Ten Eycks’ flower business is, yes, blossoming

Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff

Two years ago, twin sisters Taylor Ten Eyck and Morgan Willy made their debut selling other growers’ flowers. Recently, their father, Peter Ten Eyck III, was before the New Scotland Planning Board, helping them expand the business. 

NEW SCOTLAND — What a difference 24 months can make.

Two years ago, twin sisters Taylor Ten Eyck and Morgan Willy made their debut selling other growers’ flowers. 

Just 25 years old when they incorporated Twin Dahlias Flowers, the sisters operated the business on a part-time basis. Ten Eyck worked in procurement for a defense contractor and Willy was employed in the information-technology industry.  

“Morgan is currently operating the business full-time and I am part-time,” Ten Eyck told The Enterprise by email this week.

“The business has grown and changed a lot over the last two years but we are super excited to keep using local and domestically sourced flowers to the maximum extent possible in our designs,” she wrote.

About 90 percent of Twin Dahlias Flowers’ business is floral design for weddings and events, according to Ten Eyck. 

The twins’ father, Peter, was recently before the New Scotland Planning Board, helping his daughters expand the business. 

The Ten Eycks want to use approximately two of the acres at 400 Altamont Road for growing flowers while using the single-family home on the property for the commercial end, the flower-arranging.

 Normally, the board would see the proposal as a special-use permit. But because 400 Altamont Road is in an agricultural district, New Scotland’s zoning code qualifies it for site-plan approval, a lower threshold of approval.

“The primary purpose of the location will be to grow, store, and process flowers and flower arrangements,” Peter Ten Eyck III told board members. “That’ll be the majority of the use.”

“There may be a time in the future where a potential customer or other workers, other than my daughters, may come to the location, but we are not anticipating any significant customer visitation or traffic-related to the business at this time,” he said.

Taylor Ten Eyck told The Enterprise the business won’t be open to the public and would be by appointment only

The board asked if customers would be coming to the site, but Peter Ten Eyck said customers will often go to his daughters’ homes and that “they have pretty nice portfolio online,” adding “so there’s a lot of that happens online just like we’re doing now, over Zoom.”

Currently, Ten Eyck said he and his daughters are renovating the house.

There’s no intention right now for a greenhouse, but if Peter Ten Eyck plans on having one in the future and it’s a certain size, he has to come back before the board for a site-plan review. 

The planning board unanimously approved the site plan, allowing Ten Eyck to move forward with the expansion. 

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