Michelle Glassman is the owner of Petalage Florals, a boutique floral studio in South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood. Photo by Jess Webb

For Michelle Glassman, Mother’s Day isn’t just one day.

Glassman is celebrating the first Mother’s Day since the birth of her son, Payson, who is 10 months old. Photo by Michelle Glassman.

The owner of Petalage Florals in South Portland starts planning for the holiday months in advance – looking at the books from the previous year, ordering supplies and flowers, crafting social media posts and planning staffing for the day itself. This year, Glassman is also celebrating her first Mother’s Day; her son, Payson, was born 10 months ago. “Right now, I’m just tired, but I love him so much,” she said. “I’m not even a year in as a mother. It’s all exciting and a type of love that I’ve never really experienced before, and I’m in this phase of being the best mom possible while not losing it.”

Glassman, 35, lives in Portland’s North Deering neighborhood. For more information about Petalage Florals, visit petalageflorals.com or follow Petalage Florals on Instagram or Facebook.

Honestly, everything looks a little bit different right now with Payson, but we’re trying to take him out and about with us now. My favorite day is spent with my husband. We’ve been together – I don’t know, 16 years? – since I was 19. So we truly are best friends, and I still really enjoy spending time with him.

We just love to go to coffee shops and go out to eat. My heart is in two places when it comes to Maine: Kennebunk and Portland.

Mateo Hodo, owner of Coffee ME Up on Cumberland Avenue, makes lattes in 2018. Staff photo by Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Boulangerie in Kennebunk is one of my favorite pastry or coffee shops. I have to shout out Coffee ME Up in Portland. I’m definitely a croissant girl. For coffee, I always at Coffee ME Up just get the cold brew vanilla coconut over and over again.

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This sounds cheesy, too, because I’m a florist, but when I transitioned from corporate to flowers, I got into hobby gardening. I can dweeb out with my gardening. I’m a dork at this point, where I’ll talk about a shrub or a rhododendron bush or one of my weeping cherry trees that has a fungus on it. Relaxing in my yard that I’ve been curating for the past seven years, just watching my garden come to life – this is the most exciting season.

I’ve planted maple trees. I have two crabapple trees, two weeping cherry trees, a lilac bush, multiple hydrangea bushes. I have a catalogue at this point of my garden roses that I’ve been nurturing for years. It’s not enough to truly use in my retail or wedding business, but just today, there was an arrangement that went out the door, and I cut off some branches from my cherry blossom trees. There’s sentimental touches that I can add when I can.

A worker at Skillin’s Greenhouse in Cumberland. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

I love going to greenhouses. I love Snug Harbor Farm (in Kennebunk). They have the coolest greenhouses for the wide variety of stuff that they carry. Skillin’s (in Falmouth, Cumberland and Brunswick), O’Donal’s Nursery (in Scarborough). Those are the two I go to the most.

My good friend, Amanda, started Seabird Aromatic Therapy in South Portland, and she just opened a really cute shop adjacent to me (in South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood). I really enjoy popping in and saying hi to her. She has wonderful aromatherapy and skincare products.

I love Portland Architectural Salvage. And Monstera Vintage Decor in Portland. I purchased Payson’s Peter Rabbit collectible music box there. I play it every night to him.

Diners at Isa Bistro. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

Right now, there’s no time to go out, but I do like going out. My neighborhood spot is Tipo. And Isa Bistro. I like a bistro. I like small and intimate.

(For Mother’s Day), I’m going to have my mom and my immediate family over to my house, and I’m going to do the best I can to do a brunch together, and I’m hoping it’s nice enough to eat in the garden.


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