The Flower Blog

Top 5 Colors for Fall

I asked Gillespie staff members and customers what colors come to mind when they think of fall flowers.Here are the top 5 answers I received; you may be surprised by some of the colors

5. Purple

Purple is a color that some people find surprising for fall flowers. I think it is a great accent color and can brighten up an otherwise dark bouquet.  It is easy to see how purple can work in a fall color scheme when looking at this picture.  Be careful when using purple in your fall bouquet. You want to make sure you are using a deep purple, if you use a lighter shade it will look out of place.

4. Burgundy

Burgundy is a rich color that will bring depth to your bouquet! Burgundy mums are a favorite among customers! Burgundy flowers pair up nicely with orange and rust flowers.  Cattails would go great with this combination of flowers, the chocolate colored spikes of the cattail will anchor the burgundy within the bouquet and the cattail’s unique texture will give added interest.

3. Golden Yellow

Golden Yellow flowers are a must in almost any fall bouquet!  Golden Yellow will not only brighten up the bouquet but also helps the other flowers pop! For instance, if you had Burgundy and rust flowers in a vase; it would be pretty but very dark and you may lose some of the definition of the individual blooms. If you add Golden Yellow flowers to the vase in between the other flowers, you will define the individual blooms and get more enjoyment out of the bouquet.

2. Orange

Think about when you go out shopping, what do you see this time of year almost everywhere?  Pumpkins! When we design our bouquets we make sure to add orange to our arrangements. We want to match the pumpkin orange color to incorporate the pillar of the fall season! The pumpkin! Sometimes we even design a bouquet in a ceramic pumpkin! The reason why orange is close to the top of our top 5 is because it is so versatile.  You can match up orange flowers with red, purple yellow and rust flowers or for a darker look; Burgundy, yellow and rust flowers. Orange is neutral color when you are dealing with fall so, it can go with just about any fall flower!

Drum Roll Please….

1. Rust

Now for me Rust can come in many shapes and sizes. Well, actually many different shades! Rust is an earthy color that can have hints of orange in it but also touches of brown and bronze. Rust is the true natural color of fall! Look around you and you will see it in the mums in people’s front yards, the falling leaves of the trees and in the décor of the stores you shop in. Almost everyone I asked about fall colors, the first color out of their mouths was: Rust.  You can see with the different pictures I have provided that Rust does have different shades to it. So, when dealing with its darkest version, make sure to pair it up with burgundy and a golden yellow for contrast. If you are working with a lighter shade of Rust, you can pair it with orange, yellow and red.

So what are your Top 5 Fall colors? Stop in the store and go through our walk in cooler and pick out your favorite fall colors and see how they go together! If you are not sure about what you picked out, our helpful staff will be glad to show you the ins and outs of the perfect color combination! Then see if you have an old watering can or pitcher at home you can put these great flowers into! You don’t have to use a plain old vase, look around your house and see what you can find!

Don’t have time to stop by? Check out our great selection of Fall flowers on our website! Click below!

As the boss, I often ask myself “How fortunate am I to have such an awesome staff”?

Just this week, several of my staff members worked over their scheduled hours and helped out in different departments to keep our business running smoothly. Truly, their commitment and dedication to our company is the best gift they could ever give to me.

For me, bosses day is a celebration of the team as a whole. Every staff member is an important piece of our business. From sales to design to delivery- there are many people involved in the process of getting our customer’s flowers processed, designed and delivered.

My employees always have something for me to show their appreciation on bosses day. I enjoy the recognition (everyone likes a little pat on the back)! However, this bosses day, I would like to thank my staff for making my job so wonderful every day of the year.

Changing of the Season

Here at Gillespie Florists we are always under going dramatic changes with in the display room floors.  Every season, we have the most complete changes with specialty displays for the individual holidays.  We always start in the entrance foyer and move forward into the main room pulling seasonal fixtures to go into storage at our residential Gillespie garage or barn. Currently, we are fully engaged into bringing Christmas to life.  Half of the store has gone through a transformation of Summer to Fall and of course, Halloween!

A Touch of Christmas

A touch of Christmas has already been put out for our customers to preview. As soon as we get new Christmas products in, we are excited to show off the festive items!

We are proud to have one of the largest and most complete lines of plush available in Indianapolis.  Featuring elite lines not easily found at other retailers such as London based "Jelly Cats" and New York style, Manhattan Toy. You'll see them in the video below along with some of our current displays!

Our designers are busily designing outstanding set pieces to complete our eye-catching displays. It is our hope that every time you stop by you will see something new and interesting.

 Don't have time to stop by the shop but want an eye-catching bouquet? Just have it delivered! Pick a beautiful bouquet from our wide online selection! Click Below!

 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.

 But 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!

 Early Beginnings  

Prior to 1895, my (3 times) great Aunt Clara, Uncle Al Grande and family owned andoperated John Grande Greenhouse on Grande Avenue between Michigan and 10^th Streets.  In 1895, the greenhouse operation was expanded to include a full service florist shop on the same property:  John Grande and Sons.  In the late 40’s, the retail florist business was moved to a house at 2401 W. Washington Street (near George Washington High School).  In 1951, John Grande and Sons built a new facility at that same location, where it remained for 27 years.  The Gillespie Family, a generation removed from Aunt Clara and Uncle Al, purchased the business in 1960 and changed the name to reflect the current ownership in 1975.

The store front is pictured here facing East towards downtown on Washington Street.  The address was 2401 West Washington Street (near George Washington High School) which housed John Grande and Sons until 1978.
This picture of a casket spray was taken in the late 1960's and represents the style of that era.  Jim Gillespie, who owned John Grande and Sons at that time, was well known to his customers for this style of design.  Notice the carnation bloom attached to the end of each ribbon.

Two designers are pictured working at the front counter.  It is interesting to note the decor of the day, which has changed a lot. The traditional style of design has remained largely the same through the years.

Flowers For Life

When the business name changed in 1975, my father developed the idea of “Flowers for Life”.  This motto articulated the presence of flowers during the important occasions of our lives: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, new babies, illness and sympathy expressions- all are enhanced with the gift of flowers.

To celebrate the grand opening of the business with the “new” name, a contest was held in which the winner would receive “Flowers for Life”.  The winning contestant received flowers on the first day of each season (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) for over 30 years.  When she passed away, her daughter shared with me how much her mother looked forward to receiving her flowers each season.  Gillespie Florists was honored to be a part of her life for many years.  We are proud to be a part of your life for years to come.

Get the flowers for your life! Click below to shop now!

  As 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. Not 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!

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!

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

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!

2. 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. Daisy

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.

4. 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. Larkspur

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!

Buy One, Get One Free!

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

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!

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!

Nature's Wedding Colors

As I was driving to the flower shop today, I noticed a gorgeous sunrise on the horizon. It’s not often in the hustle and bustle of life that we get to enjoy one of life’s simplest joys: nature. I observed the natural hues of oranges, reds, yellows and even plum colors as they faded into the early morning blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds.

As I contemplated the beautiful palate of colors before me, I thought about how often people “force” color combinations together to make a statement or appease all parties in the decision making process. For example, my favorite color is purple and my husband’s favorite color is orange. When planning our wedding, we each wanted to incorporate our personalities into the color theme (without looking like a stereotypical Halloween party!). Taking color combination cues from nature helped us to develop a color scheme that suited both of our tastes. My husband and I chose a more plum shade of purple with accents of peach, sage and cream, which reminded us of a sunset fading over a grove of trees. With only slight alteration to our personal favorites, we chose colors that blended together nicely by envisioning an element of nature.

What other color combinations can “Mother” nature bring us? Imagine ocean waves breaking on a sandy beach (tan, pale blue, white). Or what about the Grand Canyon, showcasing its natural hues of reds, rusts, tans and browns? Don’t forget the night sky, with the moon and stars (cream, charcoal, grey). When developing color schemes for the special events in your life, consider letting nature, with all its wisdom, guide you.

Need help picking out your wedding flowers? Click below to ask a question or schedule your wedding appointment!