The Flower Blog

I have customers asking me all the time “Can you spray paint my flowers?” I always tell them that it is possible but not my first choice. We will not tell a customer “No” just because of personal preference of fresh flowers to painted flowers; but we will offer different options and make sure they understand the service or product they are getting. 

Say for instance a customer wants a blue rose to give to their date. We can buy stem dyed blue roses; however it will take a week or so to get in because it's a special order. There are a few other options such as blue flowers like iris or hydrangea. If we have silk blue roses in stock we could offer those or to paint a white rose. If the customer decided to have the white rose painted, it's possible the rose may lose a day of it's life.  If the customer is ok with the rose losing a day of life then we will happily paint the rose!

The reason why we say roses may lose a day of life when they are painted is because in our experience the flowers we have painted have not lasted quite as long unpainted roses. We use Just For Flowers paint made by Design Master. Their website advertises that Just For Flowers can actually extend the life of the flower. Per their information, the paint slows down the evaporation of water from the flower petal which is how the life is extended. This could be true in a setting where the flower does not have access to water, like a corsage or bridal bouquet. Just For Flowers may help the flower look better for the evening of an event but it may be a different story if the expectation is flowers lasting for two weeks which is why we caution customers regarding longevity. 

With that said, there are a lot of benefits to use Just For Flowers spray. Because the spray is a translucent color, it will not cover up the beautiful details of your flower. Its a fast drying spray that can be recoated without any streaking or clumping of color. When spraying the flower it almost looks like the flower is soaking up the color rather than the color sitting on top of the flower. It can also be used on ribbon such as satin, lace or almost any fabric. 

Let’s get down to the brass tax. Do we suggest painting fresh flowers? Although I prefer flowers in their natural color and state, painting flowers can be beneficial under certain circumstances. If you want flowers in colors that are unavailable, asking your florist to use Just For Flowers spray is the best way to get the color you want on a fresh flower!

Click Below to Browse Our Entire Line of Fresh Cut Bouquets!

Check out this video about painting flowers below!

Hurry in for our Spectacular Fall Sale!  

Gifts, Candles, Silks & Webkinz Are 50% OFF!

 Sale Ends September 16^th!

Make Sure to Ask about any Fresh Flower Take Out Specials!

Take Out Only. 

Sale items cannot be delivered.

Sale does not include serviced product. Restrictions may apply.

All sales are final.

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.

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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!