Wilton’s business landscape is blooming with creativity and new ideas. From a home-based flower business, to a new Georgetown shop that doubles as a community hub, to a fresh new way to host your next gathering — three new ventures are each putting a unique spin on beautiful occasions.
Blue Door Flower Farm — “It’s Been A Dream”
Wilton resident Jill Cain always had a passion for flowers, but more recently, that love has blossomed into Blue Door Flower Farm, a home-based business offering floral subscriptions and arrangements.
“It started as a hobby, and I just turned it into a business these past two years, and it’s been going really great,” she said. “I grow all the flowers that I sell to people in Wilton, New Canaan and all over the area.”
Cain’s flower farm gained a little more notoriety when her home was featured on the 2025 A Better Chance (ABC) of Wilton House Tour, where her gardens and arrangements were on full display.
Cain speaks with pride about her wide variety of flowers — such as the tulips and ranunculus in the spring, peonies in early summer, and dahlias in late summer. In fact, her 6-week dahlia subscription plan, which includes local home delivery, is just about to begin.
In addition to varying subscription offerings, Cain also offers floral arrangements for events — though she draws a line on big events.
“It’s just me, and my mom helps me,” Cain said. “So everything that I do is on a smaller scale” such as dinner parties, baby showers, or small weddings.
She emphasized how central the Wilton community has been to her new venture.
“Most of my customers are from Wilton or the surrounding areas,” she said. “I don’t ship anything. So it’s the people that live around here that love flowers [who] have supported me.”
Cain also sells directly to customers who want to do their own arrangements.
“If they want local flowers, they can just buy buckets of flowers from me, and then do their own arranging, which people like,” she added.
For Cain, who left the professional workforce years ago when she started her family, it’s been gratifying to re-enter the workforce.
“It’s so rewarding in so many ways, even just for my kids to see me get back to something that I love,” she said.
“Flowers just make people so happy,” she continued. “So it brings me so much joy to do it. It’s just been a dream of mine to do this.”
Stems & Co. — “A Cool, Creative Hub”
When Lauryn Soden moved to Wilton from Rowayton two years ago, she knew she would also be relocating her established floral design studio. After a long search for a space where her business could grow but also add a retail dimension, she finally found the ideal spot in Georgetown.
In March, Soden opened Stems & Co. at 2 Main Street, the same building as Milestone restaurant. The space includes Soden’s expanded floral design studio — where she specializes in custom floral designs and installations for weddings and large-scale events, as well as smaller events like bridal showers and parties — but it is also a retail storefront with home decor and lifestyle items.
“It’s pretty cool space,” she said, offering “very unique” and “highly curated” products, such as hand-poured, clean-scent candles, crafted right in the studio. There’s also a make-your-own plant bar.
Hand-tied floral bouquets are available every Thursday — at least, until they sell out.
Soden shares the retail space with fellow entrepreneur and Weston resident Ambar Zaatar, owner of Wild Blueberry, which offers a collection of “sustainable, preloved & vintage children’s clothing.”
“[Zaatar] and I are very much in sync, and it’s working really well,” Soden said, noting that the two women met only recently through a mutual contact when they were both looking for retail space. “It’s been really wonderful to kind of team up together.”
Soden’s vision goes beyond floral design and specialty retailing. She wants to provide “a creative hub” for the community.
“We hope that the store will be a gathering place for the local community” Soden explained. “We do workshops in the space. I’ll do floral design workshops. I will be doing a candle workshop probably this fall.”
“We brought in other entrepreneurs too,” she continued. “We did a seed-starting workshop this past year. We did a ‘no makeup makeup’ workshop [with] a makeup artist [who] came in and did a tutorial. We’re trying to bring outside creatives in, to not just celebrate ourselves, but be a real community, creative hub.”
Soden feels it’s an exciting time to be in Georgetown, where she sees a new energy.
“There’s been a real transition and transformation in Georgetown,” she said. “There’s new blood and a lot of good momentum going on at this moment,” pointing to the recent openings of Uncorked wine bar and the Georgetown Owl market and saloon, as well as a new nail salon and ballet studio, among other establishments bringing vitality to the neighborhood.
Soden says Stems & Co. is drawing many customers from Redding, Weston and Wilton, but she hopes more Wilton residents will make the quick trip to Georgetown. She was excited by a customer from South Wilton who recently told her, “Your shop is the new cool place to buy gifts.”
“It’s really a true experience when you walk in here,” she said. “You feel like you’re transported a little bit. We’re a really great place for unique finds, and as much as possible, we celebrate women-owned brands.”
Arden Bond Design & Events: One-Stop-Shop Tablescapes
As any host can attest, hosting a special event or even a dinner or holiday gathering often feels like a tall order. That’s the challenge Wilton resident Shannon Benedek set out to solve when she launched Arden Bond Design & Events, a full-service event planning business that also offers curated “tablescapes” hosts can purchase — all aimed at making entertaining less stressful.
“Gathering people together to create unique experiences and joyful memories is what drives my passion in events,” Benedek said. “But so often, it becomes overwhelming to host. Our goal is to alleviate a piece of the hosting stress.”
“Sometimes it’s a barrier to entry. People [say], ‘Oh, I want to have people over, but it’s so much work’,” she continued. “Everyone can do it, but I know it takes a lot of time to source the items and [find] quality items too.”
Benedek has been an event planner for two decades, with corporate, nonprofit and individual clients around the country. This year she introduced a new extension of her business, with tablescape collections offered for sale online. Pieces are typically sold in sets of four, with an array of coordinating items. The merchandise changes seasonally.
“This idea is to be a one-stop shop for a tablescape — to take that off your plate and to have something that you could use over and over again at your home,” she explained.
Benedek says she hopes the added ease of entertaining will inspire people to host a gathering they might otherwise forego, but full-service event planning is still at the core of her business.
“I’m here as an event planner, as a resource for any hosting needs that [people] need [and] then also for products that they need for those events,” she said, adding that she is willing to customize any project and work with people on special orders.
Benedek revealed the name of the business has deep significance: “Arden” and “Bond” are the middle names of her two children. She launched the enterprise shortly after her second child was born.
Since moving to Wilton in 2016, she has also given her time to the community, serving on the board of A Better Chance (ABC) of Wilton and planning its last two house tours, where her her table designs were recently featured.
Going forward, she plans to take her cues from the community and says she welcomes feedback that will help guide her business.
“As people buy and shop and look, it’s good to get feedback, since I do want to really serve the local community,” Benedek said.
Arden Bond offers free delivery for Wilton orders. GOOD Morning Wilton readers will also receive 10% off online orders through Aug. 31 by using code GMW at checkout.