What does February make you think of? Valentine’s Day, of course. Valentine’s Day brings to my mind candy and flowers. Flowers remind me of Village Charm and Flowers by Craig, two flower shops located in our Route 7 Report area.

I spoke with Craig Matheny, owner and floral designer of Flowers By Craig in Four Mile, and found him to be a personable young man. He was born and raised at Four Mile and attended Federal Hocking High School.  During his junior and senior years, he attended Tri County JVS, where he studied horticulture and floriculture.  After high school, he studied for three years at the Bill Hixson School of Floral Design in Cleveland and received his degree. 

Craig started his first business in his mom’s basement.  He moved from the basement to an enclosed patio until the ‘90s, when he built a workshop and made it into  a flower studio.  Flowers By Craig is now a family affair, as he works with his mom, Martha Sue Deeter Matheny, and dad, Herbert E. Matheny, and the shop is at the old home.  “I have always liked flowers, rocks and all the things that go into floral design and arrangement.”

He told me a story about when he was very young, and his father would take him to the woods to get firewood.  Craig always came back with rocks, twigs and flowers; his father had to find all the firewood.  

Feel free to call Craig at 740-667-3513 or visit his Web site www.flowersbycraig.com (there is an e-mail link available).       

My next stop was Village Charm on Main Street in Coolville, owned and operated by Nives Knisley, who moved to our region from Akron.       

While living in Belpre she met her husband, John, and they moved to Coolville, where they raised four children. She acquired the old Odd Fellows building on Main Street in 1991, and one of her first endeavors, with John’s help, was building cabinets, shelves and woodcrafts, such as horses and their best-selling wooden tulips. They sold to customers living as far away as Harpers Ferry, W.Va., Columbus, and Sugar Creek, Ohio, in Amish country.  She attended the Bill Hixson School of Floral Design for basic flower arrangement, and added flowers as a sideline to her gift shop; but flowers has now become her primary business.