Evelyn Frolking Spotlight
Evelyn Frolking
Written by Nor Osborne, June 2025
In the heart of downtown Granville, beneath the shade of an umbrella and in the doorway of a gift shop, Evelyn Frolking stood beside a flower cart bursting with color. Even though she was standing in Central Ohio, Evelyn was able to transport local pedestrians abroad, creating her own European flower market. This pop-up flower stand marked one of Evelyn’s first steps into the world of floristry.
Though she had always considered herself a gardener, Evelyn spent most of her professional life in education, teaching English and journalism at Newark High School and later serving as the director of Welsh Hills School.
That changed when Evelyn was awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach high school English in the Netherlands. It was there, surrounded by tulip fields and bustling flower markets, Evelyn found her love for florals blossoming into something more profound.
“You come to a point in your life where you might say, you know, I've done this long enough, and I want to do something else,” Evelyn recalls.
That "something else" turned out to be a bold career pivot. Evelyn returned to the Netherlands, not as an educator, but as a student, earning a certificate in international floral design.
Evelyn quickly realized a traditional flower shop didn’t suit her floral goals.
“You’re on your feet all the time. You have recipes to follow. I’m too much of a free spirit for that .”
Instead, she embraced the European model of a studio florist, working independently out of her home. At the time, this business model was unconventional in Central Ohio, requiring some persistence to convince others of her legitimacy.
“The wholesalers didn’t know what to do with me. I didn’t have a storefront,” she recalls. “I had to convince them I was real.”
Her studio, now known as Studio Antiflora, reflects Evelyn’s values as much as her artistry. Sustainability is at the heart of her work. Evelyn uses fresh water and biodegradable materials, forgoing chemicals and microplastics in her arrangements.
“Protecting the environment is something that I really care about,” she says.
In her early days, her downtown flower stand helped build a network of loyal clients. But over time, Evelyn transitioned away from the public presence of her cart, focusing on custom orders rather than general floral work.
“When you get into a field, you want to be a generalist, but once I didn’t need to rely on that work, I didn’t want to continue that. I didn’t want to do 20 bud vases for a wedding. And I didn’t want to deal with mothers of the bride,” she says with a laugh.
While she took on weddings early in her career (and still occasionally does them for friends), she ultimately shifted her focus to what truly fed her creative soul: floral art.
While she turns a profit in her business, thanks to many loyal customers, floral art itself, Evelyn explains, is not a lucrative part of her business.
“You’re almost always giving it away—donating it for art shows, auctions, or museum fundraisers.” But it’s where her heart lies. “It’s the artistic expression, the technique, the structure. It’s about being bold.”
Evelyn continues to fill commercial orders for birthdays and small events, often bringing the skills of floral art into her everyday bouquets.
“I integrate a lot of the techniques that I use in floral art into the everyday flower business, and that has given me quite a reputation, that’s how I’ve been successful.”
Evelyn’s storytelling doesn’t stop with flowers. She is also a writer, holding a masters degree in journalism. She has contributed to publications like Columbus Monthly, the Columbus Dispatch, and Denison Magazine. She has also written and published a book, titled Homegrown: Stories from the Farm, where she explores local food production in Central Ohio. She has taught expository writing at Denison University. Most recently, she’s been writing for Granville Magazine and in this year’s upcoming annual issue, she has written about the Christmas Candlelight Walking Tour and the Granville Historical Society, where she also serves on the board.
Just as she crafts intricate floral designs organically, she approaches writing with a similar free-spirited, creative process. Both mediums allow her to express her creativity by focusing on real people, real experiences, and capturing the essence of a moment or subject.
Now more than two decades into her floristry career, Evelyn continues to evolve and experiment, creating floral sculpture for the Columbus Museum of Art’s “Art in Bloom,” designing wearable flower hats for Franklin Park Conservatory’s “Hat Day,” and weaving dried grasses into stunning table centerpieces.
