Buds and Blooms is a 50-year flower empire in South King County, with locations in Enumclaw, Kent, Auburn and beyond, with the Federal Way branch (or perhaps “stem” would be the better word?) coming in first in the Best of Federal Way 2025 awards, making it the most popular flower shop in the city.

The Federal Way Buds and Blooms is run by Carla and Stephen Kostresh, who have owned the business for three years. For Carla Kostresh, getting into the florist game has been all or nothing, comparing her career to a classic Don Bluth film.

“I was living in Salt Lake City, and I was going to college, and there was a ‘help wanted’ sign in front of what’s called The Flower Patch, which is still a big floral company there, and I just went in and applied and got hired, and I worked there for a couple of years and then took a break,” she said of her start in florals. “I went and worked for a holiday at a different shop in Salt Lake City and she asked me to stay on. My theory about being a florist is you can never really leave. You come in, you can’t leave, like ‘All Dogs Go To Heaven.’”

Located off of Pacific Highway, the Federal Way Buds and Blooms receives the majority of its flowers and plants from wholesalers, but they do partner with the Spanaway-based farm Muck Creek Dahlias in the summer. The front-end part of the business also offers popular house plants and succulents, along with gifts.

While customers love the classics like lilies and roses, Kostresh said the latest trends tend to go more toward “organic, gardeny, very natural vibe” flowers.

“It’s really a lot of the garden flowers like peonies, ranunculus, and really organic-looking greenery. But we sort of have, like, our bread and butter and we have to be more mainstream,” she said.

Being more mainstream allows Buds and Blooms to cater to customers’ basic floral needs, like providing flowers for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, graduation celebrations, weddings, baby deliveries, hospital stays, funerals and even just a way to send good wishes.

“COVID was actually good to us,” said Kostresh. “Retail florists thrived under COVID because people were sending flowers because they weren’t going to dinners, they weren’t visiting, and so we actually had record years those years.”

While business has been good and consistent, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the coming months, as many of the shop’s inventory comes from abroad.

“It’s been good to us. [Owning Buds and Blooms] has opened up a lot of opportunities that maybe we wouldn’t have had in the past, and it’s just fun to be a business owner, but it’s stressful as well,” said Stephen Kostresh. “Especially, you know, with the tariffs and the unknown, especially since a lot of our product comes from overseas. One of our fears is what’s the product going to look like coming here or the cost of goods and all that.”

When asked how tariffs imposed by the federal government could potentially affect Buds and Blooms, Stephen Kostresh said that they hope that prices do not have to rise.

”As a business owner, you mean you just kind of sit there with your fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen,” he said. “If it does, and we’ll have to re-evaluate our prices, you know? We don’t want to raise our prices, but if it costs us more then, unfortunately, we have to pass that on [to the customers].”

While they anticipate tariffs on their flowers, the Kostreshes and their employees remain busy and optimistic, always offering good customer service, creating beautiful floral arrangements and working hard for clients of all sizes. “We’re the official florist of the Miss Washington Volunteer pageant at the PAEC [Federal Way Performing Arts and Event Center],” said Stephen Kostresh.

Federal Way Buds and Blooms is located at 33525 Pacific Highway South, Suite B, Federal Way, and is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 253-874-0977 or visit federalwaybudsandblooms.com.

Special arrangements and bouquets are a big part of what keeps people coming back to Buds and Blooms.

Along with flowers, the Federal Way Buds and Blooms sells hosue plants, gifts and other accessories.