These five people have spent 237 years designing flower arrangements

CHAMBERSBURG - The same 10 hands that created floral arrangements for Christmas celebrations and major life milestones around a half a century ago are still at it today at Plasterer's Florist and Greenhouse. 

The five core floral designers at the long-time family-run florist at 990 Lincoln Way West in Chambersburg have spent 237 years, combined, spreading congratulations, joy, gratitude and sympathy throughout the local area through their floral creations. All of them have been there more than four decades.

Two of them, Rhonda Wolff and Bonnie Taylor, have cracked the 50-year mark. The others are close behind: Densie Baranowski, 48 years; Ben Taylor, 45 years; and Steph Rice, 44 years. 

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You don't work that long with the same people without really going through it together. They have been with each other for babies and grand-babies, weddings, tragedies and loss - the same major parts of life for which they spend their days creating floral arrangements for others.

Ben Taylor can share without hesitating the exact flowers he used to make a special bridal bouquet 41 years ago: White roses, and miniature carnations in light and dark green. 

Bonnie Taylor carried it down the aisle when she and Ben married in 1976, four years after meeting when he began working at Plasterer's. 

"And now we get to work side by side. I love it. She's not crazy about it," Ben joked, while Bonnie stood nearby at her station, working on a flower arrangement, and quietly agreed. 

"Sometimes it's a little difficult," she said. 

Just like the Taylors' relationship is intertwined with Plasterer's Florist, so are their lives and those of their fellow designers. In their 60s, they've all spent their adult lives working at Plasterer's. 

Each of the ladies started out as a secretary or clerk. Their initial interests in designing arrangements varied, but each got the position in a similar fashion - after a few years in their original position, a spot on the design floor opened and then-owner Herb Plasterer offered it. 

Today's owner, Greg Plasterer, Herb's son, was young back then; Baranowski recalled her boss's days as a Boy Scout.  While his employees watched him grow from a young man to now a grandfather, Plasterer said the situation has never hampered him. 

"My grandfather started the business. My dad and his brother ran it. I was always sort of around," he said.

He came to work at Plasterer's after college in the late 1970s. Despite having studied to be a teacher, he knew, as Herb's only son, that the future of the family business was on him. 

"We were growing as a business so I thought it would be a good opportunity," he said. 

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The floral business has changed dramatically since Wolff, Baranoswski, Rice and the Taylors started at Plasterer's in the late 60s and early 70s. Computers and the internet have brought a plethora of floral possibilities to the eyes of customers, which has led to floral designers with less creative control. 

Rice said Pintrest, a social network where people can find and share food, home and style ideas, is especially popular. 

Technology has made designing arrangements harder, Baranoski said. 

"It used to be we just had an arrangement and it was our choice. Now, we have to go according to a picture and some people are really specific and it has to be exactly like a picture. So, when we're really busy, each order we take we have to go to the computer, look at the picture, come back, make it, and then repeat the process. So it takes longer," she said. 

It can sometimes lead to nitpicking. While a reporter visited the design room last Friday, one of the designers received notice that a customer was not completely happy with an arrangement she had made off of a photo, of flowers and greens in the shape of a small Christmas tree, because it didn't look just like the photo.

It also creates more chances for changed minds. For example, Rice was through with the beginning stages on an arrangement when she had to start over, because the customer decided they wanted a basket instead of the vase they originally chose. 

While Baranowski said it may take a bit longer for her and the other designers to recuperate from the holiday rush (although, Valentine's Day is the busiest time), none of the five has any plans to retire. 

"We're gradually getting older. The only thing that's giving out is our legs; standing on concrete is hard," Ben Taylor said. 

But if any of them follow in the footsteps of some of Plasterer's longest-serving employees - such as Herb Plasterer and long-time employee Elsie Ott, both of whom worked through age 90 - they have decades of work ahead. 

"We might just all retire," Plasterer laughed. "We don't know yet."