Jessica Sparzak doesn’t do weddings. It’s not that the founder and designer behind Pickletown Flower Co., a mobile floral studio, isn’t a fan of The Big Day (she’s been happily married for almost 19 years). Rather, she thinks blossoms should be a quotidian joy. As she puts it: “I may not be the florist for your one special day, but I’m the florist for your every day after.”

Sparzak fell root over stem for flowers while living in New York City, where one of her regular walks took her through the Flower District. “The city changes: There are flowers and plants and shrubs spilling out onto the sidewalks,” she says of the area. The scene inspired her to start crafting bouquets for her nonprofit employer’s events—and she quickly found her calling. Six years after moving to Colorado, she began making imaginative floral and wreath installations for her neighborhood coffee shop, Spur, and Pickletown was born soon after.

5280 Home April/May 2020
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Since last summer, Sparzak has been traveling around Denver, Littleton, and Golden in her gray truck—once used to haul furniture deliveries—selling individual stems and limited grab-and-go arrangements during twice-monthly pop-ups. If you can’t get to the vehicle, the flowers will come to you: Pickletown offers a subscription service that supplies florals to your office or home on a recurring basis. (Office flower subscriptions start at $35 per delivery; the personal Bouquet Coterie membership program starts at $48 per month.) And if you want to try your hand at the craft, Sparzak hosts D.I.Y. workshops and Build Your Own Bouquet Bars for events.

Florist Jessica Sparzak’s signature arrangements include an elegant mix of fresh-cut blooms and dried fillers. Photo by Regan Beisenherz-Rouse (Seraphim Fire Photography)

Wherever you encounter Sparzak’s work, know you won’t find basic bunches. Pickletown’s inventory is a distinctive blend of varietals, from attention-grabbing protea to tassels of amaranth to weeds like thistle and tumbleweed, and there’s something in every bouquet that can be dried and saved. During Colorado’s growing season—from May to October—the majority of Sparzak’s materials are cultivated locally, sometimes directly from her half-acre homestead in Littleton that inspired her company’s offbeat name. (The farming area was nicknamed Pickletown at the turn of the 20th century for its abundance of crops that could be pickled and canned.) The rest of the year, she sources most of her unexpected blooms from responsible domestic growers. “I love to take quirky stuff and show off its beauty,” Sparzak says. “Flowers are nature’s art.”

This article was originally published in 5280 Home April/May 2020.
Daliah Singer
Daliah Singer
Daliah Singer is an award-winning writer and editor based in Denver. You can find more of her work at daliahsinger.com.