The Flower Blog

Della Mendenhall

Recent Posts

Something Sweet for Your Sweetest!

Posted by Mon, Oct 10, 2011 @ 11:13 AM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall

Sweetest Day indianapolis

 Sweetest Day is Oct. 15th!

Sweetest Day was first observed in 1921, which I found surprising because I thought it was a much younger holiday. Like many people, I thought it was a holiday made up recently by retailers to boost up October sales.  The holiday came about with what I believe is good intentions.

Sweetest Day was originally meant to be a day to remember husbands, boyfriends, elderly, sick and orphaned children. A committee of 12 confectioners planned the first Sweetest Day and they distributed over 20,000 boxes of candy orphans, the elderly, and the poor. They used the tag line “ The Sweetest Day in the year”.  I like the fact they gave away all of that candy to well deserving people.

 Teddy Bear Bouquet avonBut today it focused more on remembering husbands, boyfriends, wives and girlfriends. There is nothing wrong with showing your appreciation for someone special in your life! Sometimes it does take a holiday like this to remind us to thank those we love.  But in a perfect world, I would like this holiday to return to its humble beginnings. It should be about the other people in our lives everyday that we appreciate very much but don’t say it.

This Sweetest Day remember someone special in your life and remember those who may need a little sweetness in their lives. Drop off some candy at the local shelter or bring your grandparents some flowers and chocolates!  Honestly, your grandparents will just be happy to see you!

Watch this video with gift ideas for your “Sweetest”.

 

 

Want to remember someone special in your life this Sweetest Day?  Click Below!

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HGTV Great Rooms? Great Flowers!

Posted by Wed, Oct 05, 2011 @ 12:10 PM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall  HGTV Great RoomsAs some of you may know, I love watching HGTV in my spare time. I think that flowers relate to interior design quite a bit! You are dealing with color pallets, textures, and patterns and more, I’m sure.  I wanted to get a chance to check out an episode of the new show HGTV Great Rooms because I really like the new Design Star Meg Caswell.

Divalicious Kitchen

I tuned into a great episode!  I watched a new episode titled “Divalicious Kitchen”. This was a great episode to me because there were tons of flowers in the design of Meg’s client’s kitchen. flowers indianapolisNot fresh flowers though. I think she should have had a small vase of flowers to tie everything together instead of a carafe of water with lime slices. Meg used a floral pattern window treatment that was bright and fun. She also used a mid-century chandelier that she repainted and kind of looked like it had a flower feel. But my most favorite part of the design was a wall sculpture of flowers she commissioned a local artist to do! It was amazing and beautiful! I tried to find a picture of it but couldn’t which is too bad because it was the best part of the kitchen. So, I guess you will have to tune into HGTV to see this great design!  The picture I did find is just an example of decorative flowers for a wall but this is not nearly as cool as what is seen on the show!Baroque Garden

Something More...

IF Meg had added a small bouquet to her design, I think it may have looked something like Baroque Garden.  This is a small cube filled with gerbera daisies, purple iris, hypericum berry and other flowers.  The only thing this bouquet is missing is some orange to match Meg’s design.

Flowers (of any kind) brighten any room. It livens up the space with a splash of color and they smell great too!  You can “commission” Gillespie Florists to make you a lovely bouquet for your home or office and I promise it will change your mood for the better!

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Topics: trends

Top 5 Purple Flowers at Gillespie Florists

Posted by Mon, Sep 26, 2011 @ 12:53 PM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall

We sell tons of purple flowers! Purple in general is a very popular color in everyday life so it's not that surprising it is also popular in flowers!  Purple comes in a large range of shades and can be found on the color wheel between red and blue. People like to match purple up in bouquets as a complementary color most commonly but will also use it for monochromatic color schemes.  Typically when a florist creates a monochromatic bouquet, they use several different shades of the same color.

Top 5 Purple Flowers

1.  Purple Rose Lavender rose gillespie florists

It is technically a lavender rose called Cool Water.  This rose is more on the pink side of lavender and sometimes customers request we get a shade that has more blue in it like Ocean Song. We use lavender roses in weddings all the time but also in everyday bouquets because customers love them so much! Customers stop in and hand pick them in our cooler as a wrapped dozen special that is just $19.95 at the moment. We get lavender roses multiple times a week!

Iris Indianapolis2. Iris

We always have purple Iris in stock! It is a wonderful and versatile flower! Customers love Iris because of it deep shade of purple and love how the iris opens over the course of a day or two.  We get multiple shipments a week of Iris to be sure we can keep up with demand.  Iris has a touch of yellow on its petals that show off a great contrast and many times customers will match iris up with yellow roses or gerbera daisies.  Iris comes in the following colors: purple, blue, white and yellow.

3. Daisylavender daisy avon

There are gerbera daises and daisy mums. I would say that gerberas are more popular in how much customers like them but we actually sell more stems of daisy mums. The reason for this is: gerbera daisies are $2.50 a stem and daisy mum are a $1.00 at stem.  That is our wrapped Take Out Only price.  Because of the value of the daisy mum, customers like to use our lavender daisy as a complimenting accent flower when creating their bouquet. Customers like to use the Gerbera daisy as feature or focal point flower.

Purple alstro gillespie florists4. Lily

The altroemeria lily is a smaller lily we keep in stock at all times and comes in a large variety of shades of purple. One of my favorites is a white alstroemeria with purple stripes! Customers love this value flower at just a $1.00 a stem (Take out only). It works as a great accent flower in any bouquet! A lot of our DIY brides love to use this flower in their wedding because of the variety of colors and versatility.  Customers can special order large hybrid purple lilies, just call 317.273.1100 for details! A hybrid lily is typically the size of a Star Gazer lily.

5. LarkspurPurple Larkspur avon

Larkspur comes in a large range of colors but we order more purple and lavender larkspur than any other shade.  Our designers like to pair up purple larkspur with blue delphinium.  They are very similar flowers in looks with just a slight difference in shade! Customers love this flower because you get a lot of bang for your buck! It is a very tall and skinny flower that will tower above the rest so it will give you great height to your bouquet.

I have customers ask me all the time if we even have any purple flowers. I tell them not only do have purple flowers but we have tons of them! All of the flowers mentioned above are on order every week!

You can also find the following in our cooler in a shade of purple in our cooler:

Carnations, mini-carnations, liatris, statice, limonium, gladiolas, dendrobium orchids, wax flower, stock, tulips,  monte casino aster,  spray rose, heather and so much more!

You never know what you will find in our cooler! Stop by sometime and tour our 500 square foot cooler. If you cannot make it in the store that’s OK! I made a video of all the purple flowers we had in stock.

Click below to view our purple flower video!

 

Click below to shop Purple Flowers on our Website!

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Topics: Videos, trends

Buy One, Get One Free Sale on Candles and Mums!

Posted by Tue, Sep 13, 2011 @ 05:10 PM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall Buy One, Get One Free!

This is the sale you've been waiting for! BOGO!Fall Mums Indianapolis

Buy one candle or mum and get one of equal or lesser value FREE! But you must come in the store to get this great deal! It's worth it though, with mums at $6.95. You can't find high quality large mums like we have at two for the price for one!

Where else can you find Woodwicks, Northern Lights, Colonial, Village, Time & Again Candles at Buy One, Get One? No where!

Woodwick Candles at Gillespie Florists, Avon

Some things to remember:

This is a Limited Time Only

 

Take Out Only - Not for delivery.

If you want to make sure the sale is still going on, give us a call!

317.273.1100

Check out this great video of the inside of our store where we not only show off our mums and candles but also some other great gift items!

Topics: Videos, Sales

Where Were You on 9/11?

Posted by Sat, Sep 03, 2011 @ 12:21 PM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall

There are a few days in our lives that we can remember exactly where we were and what you were doing. With the 10-year anniversary coming up in a little over a week, it brings back the memories of that day.

I was going to Butler University as well as being a high school senior. I had just gotten out of an early class at Butler and was driving back to my high school when the radio DJ announced the World Trade Centers in New York had been hit by a plane. Honestly, I thought it was a joke. It took a few minutes to realize this was no joke, this was for real.

When I got to school, there was a somber atmosphere.  Every classroom had TV’s on watching the news.  There was no way the teachers would be able to get our minds off the terrible tragedy that went on that day.

I asked my sister, Sarah Gillespie, to tell me about that day because she was working here at Gillespie Florists. 

As was usual every morning, I had the television on Sarah Gillespiethe local news, quietly in the background. As I was preparing to head out the door to work, an anchor broke in suddenly with news that a plane had crashed into an office building in New York.

Details were scarce, but it appeared to be a horrible, unthinkable accident. I put my things down and watched the events unfold before my eyes. When the second plane hit the World Trade center, it became apparent to the media that this was no ordinary accident. I became uneasy; worrying what other places might be attacked.

I finally tore myself away from my television set because I was 20 minutes late leaving for work. When I got into my car, I turned on the radio to continue listening to the latest on the events unfolding that day. As I traveled, I heard about the plane crashing into the pentagon. Suddenly, I was overcome with fear that the plane flying above me might suddenly crash into a building here in Indianapolis!

When I got to work, surprisingly, the two or so people who had come in “on time” were not aware of what was happening on the East Coast. We turned on the radio so we could all listen together. We worried, waited and prayed as more details came the twin towers new yorkacross the airwaves. We do not have a television set in the store but someone brought one from their home during their lunch break so we could listen and see what was going on all around us. Once the planes were grounded, it was oddly quiet, as our store is located within a few miles of the airport. There was less traffic. It was very eerie and stayed that way for a few days beyond the attacks.

We have no record of any sales that day… we did have deliveries that were previously scheduled that we delivered, but no actual new sales in the twelve hours that we were open. Only one sale the next day (the 12th) and no sales again on the 13th.

We at Gillespie Florists want to thank all of the firemen, police officers and other emergency crews who risked their lives to save others.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones on that day. 

Where were you on 9/11? We’d like to know. Leave a comment on our blog.

Topics: Seasonal, informational

Fall Mums 2011

Posted by Wed, Aug 24, 2011 @ 03:21 PM

Della Gillespie-Mendenhall  FAll Mums in Wagon avon, IN




 

Fall Mums are in at Gillespie Florists!

I love Fall Mums! They come in many colors and are very easy to take care of!  Gillespie Florists only carries the best of products. We buy from a local grower so we can go and handpick each mum!
We have Fall Hardy mums so, you can plant them before the first frost and they will come back year after year! There are many people that buy them every year and put the mum in outdoor pots to dress up their front porch. Typically the mums will not winter over in outdoor pots so if you want it to come back next year make sure to get it planted in the ground!
Our Fall Mums come in an eight-inch pot. Customers can purchase them in the pot for Take Out for just $6.95! It’s a great value! If you would like us to decorate and deliver it for you, we can do that starting at $24.95!
Plum Fall Mum Avon, IN 
Pictured here is a mum wrapped in decorative foil with wheat, a butterfly and all tied together with a beautiful bow! You can upgrade this with a lovely wicker basket! 
Large Double Mum Basket Avon, IN  
If you are looking for a “Wow” factor, you may want to get Plum Harvest. Plum Harvest has two mums planted into a large basket and accented with a lush bow!  This mum basket is huge and is perfect for someone who loves fall!
Watch this short video showing off some of our Fall Mums. It shows the great variety we can have on hand on any given day!

Love what you see and want to send someone a Fall Mum? Click below to order online now! It fast, convenient and easy!

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Topics: Videos, Seasonal

Mi Casa es Su Casa! Use Our Design Space!

Posted by Wed, Aug 10, 2011 @ 02:28 PM

Della Gillespie MendenhallDid you know?

Did you know people use our design tables and cooler? This is a world of DIY and we love to help! Our customers can save anywhere from 20 – 50% off the designed price on flowers when they buy them “Take Out”.

 

CoolerFlwoers.jpg

What is Take-Out?

Take out flowers are flowers customers pick out of our current stock from our 500 sq ft cooler. We wrap the flowers in cellophane and the customer takes the flowers home to vase.  But sometimes our customers are on their way to the hospital, special occasion or event and want to have the flowers vased before they get to their destination. They will bring their own vase and use one of our design tables to create their bouquet.

*Our designers are happy to give tips and tricks for your first DIY; however they cannot design the bouquet for you!*

 

DuaneDesigning.jpg

I’m in Over My Head!

Sometimes we can have great ideas and want to "DIY" but things just aren't turning out the way we want them too. Don't worry; if your masterpiece is looking more like a master mess then you can still pay to have one of our designers to make something beautiful!  

 

DIYTrial.jpg

DIY Weddings

Brides need to stretch their dollar a lot further these days and a great way to do that is to buy “Take Out” flowers and use our design space to create the wedding flowers. Usually because the bride is very busy the day of the wedding, she will come in with her bridesmaids and create her wedding flowers the day before the wedding and then store her flowers overnight in our cooler and send someone to pick them up. 

Some brides pay a small fee to have a designer spend a dedicated hour with them to teach them how to create her bridal bouquet, corsages and boutonnières!  Read more about our DIY Wedding flowers here!

Want to book your DIY Wedding flowers? Click below to contact our Wedding Specialist!

 Contact our Wedding Specialist!

Topics: weddings, informational, DIY, DIY Flowers, Design onsite

My Guilty Pleasure: House Hunters

Posted by Wed, Aug 03, 2011 @ 03:24 PM

Della Gillespie-Mendenhall When I have time to relax and watch a little TV, I love to watch House Hunters! My husband loves to make fun of me for it because we are not moving but I love looking at houses! I love to see the prospective buyers talk about the potential in the home and what they might like to do with the property. I also love to disagree with those buyers and think about what I might do instead.  My favorite part of the show is to try and guess whicroom with stargazer liliesh house they will choose! 

Recently I watched an episode titled: Single in Seattle. It’s about a stylish single guy looking for a very small one-bedroom, one-bath place and he was looking in the downtown Seattle area. He had a crazy budget of $450,000 and I thought for sure he was allowing way too much money. But once they started showing properties, I soon learned prices are much higher in Seattle than they are here in corn filled Indiana.

stargazer lilies in a vaseThe property I liked the best was a houseboat. It actually seemed to be very open and airy. But what made it so inviting was a vase of Stargazer lilies sitting on a table in the living area.  It was simple and beautiful! The owner of the house probably just stopped by their local flower shop picked up 3 or 4 stems of Stargazers and popped them into the vase. No greens, no accent flowers, no fuss! It made me wish I had smellevision!

Isn’t it amazing how something so simple can change a room? You don’t have to be having an open house to get flowers! Stop in to your local florist and pick up some flowers to give a room in your house a completely different feel…and smell!

Don’t have time to stop in? No worries! We’ll bring the flowers to you! Just click below to select your room changing bouquet!

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Topics: informational, trends

That’s What You Get When You Drop Ship.

Posted by Fri, Jul 29, 2011 @ 12:18 PM

Patrick Gillespie

  “Well, that’s what you get….”

That was the response given by the package delivery person to the patient at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana when he observed the broken pottery pictured here.

Drop Ship Planter

Upon receipt of their package, the patient insisted the parcel carrier make a notation of the broken container.  However, the patient must have felt unsure of the outcome of his complaint because I received a call from him claiming that the dish garden (planter) he received from Gillespie Florists was broken.

While on the phone with the patient, I put in and order for a replacement of this planter; not knowing at the time it was not our product. I noticed during the call that indeed an order was placed by one of our corporate clients.   When our driver arrived there to replace it, I received another phone call from my driver.   Although our dish garden was in the room, with the yellow daisies and ribbon in a wicker basket as described by a member of our design staff on the order, the patient insisted that the planter in a broken ceramic container wrapped tightly in saran wrap complete with a black and gold card was ours! Because an order had been placed by our client and I had already committed to the replacement of the product (even though it wasn’t our product), I instructed my delivery person to leave the replacement planter and return to the store with the damaged product from the drop ship florist.

Whether you are a florist doing business with a “drop ship” program as this was, or a consumer looking for convenience, value, savings, or responding to incessant pop-ups or radio ads instead of using a traditional florist, you will most likely experience a feeling of:

“Well, that’s what you get…”

If you want to send something special to a loved one, be sure to call your local florist. Your local florist will work hard to earn your confidence and will add the personal touch no drop shipped product ever could.

Gillespie Florists always adds a personal touch to each design. Click below to see our custom products!

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Topics: informational

Get 20% Off When You Vote!

Posted by Tue, Jul 26, 2011 @ 01:56 PM

Della Gillespie Mendenhall Baroque Garden in Indianapolis IN, Gillespie Florists

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vote for Us!

The A-List Competition is on! Help us get voted THE BEST FLORIST IN THE INDIANAPOLIS AREA! As an added bonus, if you vote for us and bring in proof of the vote you can save 20% off your next $10.00 (or greater) IN-STORE purchase.

Here is How:

Go to:

http://wrtv.cityvoter.com/gillespie-florists/biz/93649

Click on [Vote for Us]

Complete the short registration form.

If you are a new account on the A-List you will have to go to your e-mail and confirm that it is you on the Indy Channel A-List e-mail in your inbox.

If you have an A-List account, log in and vote for us!

Once your confirmation page pops up and says you voted, print that page and bring it in to us for your discount!

Contest Ends: Aug. 19th

 

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Topics: Sales, informational