Photo: The building where Fiddly Fig has operated for the past 25 years in Brookside has been sold. The business will relocate in March. Photo by Kathy Feist
Owner discusses the future of Fiddly Fig and Teefey Flowers
By Jill Draper
Will Teefey Flowers and Gifts on Holmes Rd. be renamed Fiddly Fig when the two businesses merge this spring? Sheryl White, who owns both, isn’t sure yet. She’s meeting with a public relations person to figure that out. The new name might be a combination, she says.
She’s been figuring out a lot of things since selling the historic Brookside building—a former brick fire station built by J.C. Nichols on 63rd Street —where the Fiddly Fig has long sold flowers, gifts and decorative merchandise. She recently sold the place after receiving an unexpected offer by Joe Zwillenberg, who called it an iconic piece of property. Now she must move the business by the end of March.
“It will be nice to have everything under one roof, but I’ve been going a million miles an hour,” she says. “We’ve been here 25 years in this location, and this place is stuffed!”
Already White has rented two storage units for wedding and party items and paper files next to Teefey at 9716 Holmes Rd. , and has hired someone to help renovate the full-service south Kansas City floral shop. She says there’s plenty of room to stock typical Fiddly Fig items such as vases, books, jigsaw puzzles, cards, candles, jewelry, scarves, bath and body products and “a really cool line of stuffed animals,” but the shop will look very different.
After the busy spring season, which includes Mother’s Day, Administrative Professionals Day and school proms, she plans to offer classes on flower arranging and wreath making. An open house on April 16-18 is tentatively scheduled, and she hopes to have a calendar of events available by then.
Teefey and the Fiddly Fig were purchased by White’s father, Jim Shannahan, a former educator and school superintendent. She joined him right out of college after earning a business degree in 1985. He handled much of the business side, while she did the creative work. When he died seven years ago, she became owner/manager.
White, who lives in the Verona Hills neighborhood, says she’ll miss working in Brookside in a gorgeous historic building, and “I know I’ll cry when I leave.” But she’s excited about the move. “We’re kind of a destination spot here, and we’re hoping to be one on Holmes Road as well.