Meet Patty Pots: The Woman Behind Our Front Steps

There’s a lot that goes into running a small boutique on Long Beach Island. The buying trips, the styling, the shoots, the endless details that turn a shop into a destination. But one of our favorite rituals each year has nothing to do with clothing at all.

Every spring, the front steps of Coco Kimono get dressed up — and we mean dressed up. Overflowing pots of seasonal flowers, carefully chosen and curated, that welcome you before you’ve even walked through the door. It’s one of those small details that makes a big difference. A signal that the season has arrived. That we’re open, alive, and ready for whatever LBI has in store.

And behind every single pot? That’s Patty.

Meet Patty — our founder’s mom, and the unofficial floral director of Coco Kimono.

We call her Patty Pots, and she’s earned every letter of that nickname. Season after season, Patty takes on the front steps with the same energy she brings to everything: thoughtful, joyful, and a little obsessive in the best way. She doesn’t just pick flowers — she curates them. She’s thinking about color, scale, texture, and how the whole arrangement will feel from the sidewalk. Honestly? It’s fashion, just in botanical form.

This March, we headed to Bob’s Garden Center together to pick out the spring lineup — and it was one of those outings that reminded us why we love doing this.

If you haven’t been to Bob’s, add it to your list. The kind of place that smells like soil and sunshine the moment you walk in. Rows and rows of color, everything dewy and just waking up for the season.

Patty moved through the greenhouse like she’d been planning this for weeks — because she had. She knew exactly what she was looking for, and this spring, the vision was soft, romantic, and full of texture.

The picks?

• Ranunculus — the star of the show, in blush pink, butter yellow, and clean white. Layered petals, ruffly and lush, like a tiny peony that didn’t want to wait for summer.

• Pansies — the supporting cast. Velvety, earthy, and grounding. They give the arrangement depth and that organic, garden-grown feel that keeps it from looking too precious.

Together, the palette felt fresh without being loud. Warm without being heavy. Very us, honestly.

You might be wondering — why dedicate a blog post to potted plants?

Because at Coco Kimono, the details are the story. The flowers on the front steps aren’t an afterthought — they’re an intention. They say: someone cares about this place. They say: spring is here, and we’re celebrating it. They’re the first impression before the clothes, before the racks, before anything else.

And the fact that it’s Patty who does it every season? That means something to us. Coco Kimono has always been a family business, woven through with the people who love it most. Patty Pots is part of that story — quietly, seasonally, beautifully.

There’s something specific about spring on Long Beach Island. It doesn’t arrive loud. It creeps in — the light changes first, then the air gets a little softer, and suddenly you notice the shops starting to open their shutters again. The island is stretching, waking up, remembering itself.

That’s the feeling we’re chasing with every detail we put into the store. The front steps in full bloom are our way of saying: we’re awake. Come find us.

So next time you stop by the shop on Long Beach Blvd, take a second to notice the pots by the door. Those ranunculus didn’t arrange themselves.