Mother-daughter duo brings bouquet of offerings to Uptown

A new Uptown business is in bloom with the opening of BaLu & Co. With a ribbon cutting held Jan. 14, owner Hannah Baker is ready to supply Creston with floral arrangements and assorted gifts.

Pronounced bay-loo, this store gets its name from Baker’s current last name and maiden name.

“My last name is Baker and maiden name is Luther, and my mom’s last name is Luther, and she’s a big part of this, so we kind of combined the two,” Baker said.

The two have been working on the business since September, far before a physical storefront was found.

“We started out of my house in September just doing the flowers, so building the rest of it happened gradually. A lot of it depended on finding a storefront,” Baker said. “We looked at some places in town but nothing fit quite right, but then we kind of stumbled upon this location and it really was perfect. We really look forward to the spring when we can set up the outside too.”

From special bouquets to floral subscriptions, BaLu offers all types of arrangements, as well as delivery.

“My mom and I have always kind of had a love for flowers. We offer everything within florals. We can do custom arrangements, funerals, weddings, homecomings, prom,” Baker said. “We also offer an assortment of gifts, and we hope to be constantly expanding our options as we grow, so every time you stop in, hopefully we’ll have something new to see. We do free delivery in Creston, and then there’s a little bit of a delivery fee outside of Creston.”

For gifts, Baker made sure to include goods from local makers, including Alternative, Stellar Sparks and Llama Mama.

“We wanted to give everybody the opportunity to have an open location in Creston,” Baker said. “It’s kind of hard to find storefront properties and so, there were a handful of people that we knew of that we reached out to that we’d be willing to work with, and we’re always looking for more people to add down the road.”

Located at 113 N. Walnut St., BaLu & Co. is open Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. BaLu is also open for appointments only on Mondays.

“We wanted to bring something positive and fun and happy to the community,” Baker said. “Having my kiddos with me is super important, so this is a great way to bring something positive not only for myself but for the community as well.”