SALISBURY — Elayne McCoy and her husband, Dennis, live in the Crescent Golf Community in Salisbury. She loves the jewel tones of foliage that surround the town every fall and recently featured them in

“I found this 3-D pumpkin in Blowing Rock last summer,” McCoy said. “For fall, I decided to put a small hay bale inside and attach pumpkins, mums, sunflowers, rustic foliage and bittersweet. Fall is always such a short season to enjoy this magnificent tapestry of colors we have in N.C. Hope everyone takes time to explore the beauty.”

McCoy worked in a Greenville, S.C., floral shop where they bought seasonal flowers, containers, Curley willow and varieties of leaves and containers.

“I would stand in the back, make arrangements all day, price them and people would come in to buy them,” McCoy said. “Ladies would also bring in their own containers sometimes, with a piece of their wallpaper for desired colors, a photo of the room and the size of the desired arrangement.

“Some sat on the floor and were possibly 6 feet tall. Some sat on the back corner of a whirlpool. There were a lot of seasonal front door wreaths, or all the windows with Christmas wreaths and big bows. We sold hundreds of very large silk Christmas Trees that I would decorate in different themes.”

One year, McCoy was asked to decorate a 45-foot Christmas tree in a venue that hosted many corporate holiday parties.

“I spent four days on a cherry cropper with a Union worker pushing a button for me to go up and down, inside the branches and out.

“I once decorated 30 arrangements for an Embassy Suites convention center to match the paintings they had hung behind each table where the arrangements would sit. After choosing all the perfect containers making the arrangements the right size and colors, their management approved them and glued them to the furniture.”

Eventually, McCoy opened her own store in a Victorian house with a bridal shop upstairs.

I named it Morning Glory,” McCoy said. “I sold specialty lamps, original art, florals, arrangements, silver, Rothschild foods, jewelry and greeting cards. I loved my store with the big wrap-around porch. It was like a vintage postcard.”

McCoy’s father died suddenly of a heart attack, and her mother could no longer care for herself, so it was apparent that it was time to close the shop.

“It was a sad time, but as they say, when God closes one door, he opens another,” McCoy said. “When he did, there was Dennis McCoy. A handsome man with a heart of gold. We decided that we would be happier spending our lives together, so he proposed outside at the Biltmore, swept me away to Hawaii for a month to marry in a chapel by the ocean with beautiful Hawaiian flowers.”

McCoy said that the next thing she knew, they were moving to Salisbury.

“For a city girl, it has been a big adjustment,” McCoy said. “I keep hoping someone will be interested in opening a unique floral store and educating people to the fact that they are original art objects made especially for your home, office, restaurant, wedding or event.”

The Salisbury Country Club recently offered McCoy an opportunity to showcase her creative side with a pumpkin-decorating party.

“It was a fun project,” McCoy said. “It was quick and easy. Maybe you can try this at home for Halloween.

“I guess we never know where our artistic talents will take us.”