A flower shop for the living, and the dead, in La Mesa

There aren’t many flower shops where you’ll find raccoon skulls, taxidermy, and alligator scales. 

But at The Floral Craft in La Mesa, you’ll find all that and more.  With its gothic, Victorian-inspired aesthetic and black roses, October is one of the busiest months at The Floral Craft.

A few years into her floral design career, Danielle Sanchez knew she had to do something different. She sensed that people wanted something other than the “cookie-cutter” flower arrangements in pastel colors. 

“I decided just to stay true to myself and go for a more dark aesthetic,” she said. “It really took off, honestly, because there’s nothing out there like this.” 

Sanchez incorporates dark and moody colors with skulls and black roses. She discovered there was an appetite for it.  She quickly outgrew her flower stand in Fletcher Hills, and moved into her store in La Mesa a few years ago. 

There, she’s been able to curate an experience that goes beyond flowers – one where she can tell the stories of the living and the dead. 

Where the living and the dead meet

Sanchez’s aesthetic is inspired by the macabre of the Victorian era. She shared how Victorians would use the hair of a loved one who had passed in their jewelry and wear it while mourning. 

“But it wasn’t dark, in a sense,” said Sanchez. “It was beauty and it was respect.”

She’s been able to bring that sentiment to her customers. She’s had people bring their pets’ skulls after they pass to memorialize them – ranging from cat skulls to even the giant skull of a Great Dane.

And it’s not only for somber occasions. Sanchez’s customers want skulls incorporated into their celebrations. 

One customer found a fox skull that she wanted in her wedding bouquet. They selected a muskrat skull to use in the groom’s boutonniere. 

A recently installed bone cabinet, with drawers full of coyote foot bones and jaw bones, has drawn in kids. 

“The kids love looking at the bones and that’s what I wanted,” said Sanchez. “To be able to touch and feel and really kind of look and interact.”

An otherworldly experience 

It’s not just children who are drawn in by the experience.

Lisa Nelson is a regular customer at The Floral Craft – she describes stepping into the shop as “otherworldly.”

“You feel like you kind of enter another dimension,” said Nelson. “You’re looking around the shop just amazed. You’re almost in Disneyland, I feel like. It’s just not something that you see every day.”

Nelson discovered the store around Halloween a few years ago, and immediately fell in love with it. 

“You can’t find anything like it in San Diego,” she said. “You can just tell by looking at her shop that she’s carefully curated every detail.”

The Floral Craft also offers regular workshops for people to learn about floral design.

Nelson recently attended a Halloween-themed workshop where people learned how to make spider webs out of hot glue to use in their floral designs. 

“It’s just another added element of La Mesa that’s unique and different and just brings a different vibe to the community.”

The black roses are only available during October and Valentine’s Day, so prospective buyers should move fast.

But always keep an eye out for the ghost cat that customers and staff say lurks in the shop’s corner.