by Natasha V. Borisov

The summer’s hottest month is winding down while Somerville’s love for seasonal wild flowers lives on.

The shop is small, warm, friendly and elegant. A stranger walking in from the outside is immediately dissolved into a wide array of senses: a variety of primitive as well as exotic colors is mixed in with a wide range of sweet scents.

Crossing through the door, one witnesses a tiny version of nature’s beauty, filled with a distinct aroma of wild flowers. As if they were left on the side of a country road, a distinct variety of roses, lilies, daisies, gladioluses, orchids, chrysanthemums, tulips and many other wild flowers, is neatly arranged into transparent vases.

The shop offers a diverse collection of natural flowers, around 30 or 40 plants are available to the customers each year, said Joyce MacKenzie the shop’s owner.

“Even though summer is on its way out, the demand for flowers and our collection do not change much. We present wild flowers from all over the world throughout the whole year”, said Sami Azzam, a native of Somerville, who has worked at Nellie’s for 15 years.

As an experienced florist, Azzam said he is sure the public’s love for wild flowers does not diminish over the years, on the other hand, more people each year, especially young men between the ages of 25 and 30, express their interest in buying various bouquets of flowers.

While people generally prefer to buy mixed bouquets, the most popular choice is a bright, yellow and sunny flower, plainly resembling a cross between a yellow daisy and a sunflower. No matter what the season is, people always lean towards brightness and warmth, he said.

While different people express distinct tastes, only 10 percent of customers are genuinely concerned with the significance of a flower’s color. This is especially true for specific occasions, such as funerals, weddings and birthdays. “People could choose white to express sympathy or a bright color to congratulate a baby boy,” he said.

With the hottest season of the year on its way out, Nellie’s Wild Flowers continues its busy working schedule, consisting of many phone orders as well as various walk-in services, said Azzam.

The back of the shop further creates the surreal atmosphere of nature’s wilderness, as many flowers are arranged, cut and assembled into elegant bouquets at a special designer’s table. The table looks like a small white ironing board.

This tiny room is where the real work takes place, and is where the shop florists create their original flower designs, MacKenzie said.

When she prepares a small bouquet of wild lilies, mixed with a collection of red berries into a transparent, cubical vase, it is amazing how many elegant designs could be produced at a tiny white platform in hidden from the customer’s view.

MacKenzie said she is constantly focused on making each arrangement perfect for each specific order and purpose, she said.

In a vase on a shelf, MacKenzie keeps left over wild flowers from other arrangements. She uses them as add-ons to spruce up other arrangements throughout the day, so that nothing is wasted, she said.

The smallest bouquets of wild flowers usually take up the most time. Because they require maximum effort they command higher prices than the biggest and tallest collections of more mainstream flower arrangements, MacKenzie said.

Although certain wild flowers, such as spring tulips, do tend to get slightly more expensive during the winter, most prices are relatively stable, she said.

It has been a long time since the environs of Davis Square were overgrown with wild flowers. But, just off from the bustle of the traffic and noise is a shop that preserves the square’s wild side.