ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996               TAG: 9604110085
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                PAGE: S-9  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER

WEBBER FLORIST HAS CHANGED, BUT THE NAME IS STILL AN ASSET

Name recognition is important to any business, but it often is the best method of advertising for those that have been around for decades.

For Gladys Morris, whose father founded the florist business she operates with her husband, Bob, it doesn't hurt that his name appears on one of the most heavily traveled highways in the valley and on an academic building at Virginia Western Community College, or that there are many Roanokers alive today who remember when Roy L. Webber was mayor.

Webber grew up in Roanoke and began his career working in local florist shops. In 1946, when he decided to open his own business, he chose a Williamson Road location, rather than one downtown.

The area was just beginning to develop, and besides, Morris said, the downtown florists were his friends, and he didn't want to compete with them.

"That's just the way he was," she said.

He bought a building that had housed a nursery business, and through the years, he added on to it until it became a sprawling hodgepodge of large, glass-enclosed rooms. Many of them will be removed this year, when the building is returned to its original design. The greenhouses, which were in operation until 1986, were torn down last year.

In her father's day, Morris said, a florist had to have his own greenhouses. But now, with better methods of shipping and preservation, it's not worth the work it takes to keep them up.

"Fuel costs were too high," Bob Morris said. "They were just too old."

At the time Webber started the business, Gladys Morris said, Williamson Road was still fairly rural. There was a hayfield across the street. The family lived in the house next door, which is now rented to another business.

Although Gladys Morris grew up helping out with the business, "I didn't think I wanted any part of it," she said. Instead, she became a medical technologist.

In 1973, Gladys and Bob Morris were living in Northern Virginia. Gladys was staying home taking care of their three small daughters, and Bob was selling real estate. But they were having trouble making ends meet, and moving back to Roanoke and taking over the business seemed to be the best thing to do. Bob, who knew nothing about the floral trade, learned by doing.

In 1985, the Morrises opened a new store at Cave Spring Corners.

"I had a lot of friends who wanted us to open a store on that side of town," Gladys Morris said.

That store sees a lot of walk-in trade, but the Williamson Road store takes most of the telephone orders, which make up the bulk of the business. Most of the designing is done there as well. The Cave Spring store has a small cooler and no space for funeral wreaths.

The business has 20 employees, and more are brought in during the busy times - Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas and Easter. Officially, Gladys is the bookkeeper and accountant, and Bob handles the buying and the payroll, but in reality, everyone pitches in and does everything, from designing to delivery.

Roy L. Webber Florist is one of the biggest florist businesses in town, Bob Morris said, partly because of the name and partly because of the large number of commercial accounts.

"Families tend to deal with you for generations," Gladys Morris said. "They grow to trust us after a while." Despite the repeat business, the competition among florists in the Roanoke Valley is fierce.

"More and more people are getting into it," Gladys Morris said. Often, they find "it's a much more difficult business than they anticipated. After all, you're dealing with a perishable product."

It doesn't help that grocery stores are offering fresh-cut flowers, Gladys Morris said, but at a florist shop, "there's always someone there who's an expert on high-quality flowers. Our customers are willing to pay more for the quality and the service."

Roy L. Webber Florist has stayed in business because "we like to think that our service is excellent. We treat our customers fairly and give value for the money," Gladys Morris said. "We wouldn't want to send out anything we wouldn't be proud to sign our name on the card to."

Roy L. Webber Florist Inc.

4000 Williamson Road and

Cave Spring Corners

Shopping Center

366-7651

LENGTH: Medium:   84 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Gladys and Bob Morris now operate 
          Webber Florist. She never wanted to follow her well-known father, 
          Roy L. Webber, into the business but wound up doing it anyway.