Not even a global pandemic could keep the team at East Main Gardens Florist and Greenhouses in Niles from celebrating their 100th Anniversary in business this past week, and they’re ready for the next 100 years as the third generation is at the helm, keeping things fresh and lively.
The whole adventure began when Milfred and Nellie Peters moved to 1521 E Main St in Niles from Sand Creek, Michigan after Milfred accepted a job on the railroad. Nellie had several plants and agreed to move so long as each plant came with her.
On March 30th, 1921 Nellie was in the hospital due to give birth to her son Roy, when she asked Milfred to go home and water her beloved plants. While he was there watering them, a man stopped by asking if he could buy a plant to take to his own wife in the hospital as well. Although he thought Nellie would be upset, Milfred sold the man a plant. When Milfred went back to the hospital he told Nellie what had happened, and she thought for a moment and then told him to go back and sell more. That’s how the florist business got started, and later that same day on March 30th, Roy Peters was born.
Milfred and Nellie would go on to have 11 children in total: Clara, Joy, Robert, Margaret, Roy, Pat, Jean, Laura, Shirley, Helen and Dora.
They all would always come back and help out on holidays and several went on to open their own floral businesses or to work in other floral shops. For example, daughter Joy (Murphy) went on to open Murphy’s Flowers in Dowagiac, and daughter Margaret (Brawley) went on to open Southern Michigan Wholesale Florist.
Eventually Roy took over and ran the shop with his wife Helen – who coincidentally was also born on March 30th two years after Roy. They had one son, Mike Peters, who started planting, answering the phones, making bows, and more back at age 9 and has been at the shop ever since. He officially took over the shop in 1979 and runs it to this day.
To commemorate their major milestone of a century in business, on Tuesday, March 30th, 2021 East Main distributed 100 free rose bowls to the first 100 customers and everyone who came into the shop that day was invited to enter to win flowers once a month for a year. The winners were Robert & Dixie Schrader. 
Mike Peters says, “We’ve been honored to have our shop supported by generation after generation and hopefully see that support continued even with increased competition from grocery stores, online sellers, and others.” He adds, “Remember if you are going to say it with flowers, say it with ours.”
You can find the long-running East Main Gardens Florist and Greenhouses at 1521 E. Main Street, the very place where it all began over a hundred years ago. You can reach them by phone at 269-683-8000, and find them online at this link: https://www.eastmaingardensflorist.com/
Mike and his team are heavily involved in the Niles community, routinely providing donations to YMCA events and sports activities, as sponsors of the Optimist soccer teams and other sporting teams throughout the community, and provider of the tradition of Santa on the St. Joe River in Niles, which is a tradition that Roy started when he delivered flowers to a little girl in the hospital whose window faced the river around Christmas time. He wanted to bring joy to all the little kids in the hospital over the holidays so he and a few friends put Santa on a float and put him in the river in front the hospital. It’s a tradition that Mike and several of “Santa’s helpers” have carried on through current day times.
A couple years ago, East Main opened up the greenhouse to Niles High School and local students to do a hands-on program for agriculture. Additionally, the business is involved with the Niles Chamber of Commerce as a sponsor and ambassador, and a member of Michiana Business Support.
Congratulations to an outstanding family-owned and operated business with a great heritage in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
