Big but not gigantic, slightly cartoonish fabric flowers are about to take over a storefront on East Cesar Chavez Street. Australian artist CJ Hendry is bringing her whimsical plush Flower Shop pop-up to 1209 E. Cesar Chavez St., marking Austin's turn as the only Texas city on her sprawling international tour.
A Two-Day Stop, Though Listings Differ on the Run
According to CultureMap Austin, the pop-up is set for a two-day run on November 12 and 13, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the East Cesar Chavez address. Event listing site Tribeza, however, describes a longer window, stating the pop-up opens November 12 and runs until November 23. The two accounts do not agree on how long Austin's Flower Shop will actually stay open, so shoppers may want to confirm hours before making a special trip.
Whatever the exact run turns out to be, the shopping mechanics are consistent with the seed reporting: each flower costs $10, and customers who buy nine get a tenth for free. The flower varieties on offer in Austin were designed with the city in mind, per a press release cited by the outlet's report.
Part of a Much Bigger Floral Tour
Austin is just one stop on a tour that, per the same account, spans Australia, Europe, and the United States, with new inventory rotating into different cities as it progresses. New York and Hong Kong have permanent Flower Shop locations, while other cities get a temporary visit. Hendry has said the project is meant to bring people together through a sensory, tactile experience, aiming to share that feeling globally through unique floral variations, surprises, and tailored narratives in each city — sentiments echoed in a release cited in Portland's KOIN report about the pop-up series.
KOIN's report adds that the Flower Shop concept — colorful plush florals made of fabric — grew out of Hendry's larger-scale Flower Market exhibitions staged in public spaces worldwide. That station's coverage of a separate Portland stop at 914 NW Everett St. described matching mechanics there too: $10 flowers, with a tenth free after nine purchases, and organizers planning to add new inventory throughout the run. KOIN also listed Phoenix, Mexico City, and Melbourne among other Flower Shop destinations beyond Portland.
Who Is CJ Hendry?
Hendry is an Australian artist best known for large-scale hyper-realistic drawings, according to Rockefeller Center. Her body of work ranges from those hyperrealistic drawings to large-scale installations, including a giant inflatable pool she created in the Mojave Desert. She has built an audience of one million Instagram followers and reportedly maintains a 3,000-person waitlist for commissions.
The Rockefeller Center venue has hosted its own Flower Market editions, including a 2026 lineup that ran September 24–27 and was modeled on flowers native to New York City, as reported by amNY. At that event, each guest received one plush flower free, with additional flowers priced at $5. A year earlier, the 2025 Flower Market featured 27 new plush designs under the same free-first-flower, $5-per-stem structure, per Rockefeller Center's account. The venue also reported Flower Market editions in Hong Kong in March and Singapore in June 2026, plus a Flower Shop pop-up in Brisbane that summer. Chelsea Market in New York has hosted its own themed edition too, once dedicating a Valentine's Day pop-up entirely to red and white roses with free flower carriers or ribbon while supplies lasted.
When Crowds Overwhelmed a Previous Stop
Hendry's traveling flower concept has drawn serious crowds before. A previous pop-up at Roosevelt Island's FDR Four Freedoms State Park was shut down after more than 5,000 people arrived within the first hour of its second day, overwhelming the park's resources, according to BizBash. Rockefeller Center's account of that episode similarly notes the NYPD shut the Roosevelt Island event down due to overcrowding.
Organizers pivoted fast: the pop-up relocated to Industry City's nearly 19,000-square-foot Box Factory event space in Brooklyn and was ready to reopen within 10 to 12 hours of the venue change, BizBash reported. That Roosevelt Island edition had featured 21 fabric-flower varieties, with the first plush flower free and subsequent purchases priced at $5 each — a different pricing structure than what's planned for Austin. Rockefeller Center's recap also noted the relocated Brooklyn event drew a three-hour wait on its final day.
