Brenda Poole, floral designer-wedding consultant for 24 years at Heritage House.
Favorite Flowers-Cymbidium Orchid Spray
They’re very distinctive. The sprays are great in wedding work or in a simple vase is just spectacular. They come In white, green, gold, mauve even browns. Cymbidiums are a very three dimensional flower because of the throat. The gold with the burgundy throat is my favorite.
Brenda Poole
Joe Karban Floral designer & former owner of Lombard Floral Co.
“Years ago my favorite flower was wild liatris, we got from Indiana. It was a great willowy, summer flower in purple. I really like all flowers, but Gerber daisies are a favorite because of the many colors available
Joe Karban Floral designer
.
If you don’t buy or receive flowers often, these favorites may help in your selection of fresh flowers.
I’ll go first, I’m Kathy owner of Heritage House Florist.
Favorite Flower-Verigated Dendrobium Orchid
Why-Its longlasting, exotic looking but pairs up nicely with every day stems like green button mums, liatris and spray roses. It also plays nice with other exotics in a tropical arrangement. One of our best sellers in the cooler is a vase of verigated dendrobiums all by themselves with only some bear grass. They are fuscia & white and they also make great corsage & boutinierres for dances and weddings.
As I approach my 49th birthday, I’ve started thinking about my legacy. Twenty years, owning our own store, has gone by so fast. I’ve learned so much but I think I have so much still to learn. I’ve educated myself by trial & error and working with people with many years of flower shop experience. I wonder if Grandma & Grandpa Bicek felt the same when they started the business, did they think their legacy would be continued 80 years later?
Ribbon Cutting at Heritage House Florist
George & Rose Bicek started their business with little experience in the flower business but Grandpa Bicek was very determined to be his own man running his own business. With lovely Rose at his side they build a family business that still continues, that to me is a beautiful, American story. Grandpa built a stunning building at 2500 S Christiana in Chicago and lived above the shop. He delivered his arrangements on the street car and started a family. Years later their daughter Bernadette worked in the shop and after a romantic military courtship she wed her beloved Jimmy who also joined the business. Jim & Bernie ran the business for many years as their family grew.
My husband Richard started working for Grandpa Bicek as a young teen. To hear him talk about working with his grandpa and his dad is so sweet. They were his idols, Grandpa Bicek was tough and tough on him, but Rich saw a smart, hardworking business man and really admired these qualities. How smart of Rich, at such a young age to admire someone for being a hard worker. Rich’s dad, my father in law, was a respected, strong, John Wayne type of guy. He was funny and also worked hard at a business he married into.
Rich never worked anywhere else except the flower shop. When we got married, he was already running Bicek’s House of Flowers. His parents came home on busy holidays to help in the shop. We started our family and Rich’s dad thought Rich should look at a shop in Downers Grove. They met with the Nelson Family, who were selling the shop because of illness in the family. They said they would only sell their family business to someone that would run it the way they did. With love and respect and hard work. I was pregnant with my first child when we bought Heritage House Florist.
I did not work at the shop right away, but after a couple of years, Rich asked me to come and help with the bookkeeping “just a few hours a week”. I started doing bookkeeping, as Rich traveled back & forth between stores. After 9 years we sold Bicek’s House of Flowers to a long time employee and ran Heritage House Florist together. Over the years I added a few jobs to my list, customer service, marketing, IT, community relations, purchasing, plant department and even some maintenance. Rich handles all design, purchasing, delivery, building management and so much more. We love working hard and having a full day of making people happy with our flowers.
Can you imagine life without flowers? God created these beautiful miracles and we get to see this amazing beauty everyday. I know flowers brings joy & comfort to the people we deliver them, I think that is why flowers were created. I can’t help but love the product we sell for this reason. But I know without the family legacies set before us we would not know how to achieve our goals. I’m so sad when I hear when a small family business fails, but I’m also reminded how lucky we are and proud that we continue to succeed, especially selling something like flowers a perishable, non-essential product.
We are now starting a fourth generation business, which I think is very rare. Our boys Ricky & Danny both work at the shop part time. We try to show them the importance of taking pride in our family business. I think with hard work and pride anything is possible.
Yes this is true, we have an association with the QIX Delivery Service.
QIX is owned by Andrew G Auer a very kind, articulate man. He (or his employee) comes to our store in the morning, pick up our wrapped arrangements, take them to a warehouse, where they are met by other QIX drivers and the drivers exchange packages to be delivered to their designated areas.
Its amazing the amount of communities they can cover in one day. They’re list is crazy-towns and communities we’ve never even heard of like Crystal Vista, Cragin, Pingree Grove. Did you ever hear of Wasco, Venitian Village or Mary Meadows? How about these Lakes, Crooked Lake, Druce Lake, EchoLake, Deep Lake? Ever run through Hubbard Woods, Laguna Woods, Lotus Woods? Have you happily gone to Sunset Hills, Hazel Green, Deerpath, Cobblestone?
Sometimes a customer calls asking if we go to a certain town, I check the list and gladly answer yes we do go to Montague Forest and yes I can have that delivered.
The reason we desire so many towns available for delivery is that most of our customers really want an arrangement designed at Heritage House. They love and trust our work and don’t want it wired to a florist in another town.
Need an arrangement delivered to a town your sure I can’t get to, give me a call our check our QIX list.
Andrew G Auer-QIX Delivery Service at Heritage House Florist
In the past 2 years we have found a way to perfect our floral design class and help local charities. We have held classes to benefit Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, St John Lutheran Church Youth Group Mission Trip, Sponsored Chris Linde for her Hike for Leukemia, The Diveheart Foundation, National Marfan Foundation, and a local Girl Scout Troop.
Our past design class was just for fun during Family Fun Month in Downers Grove and we offered a 2 for 1 for Guests and a friend or family member to enjoy floral designing.
September 30th we will host a Floral Design Class to benefit the Downers Grove School District 58 Education Foundation. This class will be held during Downtown Downers Grove’s Fall Girl’s Night Out-”Girls Just Wanna have Funds”.
What these classes consist of is guests come in our design room, they are instructed by Brenda our longtime floral designer, we provide all the supplies, flowers and tools needed and they make a seasonal floral arrangement. Then they get to take home their arrangements to show off their new skill to friends & family. Drinks and snacks are provided and sometimes we have a raffle during the class to also raise funds for the benefactors. Brenda also provides design ideas, tips and trade secrets to the class members.
Classes have been so well received and fill up quickly, everyone has so much fun. If you’d like to come to our next class you need to call us and register. Visiting us on Facebook or joining our mailing list also let you know when classes will be held .
Over 50% of customers are buying their flowers on the Internet these days, but from Flower Companies (know in the flower business as order gatherers), not local flower shops. Local flower shops, unlike companies like 1800Flowers can give you a vast amount of benefits not available from these order gatherers. Mostly personal attention, direct customer service, and money! We want our local customers to understand why we are better, so we have put together the following list of reasons to buy from us instead of floral websites and national call centers:
|
Top 10 Reasons To Buy Direct |
|
|
10 |
Help in a Pinch. Need flowers delivered on the same day at 3PM? In the dog house at 5:59PM? We go the extra mile to make sure you are serviced. We’ll do what it takes to go the extra mile to make sure you have what you need. Try to get 1800Flowers to do that! ha! |
|
9 |
Relationship. If you order from us regularly, we want to get to know you as a person and your likes and dislikes with arrangements. Order gatherers don’t have time for that. |
|
8 |
Peace of Mind. When you order from us, you know exactly who to call if there is a problem. If you order from 1800Flowers do you which florist is filling your order? No. We guarantee to make you happy! |
|
7 |
Comparable ease of use. We have a buy online feature and 24 hour phone service just like Proflowers and 1800flowers, but it supports us 100%, not those big giants! |
|
6 |
Better Designs. Floral websites use very basic arrangements with little creativity because they have to stick to basic core flowers that every shop in the county has on hand on a regular basis. We can handle all special requests. |
|
5 |
Support your local community. The money that you spend on Proflowers goes to California. The money you spend on 1800flowers.com goes to New York, the money you spend with us stays in Downers Grove, IL! |
|
4 |
Self-satisfaction. That you are supporting a small business, rather than a large profit machine answering to investors. |
|
3 |
Control over your order. Special instructions and requests can easily be communicated to a local florist and is near impossible with order gatherers. |
|
2 |
Personalized service. Your call will not go to a call center or to some bulk e-mail folder along with hundreds of other customers |
|
1 |
Better value. When you order from 1800flowers.com, the company keeps 27% (yes, 27%) as a commission! So if you spend $100 on flowers, the florist only gets $73.00 to make an arrangement! |
Are you looking for a special gift that shows someone how much you care? Are you looking for a way to brighten up your own home or office? Then, check out our wide variety of special autumn floral arrangements guaranteed to be enjoyed by all!
Visit our website today and see how we can arrange to send a heart-warming autumn arrangement that reflects the beauty of the season.
Ordering is easy! Simply click on the product link, choose an arrangement and complete the delivery and billing information. We’ll take it from there!
We are pleased to announce to addition of Expression From Hallmark Cards to our store. Please stop in for our daily card and flower specials.
Hallmark Cards
Sincerely,
Kathy Viskocil
Heritage House Florist
Heritage House Florist
While we all know that we enjoy receiving flowers, it has now been established scientifically that flowers are good for your health as well. The sight and aroma of flowers has an immediate effect on your mood and causes the release of endorphins – those “happy hormones” that your body creates. These hormones not only induce an overall feeling of well being, but also decrease your stress levels that cause elevated blood pressures and a plethora of other non-healthy symptoms.
A study conducted at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, demonstrated that flowers have a positive impact on your moods in a healthy and natural way. Another study conducted by Dr. Roger Ulrich, showed that patients recovering from gallbladder surgery that had flowers to view, had shorter hospital stays and received fewer analgesics than those that did not. Research at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute further indicated that the presence of flowers enhances communication, restores mental fatigue and promotes a good sense of self esteem. Flowers have also been known to decrease bouts of mild depression.
If you live in dry areas, placing flowers and plants around the home not only adds to the rooms beauty, but actually increases humidity thereby decreasing the negative effects of dry air such a colds and bronchitis.
With all this evidence, what are you waiting for? Order the person you love a dose of good health! While you are at it, get one for yourself as well. The gift of health – flowers!
Share and Enjoy:
