The Flower Blog

The Fall flowers are here! I look forward to getting in fall flowers every year! I don’t think I will ever get tired of the beautiful colors! The deep burgundy, rich bronzes, bright oranges, lush creams, dark plum and everything inbetween! Although Fall colors do tend to be darker, it works by giving you a warm, rich and fuzzy feeling!

If you are going to send flowers during the Fall season, I suggest sending a Fall themed bouquet! We make Fall bouquets for every occasion, from Anniversaries to Sympathy bouquets!

Fall Anniversary

Autumn Fire is the perfect Anniversary gift, especially if you are sending flowers to your wife’s work! Autumn Fire is designed in a clear glass cube with tea roses, tropical leucadendron, carnations, safflower and greenery! This compact bouquet is perfect for an office desk or somewhere with limited space. She will love the rich colors and the wonderful smell of the roses!

Fall Birthday

The Harvest Moon bouquet makes a special birthday gift! This ceramic pumpkin is filled with large sunflowers, curly willow, hypericum berries, fall daisies, solidego, wheat and greenery! This bouquet is the perfect mix of Fall rich colors with bright birthday colors! This medium sized arrangement will fit perfectly at work but will also work as a great centerpiece on your dining room table! An added bonus is the ceramic pumpkin that can be used as decoration for the fall season, candy dish or add your own flowers to it for Thanksgiving! 

Fall Get Well

It is never fun to be sick, especially on a beautiful Fall day. Bring the Fall season to someone who is feeling under the weather with the Morning Meadow bouquet! This clear glass vase is filled with daisies, alstroemeria lilies, sunflowers, safflower, carnations and greenery! This will surely brighten their room and lift their spirits!

Fall Sympathy

It is never easy to lose a loved one and it can be hard to know how to express your sympathy to the family. Our designers create beautiful and tasteful bouquets just for these occasions. Some customers ask me if it is appropriate to send flowers of the season and I always say “Yes”. There are a few things to keep in mind though. If you are sending sympathy flowers during the Christmas 

season, it would not be appropriate to send a bouquet with glitter and a Santa in it. You must keep in mind what you are trying to convey to the family. You want to bring comfort in their time of loss. You want to them see something beautiful that might lift their spirits and mayremind them of happy memories with their loved one.  

For the Fall Sympathy, I would send the Morning’s First Light bouquet. This bouquet can be sent to the services or the home. It has a lasting gift of the WoodWick candle that comes in the center of a fragrant fresh flower bouquet filled with roses, carnations, button daisies and more!

Want to see more Fall Flower bouquets? Check out this Video below!

We are so excited to have gotten in a new line of wind chimes in!Gillespie Florists has been offering Wind chimes from different vendors for the past few years but we decided we wanted better. After some research we decided to go with QMT Windchimes! 

QMT Windchimes has been manufacturing hand-tuned wind chimes right here in the USA for over 30 years. They manufacture their chimes in Manassas Park, Virginia and use raw materials from American lumber and aluminum suppliers! They manufacture over 600 varieties of wind chimes so you can imagine that could not order all 600! What did we order? Check it out below!

Corinthian Bells

Corinthian Bells combine excellence in design with incredible tones and resonance. They are visually and acoustically exceptional chimes! The centrally suspended heavy-walled aluminum tubes along with the high-density striker give these chimes their outstanding tones and resonance. The tubes are powder coated to match the dome and wind sail, giving a complete finished look to the chime.

Shenandoah Melodies

Shenandoah Melodies are designed to resonate beautiful tones in the slightest breeze. Powder coated aluminum on the top, tubes, and sail provide weather resistance to the chimes, as well as a sophisticated, finished look.  Shenandoah Melodies are individually hand-tuned to provide years of musical enjoyment.

Arias & Arias Elite

For more than twenty years, the Arias have been built to last the test of time.  The wood components are redwood with a penetrating oil-resin finish. The aluminum is anodized or powder-coated to stand up to the elements, and everything is held together with a strong cord.  Durable and weather-resistant, they will provide you years of enjoyment. They have an earthy, natural look that will easily become part of the scenery in your landscape.  Whether in gentle breezes or strong winds, the Arias chimes will generate beautiful music to surround your home.

Weatherland

Weatherland wind chimes are individually hand-tuned to clear, classical notes that resonate peaceful melodies. Weatherland wind chimes are made of weather-resistant materials for year-round enjoyment! Weatherland wind chimes are available in Walnut-finish or Oak. The wood components are varnished with an exterior satin finish for a polished, yet natural look. The Oak components tend to have soft, light coloring, while the Walnut-finish components have rich dark hues, with hints of light coloring.

Wind chimes can be appropriate to send to someone for a wide variety of occasions! You can have us box it in one of our white gift boxes wrapped with tissue and a bow, have us deliver it on one of our hand crafted wind chime easel stands with a bow and trailing ribbons or have us incorporate it into a large plant or bouquet! With wind chimes ranging in size from 12” - 67”, we will have the right size for you! Call us at 317.273.1100 for more details!

Although we do not have these new wind chimes on our site yet, take a few minutes to check out the other wonderful gift items we have for you to choose from by clicking below!

A bouquet of Olympic proportions; The London 2012 Olympic Victory Bouquet!  Just like every aspect of the Olympics, much thought, planning and attention to detail goes into designing flowers presented to the Olympic Champions during the medal ceremony.   World-renowned florist, Jane Packer, selected roses, rosemary, apple mint, lavender and wheat for the 2012 Olympic Victory Bouquets.

Jane Packer became well known in the late 1980’s for offering an alternative view to the use of flowers. She employed a casual design style that was more accessible than the formal design style of the time. She felt that flowers could brighten any interior setting and could be as exciting as fashion!  She is known for grouping individual blooms together in a bouquet in more recent years. She passed away unexpectedly during preparations for the Olympics and her husband Gary Wallis and Susan Lapworth took over responsibilities for creating the victory bouquet.

Why did Jane choose these particular varieties of flowers?

She chose roses because they are an iconic British flower. She wanted to give the bouquet vibrancy so she used four distinct colors of roses divided into quadrants. She used yellow, orange, green and pink roses. To give definition to the quadrants she added British grown rosemary, apple mint, lavender and wheat.  She wanted to provide not only a beautiful bouquet but also a fragrant one that would enhance the Victory Ceremony experience. Then it was all finished off with an elegant purple ribbon.

It is great to come up with a design for a beautiful bouquet but when you have to make 4,800 of them, how do you get it done? With a lot of help! Forestry students from three different colleges around the country have come together to help with this monumental task. The students had training sessions weeks before the Olympics to be sure they were comfortable creating bouquets great enough for champions. It’s an exciting experience for all involved!

My favorite part of these bouquets is the fact that Jane insisted on using local growers for these bouquets!  By using flowers from local growers, Jane was keeping the income with the local economy. Anytime you can keep it local, you should!  What is your favorite aspect of the Olympic Victory Bouquet? Leave me a comment!

CLICK HERE to learn more about shopping local.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Jane Packer.

To shop with us, click below!

I recently had someone post a question to our blog “About how many stems do you go through in a Gillespie day?” The short answer is 1200 stems on average. But I thought it would be interesting to look at the long answer too!

Though we go through 1200 stems a day most of the year, during major floral holidays the stem count increases dramatically! For example, during Valentines Day holiday, we can go through more than 13,200 stems per day!

I asked Sarah, our General Manager, what she orders on a weekly basis during the summer months to help me get an idea of what varieties of flowers we stock in addition to the stem count. Here is what she told me:

150 bunches of Leatherleaf
12 bunches of Solidego
10 bunches of Limonium
10 bunches of Iris
1000 - 1500 stems of Carnations
10 bunches of Stock
20 bunches of Babies Breath
10 bunches of larkspur
10 bunches of Gladiolus
10 bunches of Sunflowers
15 bunches of Mini-carnations
40 bunches of Alstroemeria
50 bunches of Daisies
7 bunches of Fuji Mums
80 stems of Gerbera Daisies
1000 stems of Roses
5 bunches of Hybrid Lilies
10 bunches of Statice
3 bunches of Curly Willow
10 bunches of Spray Roses
3 Bunches of Liatris
5 bunches of Delphinium
10 bunches of Snapdragons
3 bunches of Tree Fern
1 bunch of Myrtle
1 bunch of Spiral Eucalyptus
2 bunches of Seeded Eucalyptus
2 bunches of Pittosporum
2 bunches of hypericum

Sarah told me that throughout the week she has to order additional flowers to replace flowers we run out of or to fill an order requesting specific flowers that we don’t have in stock at the time. Several days a week, you can find her at the wholesale house at 6:30 a.m. picking up flowers for orders.

We have a 500 square foot cooler that houses all of our flowers at a chilly 34 degrees! Be sure to stop in and ask to hand pick your flowers from our cooler! We are open seven days a week so you can stop in when it’s best for you!

Don’t have time to stop by? Check out our Website by clicking below!

Vintage is the latest buzzword in the Indianapolis bridal industry! I have met with dozens of brides this spring and summer who are getting married using a vintage theme.
These young ladies are following in the footsteps of their grandmothers, modeling vintage from head to toe! From Birdcage (net) veils, dainty hats and feathers to gorgeous gowns (often tea length) trimmed or overlaid in elegant lace, these brides are vintage
chic!

What type of flower bouquet would be appropriate for the vintage theme wedding? A round, clutch style bouquet, of course! Large flowers work best; fewer stems for less
bulk, but dramatic effect! Flowers of choice are garden roses, peonies, anemones, dahlias, cattleya or phalaenopsis orchids and gardenias. Vintage does not mean that you have to relinquish the right to your own personal style, however. Consider adding a splash of color or some “bling” to make your special day your own, without sacrificing the theme that you have established. To complete the look, add feathers, broaches, rhinestone pins, pearls, an heirloom handkerchief or heirloom wedding bands into the bouquet. These accents can give a stylish twist for the vintage chic bride of today.

Plan your Vintage Wedding today! Click below to contact our wedding Specialist!

My sister and I are attending a workshop on advanced design techniques for wedding flowers. One of the common themes that I have noticed in wedding trends this year is the Boomerang effect of designs. Simply put, a design or style of the past is coming into fashion again. For those of you with parachute pants, I would not put them on quite yet, but who knows? Those pants could be the next big thing… again!

First of all, I should probably explain what a Glamillia is! A Glamillia is made from multiple florets of gladiolus, which are carefully pulled apart and repositioned within a composite style bouquet. The end result is a unique looking, single bloom effect. The name is derived from the camellia, which is a large-headed, single bloom flower.

The idea of composite style bouquets is not new. As a matter of fact, Glamillia bouquets were widely carried by brides in the 1960’s. Recently, I have noticed many brides are choosing to wear vintage wedding gowns on their wedding day. When the demand for vintage gowns increases, so does the demand for vintage style bridal bouquets. To that end, we designed a composite calla lily bouquet for a wedding last month (with the added effect of a rose and jeweled accents).

Composite type bouquets can be made of roses, tulips, gladiolus and calla lilies. The end result is a simple, yet elegant bouquet (or corsage) that is both stunning and (re) trend setting!

Father’s Day is this Sunday and millions of children out there are scrambling to find Dad the perfect gift. Studies have shown that the Necktie is the most popular gift choice for Father’s Day. Don’t you think Dad has enough neckties? Don’t just get Dad something different this year, get him something he will never forget!

We make several bouquets with keepsake containers with Dad in mind. Year after year we get calls from customers who send Dad one of these keepsake arrangements and we always get rave reviews! Customers order these bouquets year after year because they say “He talks about that bouquet all the time!” So, really Wow him this year with a mini Jeep filled with flowers, a Ford Truck filled with plants or a Weber Grill filled with candy!

If you don’t see a keepsake container that Dad will go crazy for, Check out our Terrariums! What is A Terrarium? A terrarium is a miniature indoor landscape with living plants that are perfect for people who want to decorate their office or home with house plants but don’t have a lot of space and time to care for them. These mini gardens are easy to maintain and a popular gift for men!

If Dad isn’t much of a plant man, maybe you should check out our Gift Baskets! We have a wide selection of baskets that can include anything from Gourmet food, Fruit, Junk food snack to candy! Our Junk Food baskets are popular for Father’s Day, probably because they have everything you shouldn’t eat!

To get some other great ideas, check out our Father’s Day video!

Gillespie Florists is open 12 hours daily Monday-Friday from 7am -7pm (we’re open on Saturday and Sunday too, just shorter hours). There’s a lot that can happen in a day and here’s the synopsis of a typical day here at the shop.

6:45am - 7:00am: Duane and Nancy come in to open the store. Nancy will start filling orders for plants, planters and Terrariums. When needed, she also designs beautiful corsages and dish gardens. Duane begins his day filling fresh flower orders.  Both Nancy and Duane will help customers as needed until the Customer Care staff arrives. Many customers stop in on their way to work, so the first hour of the day can be pretty exciting! Several days a week, Sarah is at the local wholesalers buying flowers during this hour.

8:00am - 9:00am: Two drivers, Debbie, Sarah and Sheila come in. The “Delivery Pool” driver loads up the morning deliveries for outlying areas and drives to a central location downtown, where he/she will meet with 30 other drivers in an industrial type building. The “Local” driver loads up the morning deliveries that have destinations that are nearby. Debbie, a member of the Customer Care team, will answer phones and assist walk-in customers.  Between customers and phone calls, she wraps “sunshine” bouquets (our very popular $3.95 take-out bouquet). All staff members will assist customers and answer phones when needed. Sarah, the Operations Manager, is responsible for ordering flowers from around the world, processing orders in the Order Control Department, routing deliveries/drivers, coordinating weddings and special events! Generally in this hour, you will find her in Order Control, processing and distributing orders to the design team. Sheila will design extra flower arrangements or help Duane with orders.

10:00am - 11:00am: Jacklyn and Della arrive. Jacklyn assists in the Customer Care and design departments.  Della is the “Web” Administrator and works on product development (to get new products to our website), write blogs, attend to our social media presence, work on PPC marketing and traditional marketing. Della is also the giftware buyer! Both delivery drivers are returning from their morning routes in the latter half of this hour. The drivers begin loading their afternoon deliveries and they will process new flower shipments, time permitting.

12:00pm: This is a crucial time of our day. Our “Pool” truck leaves at 12:30 and all orders for the greater metropolitan area must be ready to go with this driver. You will find everyone assisting customers, designing, processing flowers or loading a delivery vehicle during this hour. At 12:30-1:00, we begin rotating lunch breaks!

1:00pm - 2:00pm: Lunchtime!  Everyone gets a chance to catch their breath and a bite before the afternoon rush.  Duane, Elaine, Nancy and Sheila are working on orders for the next day and making extra bouquets. If Duane has weddings to work on for the weekend, this is the time of day he would get started on them.  Debbie, Jacklyn, Sarah and Della are all hard at work with the daily tasks assigned to them.

3:00pm - 4:00pm: Sarah and Nancy leave between 3-4pm. Before leaving she makes sure we are all on task and all orders have been processed. Our delivery drivers are usually finishing up deliveries in the latter half of this hour. As the drivers return, they will check to see if there are any additional deliveries to be made, check to see if there  flowers that need processed and assist the designers with clean-up before leaving for the day.

5:00pm - 600pm: Duane usually leaves around 5pm but is always happy to stay longer if needed! Sheila leaves between 6-7pm. Business also picks up for the 5 o’clock rush because customers stop by on their way home from work. This is my favorite time of day because most flower shops are closed and customers are pleasantly surprised to see us open!

7:00pm-7:30pm: We close at 7pm (sometimes later, if we have orders to finish or customers to assist). Jacklyn, Sheila and I get the drawers balanced, finish cleaning up and go home!

There you have it! 12 hours in the life of Gillespie Florists!

Check out our latest video of what we have in stock in our cooler below!

Top 5 Bestsellers for Prom 2012

The Prom season is officially over for us here at Gillespie Florists and I like to print product analysis reports to see what we sold more or less of to help me order supplies for next year's Proms. While doing this I thought, "why not share with everyone our best sellers?"


5. Three Alstroemeria Corsage - GFP7

In fifth place is the Alstroemeria Corsage! Alstroemeria lilies are not well known for being a popular corsage flower but here at Gillespie’s we use them quite a bit. We love using them in conjunction with other flowers; customers also usually like them by themselves. The corsage pictured here is the base priced Prom alstroemeria corsage on our free wristlet. Many customers chose to add on an upgraded keepsake wristlet. Alstroemeria lilies come in dozens of colors, which makes it easy for us to make the perfect match to your dress!


4. Three Mini Carnations & Two Sweetheart Rose Corsage - GFP5

In fourth place is the Three Mini Carnations & Two Sweetheart Rose Corsage! This is a combination of some of our most popular corsage flowers; no wonder this corsage is in the Top 5! Roses and Carnations come in a wide variety of colors therefore matching to your dress will be a breeze! This corsage works really well with multicolored dresses because of vast opportunities to mix colors.
The corsage pictured here is the base priced Prom alstroemeria corsage on our free wristlet. Many customers chose to add on an upgraded keepsake wristlet as well.

3. Dendrobium Orchid Corsage - Flower Bombe - 12PN06

In Third place is the Dendrobium Orchid Corsage! I think this one is popular because the classic Mother’s Day corsage is the cymbidium orchid corsage. although the cymbidiums are far too big for most teens taste, girls still want to emulate their Moms by wearing a similar type of flower. Dendrobium Orchids come in a limited colors but are still very versatile; thanks to new dyeing techniques the number of available colors is increasing!
If we cannot match your dress with the color of orchid, we can use white dendrobiums and match your dress with ribbons, leaves, beads, tulle and rhinestones instead! The corsage pictured here shows a keepsake wristlet, item #GFPBC!

2. Three Mini Carnation Corsage - Bauble On - 11PN12

In second place is the Three Mini Carnation Corsage! This corsage is so popular because of the versatility of colors! Carnations not only come in lots of colors but they also tip very well. Tipping is when we take a paint and tip the edges of a flower with it. Tipping can be harmful to some flowers but carnations tend to hold up pretty well with it! I believe carnations are so popular because they hardy enough to survive a night of dancing!
The corsage pictured here shows a keepsake wristlet, item #GFPAM

1. Three Sweetheart Rose Corsage - BoHo - 10PN24

In first place is the Three Sweetheart Rose corsage! Roses will always be a favorite among teens! Prom corsages are sometimes the very first flowers they will give or receive. Teenagers may act like they don’t pay attention to Mom or Dad but they do! They see Dad getting Mom roses for their anniversary or special occasions so the first flower that comes to mind is of course, roses! The great thing about roses is they are coming in more and more colors every year and that makes it very easy to match or compliment your dress! The corsage pictured here shows a keepsake wristlet!


We sell keepsake bracelets with our corsages about 40% of the time! Here’s a quick look at our Top 5 Bestselling
bracelets!

5. Triple Threat Bracelet - Dazzle - GFPAX
4.  Diamond & Pearl Bracelet - Sugarplum - GFPAZ
3.   Sophisticated Lady Wristlet - GFPAH
2.  Cream Pearl w/ Rhinestones - GFPBG
1.  Dancing Butterfly Bracelet - Midnight - GFPBD

Our Top Selling keepsake boutonniere holder this year was:

Silver Boutonniere Holder - GFPJ

The great thing about our prom corsages is that there are thousand of combinations! We have over 100 ribbon choices, dozens of leaf, bead and tulle choices! We of dozens of keepsake bracelets to put your corsage on and most importantly we have hundreds of flower combinations! Best of all, don't see what you need? Just ask! We would love to help you get the perfect corsage for the perfect night!

See the perfect corsage on our site and want to share it with your friends or your date? There's an easy Facebook and Twitter button on each product!

Check out our Prom Corsages and Boutonnieres by clicking below!

Watch the video below to see our designer favorites for 2012!

Last year, We at Gillespie Florists thought it would be fun to have a Prom King & Queen Contest! So, We held it again this year and it was a hit! Prom customers only needed to post their picture on our Facebook Fan Page wearing our flowers! We then asked our Facebook fans to "Like" their favorite picture or make a positive comment about it to determine the winner. We had several people enter but there can be only one winner!

And the Winner is...

The Results are in! Our Prom King & Queen for 2012 is....

Kelli Huffman & Tim Oconnor!

Kelli  & Tim each get a $25.00 gift card to Gillespie Florists and Kelli will be crowned with a tiara and flowers!

They had a whopping 68 "Likes" and comments on their photo! Congratulations!!

Kelli wore a three-sweetheart rose corsage similar to the one pictured here. Leah's was pink, black & silver and looked great with Tim's matching sweetheart rose boutonniere!


As a Thank You to everyone who entered the contest, we want to offer you a free Sunshine Bouquet! Just stop in the store any time, give us your name and we will give you your Sunshine!

Those Contestants are:

Meredith Warbinton & Quinn
MacKenzie McKnight and Christian Ewoldt
Allyssa Ashcraft & Sergey Dawson
Madison Raine Fines & her date
Brenda Danielle & Nick
Taylor Purcell & her date
Hannah Todd and her date
Carly Thomas & her date
Holly Wood & Griffin Goldman
Debbie Trowbridge
Glenda Pierce Sluss

Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest! Until next year!