Andrea and Joseph Nishimoto (center, with scissors), co-owners of Forage Ahead, 804 N. Park Ave., Winona Lake, have a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce Saturday for their floral shop.

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WINONA LAKE — Whether you’re looking for flowers for your spouse, or just a good houseplant to liven up your living quarters, Forage Ahead, 804 N. Park Ave., Winona Lake, can help.

Joseph Nishimoto, co-owner of Forage Ahead with his wife Andrea, said, “We sell mostly houseplants, but some other plants as well, as well as flowers and other florist type things. So vases, planters, things like that.

”Forage Ahead opened in August 2024, but had their summer kickoff party Saturday, June 21, and decided to do their ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce at the same time.

Nishimoto said they offer their services all year round.

“We have a storefront open all year round. Every day 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for Sundays because we’re closed. But we offer normal florist delivery services, things like that as well,” he said. Whether it’s to say “I’m sorry” or “I love you” — or both — or gifts for graduation or other life event milestone, they have it.

“We try to do teacher appreciation when school’s around every month for different schools, things like that,” he stated. “It doesn’t have to be romantic, but they are just nice to look at and give out.”

Nishimoto said their catchphrase is “Floral for all.”

“Floral, for people who don’t know, is any plant, basically, so life is divided between floral and fauna, so we try to have all different kinds of floral in here, all different kinds of plants,” he said. “Our catchphrase is ‘Floral for all’ and the reason it’s that is because we try to make it as accessible for anybody as possible.” He said they try to keep their prices ranged so a person can spend more money to have an impressive arrangement or spend a little less to watch their budget or simply to say they’re thinking about someone.

“We even have a flower bar, which is a little bit unique to other florists. Anybody can just come and you can just grab one flower for whatever — $2 — and take it home if you want to. We try to make it as easy as possible,” he said.

Forage Ahead, 804 N. Park Ave., Winona Lake, a floral shop in The Village at Winona, offers a flower bar that changes weekly.

What they like about having a flower bar is that it allows a personal touch for the customer. “If you come in, if you want to get it for your spouse or mom or something like that, you can actually say, ‘Oh, I picked these out for you,’ as compared to a boutique you just grabbed at the grocery store or something like that. So a little more personal touch,” Nishimoto said.

If you don’t feel confident enough to make your own boutique from the flower bar, an employee of Forage Ahead can assist you. The flowers in the flower bar change about every week. In the summer months, he said they work with local flower farmers, but in the off-months when flowers don’t grow in Indiana, they use wholesalers. Nishimoto said they usually get a fresh batch about every week, sometimes a little longer. They range in price, but they try to keep them affordable around $1 to $7 per stem.

“For the plants, too, we try to make sure we have a range of skill levels for care. We have some very entry-level ‘super hard to kill, I have it in my office with no windows’ type of deal and they’ll stay alive. Or we have a little harder ones,” he said.

Customers can either stop in or order online at the website at forageaheadfloral.com.

“You can email us, you can text us, call us, just Google us or whatever, we’re on there. You’ll find us. Whatever is most comfortable for you, we can make happen,” Nishimoto said.