Marybeth Ehler says her new flower shop, Folly, on North Broad Street, already feels like home, and no wonder. She's a seasoned veteran on the block.

"It just feels really good to poke my head out here," Ehler said March 22, as she arranged dried eucalyptus with her door open on her first day open for business.

For 10 years Ehler ran a popular flower shop, Amaranth, in the basement of the Wilsey Building on the corner of North Broad Street and East Ridgewood Avenue. When she decided to close two years ago, she moved to work at the Village Café, just a couple of doors over.

With the coffee shop closing this January, and a number of other storefronts becoming available, Ehler decided to open a new flower arrangement store. When the space at 21 North Broad Street—formerly Eileen's Tailoring—opened up, she said she knew it was time to try her business again.

"I needed to do it, not exactly for the town, but for myself," she said. And, as the shop's name suggests and as she admits, there's a smidge of jovial last-minute doubt in her decision to open a store now.

"But I just like the word. It sounds like fun," she said, smiling.

Ehler deals mostly with fresh flowers for special occasions, and found that her customers generally left most decisions for arrangements in her hands.

"I was very fortunate to go to the market, get what I loved and do what I loved. It always worked for everybody."

She didn't advertise much, and usually counted on word of mouth for her business.

"People would go somewhere and see something I did," she said. "And then people would just call me up."

But with a storefront near the train station and with high foot traffic in the area, Ehler might be changing the nature of her business to offer more for walk-in clients. She said she likes the idea of offering more dried flower arrangements—mainly because they're not exactly offered elsewhere in town.

"I don't like to come in and do something someone else is already doing," she said.

Arrangements are all done by hand and are usually for special occasions. She says arrangements start at $40 and are generally priced per stem.

While she says she's like to be able to compete with a place like Whole Foods, she can't—and her new attempt at a shop will reflect the realities of being a one-woman operation.

"I'm only human," she said. " This is a different kind of personal artistry thing. I'm doing a different job."

Ehler is a longtime resident of the area. She was born at The Valley Hospital and grew up in Ridgewood. When she quit art school she came back to town and got a job at Beers Flower Shop, "That's where I learned everything," she said.

A lifetime of work in flower arranging brought her to run her Amaranth shop, but she backed out to try and relieve the stress of the business.

"But I've really learned that life stays hard," Ehler said.

After working at the Village Café and seeing dozens of storefronts—including the café itself—close over the winter, Ehler thought it might be time to try her flower business afresh and give it a new name.

"I was feeling really sad this winter. Working downtown, I'd walk to my car and see all the stores really quiet. I'd leave at 5 p.m., and it was just like a ghost town. I just felt bad," she said.

She was committed from the start to the idea of reopening in Ridgewood instead of some other town.

Ehler says the rent in her building has come down considerably in the past few years. Although she said it's still expensive, she said she's happy to be on the ground level, on a good block, and in the town she grew up in.

"People said, 'Don't open in Ridgewood, the rents are too high,' but I wouldn't think of opening anywhere else," she said. "I grew up here, I've always been here."

She says she's not sure whether she'll join the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce, mainly because she has to be very careful with money right now, but also because she doesn't want to get too involved in the town's politics.

"I'd rather not sit around and talk about parking problems," she said, peeling away her dried eucalyptus. "I'd rather just be in here working."

She said she was heartened that a new arts store had opened next to the movie theater, and concerned that a lot of the flower shops—Empty Vase, Morning Glory, and Flower Elegance—had closed shop in Ridgewood recently.

But though other stores closed, as well, Ehler said she thought both the town—and her business—needed a fresh start.

"I felt so lost not doing this," she said. "I just get to make everybody happy." 

Folly is located at 21 N. Broad Street. Hours are Tuesdays to Fridays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ehler says she might also be in the store Mondays, but not to count on it all the time.