Entry No. 57 — the Pittsburgh file — filed under: dried-flowers
Roxanne's Dried Flowers
Roxanne started in 1994 on a four-acre farm, growing flowers and turning her dried harvests into wreaths and arrangements; the Penn Avenue storefront is what that turned into after three decades. The stock is entirely dried and preserved — bunches of flowers, foliage, grains, branches, fruits and seed pods — packed high enough that the room reads as a barn loft that wandered into the Strip District. The house pitch is practical rather than sentimental: dried stems need no water and no refrigeration, so the footprint is a fraction of a fresh bouquet's and the thing survives on your table for years. Alongside the botanicals there are vases, ribbon, home fragrance and a shelf of local pottery and original paintings. It is a shop with one obsession and no interest in diversifying out of it.
→ Three more vintage, record & maker shops in Pittsburgh — never the same twice
The story
Roxanne started in 1994 in a Greek revival farmhouse on a four-acre farm, growing flowers and tilling the earth because she wanted to, then making wreaths and arrangements out of what she dried. A following formed around the handcrafted pieces faster than the farm was really built for. Her read at the time was that a new generation of gardeners cared about the environment and preserving nature, and that almost nobody was running a botanically focused shop for them. The first storefront was a small one in Washington, Pennsylvania. The Penn Avenue shop in the Strip is what that became, and the company's own line is that it has been there over twenty-five years.
The stock is entirely dried and preserved. Bunches of flowers, foliage, grains, branches, fruits and seed pods are sold loose off the wall, and the made pieces — bouquets, arrangements, wreaths — are handcrafted on site, with the designers allowed to substitute natural materials when a harvest doesn't cooperate. Around the botanicals sits the rest of it: gardening supplies, bath and body, home fragrance, vases, books, greeting cards, the shop's own tote bags, and a shelf of local pottery and original paintings.
The practical argument for the whole enterprise is that dried stems need no water and no refrigeration, which makes the footprint a fraction of a fresh bouquet's and means the thing survives on your table for years rather than days. It is a woman-owned shop with one obsession and no visible interest in diversifying out of it. Custom floral design and wholesale each run as their own department with their own inbox, which is a reasonable indicator of how much of the business happens away from the retail floor.
What it's like
You come in off Penn Avenue, which on a Saturday is a market street doing market-street volume, and the door closes on most of it. The room is stacked high enough to read as a barn loft that wandered into the Strip — no cooler hum, no buckets of water, just dry botanicals and whatever is burning on the home-fragrance shelf. Loose stems are the point: pull bunches down yourself, build the thing in your hands, argue about it, then hand it over the counter to be wrapped. What's actually on the wall depends on what the harvest gave up, so go in with a shape in mind rather than a specific flower. Handle bundles by the stems, not the heads — dried material is brittle and it does not forgive a grab.
The move: Come Saturday morning while the Strip is loud, and build one arrangement together from loose stems instead of buying anything pre-made — pull bunches off the wall, argue about it at the counter, have them wrap it. Twenty or thirty dollars gets you something that will still be on the table next winter. Then walk it down Penn with coffee and the rest of the market.
📍 Before you go Open Mon–Sat 10–5, Sun 10–4 — a daytime stop, not an evening one. Phone 412-281-6950. Strip District parking on a Saturday is genuinely bad; park east of 21st and walk, or come on a weekday. Which specific botanicals are in stock depends on what the harvest gave up, so do not go in fixed on one flower. Dried stems are brittle — carry the arrangement upright rather than laying it in a trunk. They also do custom floral design and wholesale, both worth a call ahead.
- 📍 Pittsburgh
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 2115 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Enrico Biscotti Co. — Two doors' walk down Penn at 2022 — buy the flowers, then go around into the alley for the red door and the courtyard cafe.
- MindFuel Method — One block over on Smallman, and the exact tonal opposite: a room of dry stems and no water, then a Finnish sauna and four cold plunge tubs.
- Bantha Tea Bar — Keep going up Penn Avenue into Garfield for tea, if you want the same street to deliver a completely different room.
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Good to know
Where is it, and what's the parking situation?
2115 Penn Avenue, in the Strip District, phone 412-281-6950. There is no dedicated lot, and Strip parking on a Saturday is genuinely bad — park east of 21st and walk in, or come on a weekday when the market crowd isn't competing with you for the curb.
When is it open?
Monday through Saturday 10AM–5PM, Sunday 10AM–4PM. It is a daytime stop with no evening version, so it slots into a morning in the Strip rather than a night out. Hours are worth confirming by phone before a special trip.
How much does it cost, and can I just buy a few stems?
Yes — the loose bunches are the core of the shop and you assemble from them, which is the cheap way in. Premade bouquets, arrangements and wreaths cost more because they're handcrafted on site. Gift cards are sold, and online orders over $100 ship free.
Can they make something specific for me, or supply an event?
Custom floral design and wholesale are separate departments with their own inboxes — [email protected] and [email protected]. Call 412-281-6950 ahead rather than walking in cold with a wedding brief.
Will the flower I want be in stock?
Not reliably. Everything is dried and preserved, so the wall reflects what the harvest actually produced, and the shop runs seasonal collections rather than a fixed catalogue. Designers will substitute natural materials in made pieces when something isn't available.
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Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-08-26