Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Peter Collins, the third generation owner of downtown Nashua icon Collins Flowers, says it's time to retire, or at least semi-retire, and close the shop effective today, Dec. 30.

NASHUA – Peter Collins was a pre-schooler when a late-night fire burned his family’s flower shop out of its home of 30-plus years at 133 Main St.

A couple of years later, he was in first grade and ready to go to work – not only to learn his ABCs, but also how to correctly wrap green-colored lengths of wire around the stems of flowers and other occasion-appropriate ingredients that would become central to the next custom floral arrangement loaded into the delivery van emblazoned with “Collins Flowers.”

Now, more than 50 years after climbing the ladder from “after-school apprentice” to owner of the downtown Nashua icon that bears the family name, Collins has decided to retire, or at least semi-retire, and close the shop, a decision he said didn’t come easy.

Nor did it come overnight.

Frank Collins, who founded the downtown Nashua flower shop 87 years ago at 133 Main St., was featured in this collage of businesses that appeared in the Nashua Telegraph on Dec. 30, 1949 – 68 years ago today. His grandson, Peter Collins, has decided to close the shop today, also Dec. 30.

“We’ve been thinking about it for awhile,” Collins said Thursday, taking a break from the arduous chore of sorting through the basement and storage areas of the building that’s been the shop’s home since 1980.

“I wanted to make sure none of my daughters were interested in getting into the business before I made any final decisions,” he said of the three young women who are currently setting out on their own career paths.

Indeed, Collins Flowers – initially named Collins Flower Shop by its founder, Frank Collins – has been the epitome of the phrase “family business” since the get-go.

Frank Collins, Peter’s grandfather, eventually handed the reins to his son, Francis “Bud” Collins, who in turn passed them on to Peter, probably figuring that his son, having been in the business since first grade, knew his way around the shop quite well.

“Yep, I’ve been here, doing whatever, since I started first grade,” Collins said with a laugh. As a matter of fact, “doing whatever” tasks for his father was Collins’s first experience with homework.

An ad for Collins Flowers that appeared in a January 1948 edition of the Nashua Telegraph shows its original name, Collins Flower Shop, and original location, 133 Main St.

“He’d bring home a box of wiring and decorations like pine cones, ribbons and things like that, my mother and I would sit in front of the TV and put them together.

“This was before everything started coming already assembled,” he added.

While Collins and his employees planned to keep it business as usual inside the long Library Hill storefront into the shop’s final hours, many of the walk-ins over the past couple of weeks have been well-wishers bearing messages of congratulations and thanks.

“They came in thanking me … but it’s me, who should be thanking them,” Collins said,

Now and then a visitor would express sadness, some lamenting what they saw as downtown Nashua losing yet another icon.

But to Collins, it’s not as much a sad occasion as it is a time to relfect.

“I wouldn’t say I’m sad, but you get nostalgic,” he said. “There are a lot of memories.”

For example, several clippings from old Telegraphs that have survived the decades were spread out this week near an old oak desk that survived the 1962 fire that ripped through the Beasom Block, displacing the shop and several other businesses, as well as the rooms occupied by the Nashua Lodge of Elks.

Another of the fire casualties was Wingate’s Pharmacy, that, like Collins, was a family-run, downtown icon in the making at the time.

Peter Collins remembers his father, who had by then taken over the shop’s operations, and the Wingate family getting together and reopening side-by-side on the lower level of the Whiting Building at Main and Franklin streets.

“We were at 33 Main, Wingate’s was at 35,” Collins said. “We were next to each other for years.”

When “Bud” Collins, who died in August 2016, decided the shop needed more space, he bought the current location at 9 Main St. and renovated ground-level storefront that previously housed Mike & Jim’s diner, and before that, the popular landmark Miss Nashua Diner.

“We’ve really enjoyed being here,” Collins said of the Library Hill location, gesturing toward the series of large windows that overlook one of the city’s busiest intersections.

And he, and his employees, have also really enjoyed chatting with regular customers and helping out new ones.

But it’s time.

“I’m just getting tired … (working) six, seven days a week,” Collins said, pausing momentarily and gazing through one of the shop’s large windows.

“Every holiday, when everyone else is kicking back, those are our busiest times,” he said.

Also tiring is trying to keep up with a business landscape rife with changes – many not-for-the-better – that seem to disproportionately affect small, local businesses.

But amid all the changes, one thing that hasn’t is Collins’s message: “Buy local.”

“I’m urging our customers to patronize the other local flower shops,” he said, naming downtown neighbors Fortin Gage and the Merrimack Flower Shop & Greenhouse as examples. “Keep it local.”

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.