It’s spring and the sun shines harshly on the perimeter of Hanyang Super Market on Northern Boulevard. Customers, speaking in various languages including Korean and Chinese, are abuzz among the rows of racks that display neat rows of seedlings alongside the building. One could find Hayoung Choi, owner of Hayoung Florist, with sweat on the brim of his hat and tanned from laboring outdoors daily, hauling shipments into the shop, or taking lunch breaks on a narrow table squished between a dozen orchids and his flower refrigerator. There’s never a dull moment at this shop. 

In an interview with Mr. Choi, he remarks on how different his life is from what he imagined. He came to America with a family as a consequence of losing his office job during the IMF crisis. Never did he imagine that he’d be working with Christmas trees in the winter or selling chrysanthemum seeds in the fall. But though the work is hard and manual labor is rigorous, he takes pride in the shop that he poured himself into for 15 years.

Established in 2007