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The Wild Bunch is poised for its next chapter as the Northern Neck’s go-to place for flower arrangements and plants, thanks to new owner Olivia York and long-time employee Reese Lawson. Photo by Corey Miller.
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After 21 years as the owner and creative force behind the Wild Bunch, Cindy Naylor is turning her nurturing skills from flowers to her grandchildren. Photo by Corey Miller.
Even before Cindy Naylor did a three-year apprenticeship with the Royal Court’s florist, she was hooked on flowers.
Marriage and children limited her flower time, but once they left home, she began to do floral arrangements for friends’ weddings. “It grew from there,” she says, smiling. “I needed a cooler and ended up with a shop.”
The Wild Bunch was launched 21 years ago in Urbanna. Naylor’s philosophy of flowers is decidedly European—she’s a Brit—with flowers considered a staple of life. “Everyone has flowers. You pick them up with your weekly shopping and buckets of flowers are everywhere,” she says. “It’s a different mindset.”
When the Great Recession hit, Naylor pulled up stakes and moved to Main Street in Kilmarnock. “Ninety-five percent of my weddings were here,” she explains. “We wanted to share space with Papeterie and this building came available, which gave us each our own front door.”
Naylor built The Wild Bunch’s reputation on being different, focusing on a more garden-like style rather than formal arrangements. More European. It worked and for 11 years, The Wild Bunch has been voted Best Florist in Eastern Virginia by Virginia Living magazine. The shop has evolved, carrying more plants, doing more dried flower arrangements and offering homeowners holiday decorating services at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Then COVID hit and, despite weddings being postponed or canceled, the shop flourished. People couldn’t visit, so they sent flowers to connect with loved ones. Mother’s Day, always a major flower holiday, meant more people ordering arrangements in 2020 than ever before. The wedding business is coming back slowly, with many smaller weddings.
Another upshot of the pandemic was the growth of flower farms, as people transitioned to different careers. Fifty percent of The Wild Bunch’s flowers—tulips, Cosmos, asters, lisianthus, dahlias, gardenias, ranunculus, anemones—now come from local flower farms. “It makes a huge difference,” Naylor says.
So does having six grandchildren and being asked to babysit. “I knew I couldn’t carry on forever, so it seemed like it was time,” she says. “I just wasn’t sure how it would work and who to pass the business on to.”
Olivia York has worked at The Wild Bunch and helped with events since she was in high school. Her introduction to flowers happened on childhood May Days when her mother would cut garden flowers and make little arrangements that they then delivered to neighbors' front doors before running away. York’s mother and both grandmothers have gardens. “That sparked my interest in doing something with flowers,” she explains, smiling. “I still pick from their gardens. It’s nice to have flowers grown by people in my life to sell here.”
Coming back from an event in 2022, Naylor asked York if she’d be interested in taking over the business. York, who’d been working concurrently as a paralegal, was thrilled. “I had this creative itch I hadn’t been able to scratch,” she says. She’ll take over the shop on November first. (Naylor will stay through the end of October to see “her” brides through their fall weddings.) “I called my husband and told him he was never going to believe this,” York says. “I’d always thought that owning the shop would be the ultimate dream. Cindy’s built something special here and I want to continue and build on that.”
One way is with plants, which have been growing in popularity, especially among younger people, since before the pandemic. The Wild Bunch has plant-loving customers coming in twice a month to check on what’s new. “I definitely hope to bring in a younger crowd interested in getting in on the love of plants that’s happening now,” York says.
The shop’s inventory continues to diversify, carrying items ranging from natural seed pods to Florentine soaps and soaps from Kew Gardens. Butterflies, delicately pinned and framed under glass, are the handiwork of Reese Lawson, a ten-year veteran of the shop. “She’s a huge part of making all this work,” York insists. “And I’m trying to carry really interesting things.”
Not surprisingly, the plant- and flower-filled shop attracts a bit of wildlife, including a praying mantis and a Monarch butterfly taking up residence. “It’s bittersweet because there’s a lot of me in this shop, 20 years of my life. It’s my baby,” Naylor says. “But it’s time and I’m very happy for Olivia. She’ll put her own stamp on it.”
York sees the demographics changing as more young people move here. The new owner of The Wild Bunch is taking her time figuring out what works and what doesn’t. “I’ll put my own spin on it and cater to both generations—without excluding either—because both are important.”
The Wild Bunch I 18 N. Main Street, Kilmarnock I 804-435-1044 I thewildbunchflowers.com