Wholesale Flowers Seattle, WA

Our Story

Wholesale Flowers by Cascade Floral: After 15 years as managers of a Safeway store in Tacoma, Dorrie, 32, and Elaine, 28, Ransick moved to Everett in 1947 and purchased an existing grocery store located on Broadway. They renamed the store Stadium Market because of its proximity to the Everett Memorial Stadium. Everyone told them they were crazy because the location was too far south of downtown but, from the beginning, they had a thriving grocery business.

In 1960, Safeway built a supermarket store a half block away, severely impacting their small grocery business. Elaine decided that in order to survive, they needed to branch out. She had always loved flowers and supposed that, like groceries, if the price was lowered, the demand would increase. Her theory proved right and Elaine offered Easter lilies for her first floral venture. Eventually, she began to carry cut flowers by her customers’ request and then innovated a way to sell flowers to a mass market by selling loose bunches in buckets. By 1971, they had a full-time designer and a delivery truck.

In 1972, Dorrie passed away at the age of 57 leaving Elaine with the responsibility of the business. Cheryl, her daughter, and Spark Van Winkle, her son-in-law, came to work to help Elaine. They remodeled and updated the Broadway store. Elaine sold the business to Cheryl and Spark and retired in 1978. Cheryl and Spark phased out selling groceries and focused on transforming the business into a full-service flower shop. In 1988, the transformation was completed by renaming the business Stadium Flowers. In 2002, the original grocery store location at 3632 Broadway was completely leveled and rebuilt. It now spans six city lots at 6,000 square feet and is home to the longest set of Borgen cooler doors in the United States. D’s Drive-Inn at 20728 Hwy 99 in Lynnwood was purchased in 1976. Cheryl and Spark remodeled it, creating their second Stadium Flowers location.

Cascade Wholesale was built in 1991 as a wholesale, bulk flowers business to slim down rising flower costs for our Stadium Flower locations. Now, Cascade Wholesale Flowers also services other retail florists and independent designers. All flowers are processed in our wholesale division with a state of the art water and bucket cleaning system. Our delivery area is an hour north of Seattle and as far south as Renton. The Corporate Business Office, Call Center, Design Center, Garden Division, Bouquet Making Division, and Wholesale Sales Divisions are all located in the Cascade Wholesale building.

A small family business built in 1947 has boomed into a thriving business that is, today, run by Elaine’s great-grandson and his wife, Adam and Darla Van Winkle. 

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