George Karatzas started selling flowers in high school, working out of a van on Long Island's North Shore. More than forty years later he still buys, designs and delivers flowers every week.
Over those decades he has opened and run a string of flower shops and flower distribution companies, including Commack Florist, which he and his wife Linda ran for twenty years. In December 2021 the couple bought James Cress Florist, a business founded in Manhattan in 1903 and part of Smithtown since the 1960s, to carry the name into its second century.
In 2022 George moved the flagship shop to 127 East Main Street in Smithtown, with the design studio and a bridal showroom under one roof. Today he oversees flower buying and fulfillment across the company's shops and its nationwide delivery network, and he still answers customer calls himself.
On the blog George writes about the trade itself: how flowers are grown, bought and kept fresh, what a florist looks for at the market, and the history behind the flowers people send.
