FLORIST BECKY BRISTOL, the “mum queen” at Flowers By Lou Ann staples ribbons to build a Van High School homecoming mum Thursday at the store in Tyler. Bristol has worked for Flowers by Lou Ann for 14 years but has been a florist making homecoming mums since she was 16.

Becky Bristol is known as the “mum queen” around East Texas.

For nearly 40 years, she has crafted beautiful, sparkly and often gaudy homecoming mums for people of all ages throughout the region.

On Thursday, Mrs. Bristol, 55, was busy at Flowers by Lou Ann in Tyler, getting a jumpstart on orders for this week’s football homecoming games at Bishop T.K. Gorman Catholic School, Bullard, Brownsboro, Chapel Hill and Van. The week before, she saw clients from Lindale, Whitehouse and Grand Saline.

“Every day is a different challenge,” she said of her job. “It’s fun because you do something different every day. … You don’t make the same arrangement every day.”

Mrs. Bristol has worked at Flowers by Lou Ann for 14 years but has been a florist since she was 16. After briefly working in a hospital kitchen during high school, she decided she wanted to become a florist. Throughout the years, she has worked at several shops around Tyler, including Barbara’s Florist and Brookshire’s.

Although flowers are their bread and butter, homecoming mums are a big part of the business this time of year.

Homecomings start the second week of school and runs through Nov. 4.

On busy weeks, she can make up to 20 to 30 mums a day. She splits her time between making mums, baby wreaths and flower arrangements. She said all of the six employees at the shop work together as a team to make things run smoothly.

 

GLITZ AND GLAM

Mrs. Bristol couldn’t estimate how many mums she will make during this middle and high school football season but knows it will be in the hundreds.

“The kids are so excited over them,” she said. “It’s a big deal to them.”

Mums aren’t only for middle school and high school students. She has made one for a child as young as 18 months, as well as for adults. Throughout the years, she has seen a few changes, but the biggest changes are all about adding more bling.

“The flashier, the better … the gaudier, the better for some of them,” she said.

Now, they do just about as many mum garters, which guys wear on the upper part of their arm, as the traditional mums girls pin to their shirts, she said. “They used to be small, but now they’re getting bigger. … They’re as gaudy now as the mums are,” she said of the garters.

She also has made mum rings and wristlets and mums shaped as sashes. Some mums have two or three flowers, often draping over the back so they “look pretty coming and going,” Mrs. Bristol said laughing.

Customers have requested heart-shaped mums and stuffed animals, camouflage ribbon and just about every color in the rainbow. If they don’t have what they want, they send shop owner Lou Ann Green on a journey to find it, she added.

Every year, there are new things to put on mums, and each year they become flashier. Trending this year are lights, as well as small, strolling LED message boards that can say anything, on the mums.

She said they don’t use real chrysanthemum flowers anymore because girls want to keep them to hang on their walls. Using fake mums is easier on Mrs. Bristol and allows her to work on some ahead of time.

How much time it takes her to make one mum depends on the amount of details it has. On Thursday, she made one in about 30 minutes, making the process look so simple.

“When you have a whole bunch … you have to be quick and fast and get on to the next one,” Mrs. Bristol said. Sometimes, by the end of the day, her hands are covered in blisters from burning herself with the hot glue gun.

“I go home sparkling at the end of the day,” she said of working with the glittery ribbon.

Some clients go through every drawer and bucket she has, picking out every detail they want, while others tell her their colors and to be creative with the rest.

Mums can cost $300 to $400 depending on the details and size, she said.

 

MUM QUEEN

“She’s our mum queen,” co-worker Debbie Tidwell said of Mrs. Bristol. “She makes the best mums in Texas.”

Ms Tidwell, who has worked with Mrs. Bristol for four years, said it is all of the creative details and special touches she adds to every mum that make them so great.

“You never make two just alike. … As I go, it just kind of comes along,” Mrs. Bristol said of making each mum different. Although she can make them quickly, she takes time for the extra details, something different on each one to make it special.

“It’s the little details that matter,” she said. “At the end of the day, that’s what they say, ‘Thank you for making mine extra special.’ It’s about making people happy.”

She said the biggest orders come from larger, local schools, such as Robert E. Lee and John Tyler high schools, All Saints Episcopal School and Moore and Hubbard middle schools. Others include Arp, Winona, Overton, Big Sandy and Mineola.

Some people order their mums weeks in advance, while others come in the day of the event and beg for one. Even if it means her staying late, Mrs. Bristol tries to accommodate them.

“Our job is to take care of the customers,” she said. “That’s the main reason we do mums.”

She said she has a lot of repeat customers that come back each year for mums or who see her work and start ordering flowers through the shop.

When Lou Ann Green started the business in 1997, she did not have any employees and did the flower arrangements and mums herself.

“She’s built a pretty successful business. … But it’s because we take care of our customers,” Mrs. Bristol said, adding that they are on call 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, especially for funerals.