was designing the logo, I said, ‘Why don’t we do something whimsical with the pig?’”

Hearn loved the idea and was further inspired by the mechanical parrot her grandmother had in her house. In fact, the logo sums up the shop. Says Chriss, “It’s kind of like our store, an unlikely combination of fun and fanciful and whimsical.”

In addition to getting to spend more time with each other, the mother-daughter team gets to see Chriss’ son, who works right next door at Eddie Jacobs, the men’s clothing shop.

“He’s worked there every Saturday for the past 12 years,” says Hearn with a laugh. “On Saturdays, I feel like we own the block.”