Budding Business

Nestled at 1107 Princess Street and connected to Blossom Bay, a floral design company, is Wilmington’s newest secret garden, Perennial Harbor. The garden oasis and flower-filled watering hole was founded by friends ALLY FAVORY and ASHLEY JOHNSON.

Favory is the founder of Blossom Bay, while Johnson is the founder of Foxhound Flower Farm, a small cut flower farm in Wilmington. Favory and Johnson combined their unique botanical knowledge and expertise this year to co-found Perennial Harbor.

Perennial Harbor hosted its opening weekend April 17-20 and will only be open one weekend a month moving forward. On the days it’s not open, its founders intend to use the space as a rentable venue for weddings, parties, and more. On the weekends  that Perennial Harbor is open, it will offer a different selection of floral workshops, live music, natural wines and libations, plant education, and more.

Its floral workshops for 2025 include making spring centerpieces, creating petite arrangements with seasonal blooms followed by a guided en plein air watercolor with local artist AMANDA FENKER, a workshop to create a Thanksgiving-inspired tablescape, and more.

Favory and Johnson have been close friends for years and first met as roommates in college at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“We’ve been friends and collaborating together for a decade,” Johnson says. “We’ve taught workshops together and done different things in the plant world, but we’ve been waiting for the right space and idea to fully start being partners. Perennial has become that space.”

Both Favory and Johnson found themselves in the flower business in different ways. Johnson went into flower farming, and Favory started doing flowers for weddings and now does destination event design.

“I don’t think that I ever dreamed that we’d work together,” Johnson says. “I got into the flower farming, and Ally got into doing flowers for weddings and started her own company. This is kind of a perfect little marriage.”

One element of Blossom Bay that Favory finds she’s missing is “a sense of community,” mainly because her business is heavily destination based. Perennial Harbor has satisfied her desire to interact with the local community more.

“We have this beautiful studio right near Hi-Wire (Brewing) downtown that we weren’t sharing with the community at all,” Favory says. “That’s when Ashley and I got the idea of Perennial. She’s so good with plants and growing her own, and I have had all these different ideas for interacting with the community before, so Perennial came from the desire to be more involved with the community here.”

In addition to workshops, live music, and plant education, Perennial Harbor will offer a selection of beer and natural wine for patrons to purchase.

“We got this cute little greenhouse that we set up in the garden, and our bar is actually going to be in the greenhouse,” Johnson says. “It’s going to be a unique experience for people to go up and grab a drink.”

“We did exclusively natural wines because we’re really interested in the way that they aren’t very manipulation by people,” Favory adds. “In the same way that native and heirloom plants are plants that are really good with the habitat and butterflies here, natural wines are what would grow naturally in the spaces that they are. There’s no additives; it’s very similar to kind of what we’re doing in our garden but with the wine.”

When it came time to naming their business, both Favory and Johnson loved the name perennial. Everything that’s planted in their gardens, for the most part, are perennial plants, meaning they grow back each year.

“We love the idea of tying that in, people who come back over and over again,” Favory says.

Ultimately, Favory and Johnson were sold on the idea of bringing a new secret garden to the Wilmington area and share their love and knowledge of plants. As for a future expansion, Perennial’s co-founders are strict with their intention of keeping their business purposeful and intentional.

“We like the idea of this feeling like a secret garden,” Johnson says. “We want it to feel very curated and special. We’re interested in seeing which programs and which elements people resonate with the most, and then we’re open to expanding on those, but only if we can keep it very purposeful and intentional.”

To view more of photographer and stylists Drewe & Kate’s work, go to dreweandkate.com

Want more WILMA? Click here to sign up for our WILMA newsletters and announcements.