When Hratch Yacoubian isn’t making magic with his flower displays, there are always 1970s muscle cars for inspiration.
The owner of Magic Flowers, a speciality flower shop at 7201 W. Wilson Ave., in Harwood Heights, he owns a few.
Q Name one [of the muscle cars you own]?
A. A (Plymouth) Barracuda, ’71, six-pack, six cylinders.
Q. Oh, that is cool. Color?
A. Purple.
Q. Purple?
A. A ’70s color, purple. Purple, orange, red or yellow, those were the colors of the ’70s.
Q. Let’s turn to flowers. When are they most in demand?
A. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
On Valentine’s Day, “if you have a wife or girlfriend, you buy flowers. But Mother’s Day, you’ve got to buy your mother-in-law, you’ve got to buy for your mother — if you have a grandmother, you’ve got to buy for your grandmother.”
Q. How did the shop get the name Magic Flowers?
A. Because it’s magic. It’s magic how you grow a little plant under the soil, and then it grows. It’s magic.
Q. Does the shop have a special focus?
A. We do daily events, special events, corporate events. We do custom weddings, a custom arrangement. Like anybody comes with a picture, with centerpieces (in mind), I can match it.
He grew up in Armenia.
Q. When did your interest in flowers begin?
A. I was 12, almost 35 years I’m in the business. In Armenia, when you go to school, in the summer you have to do something — you cannot sit and play. Your father holds your hand and takes to some place, a shop, a friend, and he says, “This is my son, let him sweep, make coffee, whatever you want to make him.”
His start was at a flower shop by his house.
Q. Where you get your flowers?
A. From Ecuador, Holland, California, Mexico. It (a shipment) comes from Ecuador to Florida, and from Florida they distribute.
Q. How about at your home, are there a lot of flowers around?
A. No. The carpenter, if you go to their house, (you might find a) missing cabinet, a door or something. There’s no time to fix their house.
His hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Q. Anything else in your muscle car collection?
A. I have a (Chevrolet) Camaro, a ’71.
Q. Very cool. What color is the ’71?
A. Orange.
