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Tucked away in the beautiful Fremont Centre Theatre building on Fremont Avenue and El Centro Street is a doorway to a magical shop where all manner of flowers, flora and carefully curated teas, tea accessories, candles, pillows and more await you at Arielle Daxon’s Moss & Meadow Designs.
South Pasadena resident Daxon started her business originally as an herbal tea and book company making specialized, custom teas. It was always her dream to have a bookshop of her own, but flowers were always calling her. She used to go to a flower stand in Los Feliz and put bouquets together and after moving to South Pasadena, she set up a pop-up shop for her teas inside the former florist, Vave Studios. “I kind of sneakily forced my way into a job there,” Daxon says laughing at the memory, “and I began playing with the flowers and that’s how I began to grow and learn and realized I could do it.” Once they closed, she was so hooked she says she couldn’t imagine not doing it anymore. Thus began her journey of merging all of her passions into one business. Initially working out of her garage, she very quickly realized she needed a space for all the wedding and event business that was coming her way. Reflecting on all of this, Daxon says, “moving to South Pasadena really changed the trajectory of my life and put me on this road.”
But then, the pandemic hit and of course, with everything shut down, prospects for a space looked grim. But the week before Mother’s Day, the flower mart opened and as she decided to open up to do bouquets for the holiday, she saw Bill Disselhorst’s post about this space being available. Disselhorst is the owner of Fiore Market Café and this space used to house his wife’s beloved shop, “Fleur”. She called landlord Lissa Reynolds, came and saw it the next day and that was it. South Pasadenans know the significance of “Fleur”, run by the late Anne Disselhorst and the synergy is not lost on Daxon who says, “I’m very grateful. I think it’s a special place because Bill and Anne put a lot of beautiful work into it. Obviously I never met Anne but I think her energy still lives on in this space and I think it was meant to be…it was called “Fleur” and now it’s a flower shop. It feels special to me that two very special people created something, so it’s a legacy I can help to continue.”
When thinking of her business name, Daxon wanted something that would effortlessly merge and describe both her customized teas as well as her floral designs. “I wanted to evoke a feeling that captured memories of being barefoot in whimsical nature,” she says. The shop is whimsical indeed. One feels transported to a small cottage in the French or English countryside the moment you walk through the door, from the giant floral mural to the buckets and pots bursting with wildflowers, deep colored ranunculus, hibiscus, roses, wild grasses, pussy willows, alongside beautiful jars of tealeaves, glassware, teacups, and more.
Daxon calls it “a one stop healing shop; because we have flowers which I think bring a lot of beauty and self-care…I personally think flowers are a form of self-care, and I have my teas, and other things that I make by hand like my pillows, candles, my pressed flowers. It’s all a form of visual beauty and the teas are very curated to bring emotional and physical healing. There’s always something here that you can buy that’s going to cheer you up, bring healing, bring joy, either to you or whoever you’re gifting it to.”
Daxon loves what she does and says she loves bringing people joy. “I love creating something beautiful, something different every day and I love creating for intimate moments.” She goes on to say, “ I’ve actually really enjoyed people having smaller elopements during this time because I get to create on a smaller, more intimate scale. To me, that’s really important because I want my business, and I want everything that I make, to feel special, unique and tailored to each person and their needs.”
Through the past challenging year, Moss & Meadow has been focused on flower delivery. “Thankfully, it’s one of the things that has done well during the shutdown,” Daxon tells us, “because no one could see each other, no one could celebrate, so everything that was happening; birthdays, losses…people were sending flowers. It’s been such a gift and it’s gotten me through all this time of clients postponing their weddings. I’m very grateful.”
One of Moss & Meadow’s specialties are the “intentional magic flower arrangements” based off the Victorian Language of Flowers. Custom bouquets are created for requested intentions and includes the meanings of each flower with the bouquet to showcase the intention.
Daxon just celebrated her official ribbon cutting this week, where she toasted with her husband, friends and was officially welcomed by Lissa Reynolds and the Chamber of Commerce. It was a full circle moment as she realized it coincided with her upcoming one year anniversary in the shop. It was a year ago that she was sweating over a very hot Mother’s Day weekend in her garage and this year she has her own beautiful shop, has just purchased her dream flower refrigerator and is getting her Mother’s Day special bouquet pre-orders up on her website that she says will be “full of peonies and fun stuff like that.” Reflecting on how far she has come this year she says, “it’s an indicator to me that I’ve grown and it feels like everything is coming together.”
Moss & Meadow Designs is located at 1000 Fremont Ave., Unit 110, South Pasadena. The best way to place an order is through the website or by email at hello@mossandmeadowdesigns.com Moss & Meadow delivers throughout the Los Angeles area. Current hours are Monday through Friday 11am – 1:30pm and by appointment.
Phone (626) 460-6111
website www.mossandmeadowdesigns.com
