Berkeley Florist Supply Company was incorporated in Miami, Florida in 1947. This year, they are celebrating 75 years in business.

The name Berkeley came from the Berkeley Florist Supply Company in Boston, Mass., which was a wholesale floral company on Berkeley Street in Boston.

 Morey Moss graduated from the University of Miami in 1962 with a degree in accounting and enlisted in the Army Reserve, where he spent 6 months on active duty at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, and then had a five-and-a-half year reserve obligation at the University of Miami Armory in a Jag Unit. He worked for an accounting firm in Miami Beach for three years. In 1965, he bought a client of the firm, Berkeley Florist Supply. He was 25 years old and had also been married that year.

He has been operating in Berkeley for the last 57 years and still works 5 and a half days a week. He is very happy that he was able to expand a small wholesale floral company with six employees and a 6000-foot building, which now has 35 employees and operates out of its own 22,000-foot building. He has survived in a highly competitive market, competing with many national companies. Their flowers and floral supplies are of the highest quality and come from many growers and suppliers from all over the world.

One of his greatest achievements is that he has never missed a weekly payroll in 57 years, about 30,000 payrolls. Even during the week of Hurricane Andrew, when they were closed, he made a payroll. He closed for 6 weeks in March 2020 because of COVID and still made payrolls for everyone. Some of his employees have been with him for 40 years. It is very important to him to take good care of his employees.

The wholesale floral industry is a wonderful business to be in because we see beautiful flowers come in from all over the world every day. A beautiful floral arrangement can now be made from flowers that come from 10 different countries. The quality of flowers has improved greatly, and they can really last a long time.

Berkeley has had the pleasure of selling flowers that have serviced many beautiful weddings and floral events in Florida and the Caribbean and Bahamian Islands. The history and stories that have passed through the doors of Berkeley Florist Supply have made it an institution not only for South Florida florists, but also for the Miami community.

Morey says, “The best thing about our industry is that we make people happy and hope to continue for many years.”