Mother Earth's kind of shop | (702) 997-0222Downtown Arts District4 E. Charleston BlvdLas Vegas, Nevada 89104 |
Mother Earth's kind of shop | (702) 997-0222Downtown Arts District4 E. Charleston BlvdLas Vegas, Nevada 89104 |
Gaia is a flower and gift shop in Las Vegas' downtown Arts District. We specialize in sustainably grown flowers and desert accents arranged in ceramics made by local artists, but can do any type of arrangement and have an entire room filled with plants at very reasonable prices.
Our gift shop features bath and body products, candles, ceramics, jewelry, and other crafts made by Las Vegans, as well as organic and Fair Trade teas. Best of all, we show ongoing exhibitions of work by local artists.
People who visit Gaia are always struck by how pretty and peaceful it is, and by our unique selection of gifts. It's a great place to hold a meeting or event, or just to hang out and smell the flowers. Come see for yourself.
Peter Frigeri opened Gaia Flowers in June 2009.
With a bachelor of science in horticulture from Penn State and several years' experience working for other plant and floral providers, Peter founded his own company, Falcon Floral, in 1995. Now called Expo Ease that company offers plants and floral arrangements, as well as other services, to trade show managers.
Looking for a way to integrate his passion for sustainable horticulture and floriculture into his business, in 2008 Peter started working on an idea that would eventually become Gaia. Having lived near and supported the Arts District since he discovered it many years ago, Frigeri was elated to find a building on Charleston and Main that could accommodate both his existing and new businesses.
Gaia exists not only to give Las Vegans a place where they can buy sustainable floral arrangements and locally made gifts and art, but also to build community among people who share our values of creativity, thoughtfulness and sustainability.
Gaia (pronounced "guy-uh") is the Greek goddess personifying Mother Earth. We chose this name to reflect our commitment to honoring the Earth's natural beauty and conserving her resources, while promoting thoughtful gift-giving and enjoyment of the arts.
Many people don't realize how wasteful and harmful the cut flower industry can be (for examples, see Panna.org). At Gaia, we use cut flowers that are certified sustainable by a standards program such as VeriFlora or Eco-Flora, unless a client needs something that is not available from such growers. Whenever possibley, rather than water-hungry greenery, we use desert accents in our arrangements and incorporate local, seasonal growth and potted plants.
By sourcing as many of our our baskets, gift products and pottery locally as we can, we make a smaller carbon footprint than most flower and gift shops. Some customers still can't afford or don't like arrangements in our hand-made pots and vases by local artists, so we do keep a supply of less expensive, imported containers. However, it is our goal to spread awareness of and support the local pottery industry to the extent that we will someday be able to use mainly (or only!) locally made containers.
In addition, we are developing a comprehensive sustainability program for our own business practices. We recycle everything possible, and compost plant and flower clippings. We are working with partners such as the Las Vegas Springs Preserve and 1% for the Planet to make our operations even more responsible.
We are also very committed to our community. We believe in making Downtown Las Vegas a better place to shop by making it a better place to live and work. To this end, we donate half of our storefront window display space to a different charity every couple of months, usually chosen by our featured exhibiting artists. This gives a voice to the causes that our arts community cares about. We also support neighborhood charities such as Casa de Luz, Opportunity Village and Calvary Downtown Outreach.