As a child, Dennis Nutley would disappear into the woods near his house for the day and return with armfuls of flowers for his mother. She had a wildflower garden, for which he would go in the woods and dig up seedlings. Nutley, now a florist, founded the Chronogrammie-winning Green Cottage in 1997 with his partner David Urso. “It’s in my blood,” he says of the flower business.
Nutley’s first flower shop job was as part of the maintenance crew, sweeping up for a local store in Staten Island where he grew up. His first time working as a florist was at Mohonk Mountain House. Nutley would go into the woods on the property, find flowers, and make them into arrangements placed throughout the hotel. At Green Cottage, he loves constantly creating new combinations of flowers, keeping himself on his toes by never repeating the same design.
Nutley and Urso, a jeweler, decided to open Green Cottage as a home for both of their trades. They began without a business plan, asking Urso’s friends for consignment items like pottery and scarves to supplement Nutley’s flowers and Urso’s jewelry. Twenty-three years later, Green Cottage still offers home goods and remains focused on local artists.
The changing seasons influence both Nutley’s arrangements and his partiality to certain flowers. Right now, he’s taken with peonies, “just like all the June brides,” he says. But he doesn’t want to play favorites too much. “Every flower is beautiful in its way, even carnations. Just not the blue ones.”
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This article appears in July 2021.
