Andrew’s Garden blog | Wheaton | Glen Ellyn | florist

Sprinkle Kindness Like Rose Petals!

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May 30, 2020

Today is a great day! We have opened our doors again!! It is 70 degrees & sunny outside – we ordered that up too. Doesn’t it lift your spirits to get out in the fresh air? We hope Downtown Wheaton is on your list.

Yesterday, we celebrated the hard work of the Downtown Wheaton Association and the City of Wheaton and witnessed the opening of our favorite restaurants for outdoor dining. We never knew how good Phase 3 of Restore Illinois would feel! Wow. Andrew & I enjoyed a perfect bottle of Prisoner Red Blend under the Hale Street tents last night. Outdoor dining is happening all over town. With outdoor dining comes visits to local retailers. Please come support our local businesses! We need you!

So, here is the complicated part. All of us – shops, restaurants, service providers – we want to be there for you. But we must first make sure that our Teams are safe. There are SO many new guidelines to study from IDPH, CDC, OSHA, FDA, Johns Hopkins, City of Wheaton, the list of names & acronyms goes on forever. We are all doing our best. Small business owners are emerging from some of the most difficult weeks of their lives-quite literally.

Let me give you a little glimpse of the roller coaster. On March 1st, Andrew’s Garden was heading for its best year ever. On March 12th, we became really afraid as business evaporated. On March 21st, we closed our doors & thought we might lose Andrew’s Garden forever. On April 5th, we could hardly breathe. On April 16th, we celebrated PPP Loan success. On April 20th, we weren’t sure how it could ever work. On April 23rd, we started proceeding with cautious optimism. On May 1st, we hoped people would still order for Mother’s Day. On May 10th, we collapsed exhausted after a very busy Mother’s Day with a small team. On May 11th, we wondered how many flowers to order in case no one bought any after Mother’s Day. On May 15th, we thought this might be working. On May 18th, we were extremely worried about possible permanent closures of many businesses in Downtown Wheaton. On May 20th, we became hopeful for the restaurants. On May 30th, we opened our doors and celebrated-again with cautious optimism. How does your stomach feel now?

I don’t give you these details to ask for anything other than understanding. All of us have been through varying degrees of personal & business trauma. We have seen and felt the most extraordinary love from our community near & far. This roller coaster is in the minds of all small business owners and our employees. When you run into any of us, please keep that in mind. We are trying to be creative as we re-imagine and re-invent our businesses. Most of us have nothing but passion for these businesses that we live & breathe every day. That is what has given rise to my favorite saying today. Let’s try to outdo each other with Kindness.

Sprinkle Kindness Like Rose Petals!

— Tonya, co-owner of Andrew’s Garden

Important Updates & an Appeal for Small Businesses

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Monday, March 16, 2020

To our Loyal Customers:

In an effort to continue to serve our customers and also slow the spread of COVID-19, Andrew’s Garden has made some temporary changes to our hours and procedures. We will continue to follow guidance from appropriate authorities and make changes as necessary. We believe in being calm, but we also know that we need to take this situation very seriously.

As long as it remains possible and we continue to have access to fresh flowers from our suppliers, we will remain open from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Monday through Saturday. We will continue to use best practices to disinfect and clean our shop to protect our staff and our customers. If you are not comfortable coming into the shop, we will gladly take your order over the phone or online through our website. Delivery order recipients will be contacted by phone ahead of time and we will ring the doorbell and leave the delivery at the door. You may also arrange for curb-side pickup of flowers or any other item that we sell in the shop. Currently, only flower orders and gift cards are available to order online, but we will be very happy if you call us for other items too!

Please understand that we may not have as deep of a selection of flowers as usual. We ask for your flexibility with colors and flower varieties. Fresh flowers are perishable, and we are trying to mitigate our damages by keeping our fresh inventory a bit lower than normal. Trust us – as soon as this crisis passes, we will load up on all of your favorites again!

This pandemic is delivering a painful financial blow to small businesses like ours. It is especially painful because the financial impact affects all of our employees too. Small Business owners everywhere are doing our best to keep afloat and support each other. If we might ask a favor, there are a few things that you can do right now that would help us immensely:

Send flowers to someone you love but cannot visit. That might be especially ideal for an elderly friend or family member who is unable to leave home right now.
Order a treat for yourself to brighten up your space while you’re working from home. We can even deliver our fine French soaps & lotions to your door!
Buy a gift card to use later. You can call to order one and we will mail it to you!
Place an order NOW for Mother’s Day! You know you will be ordering flowers anyway, and you can take it off your to-do list. Mother’s Day is May 10, 2020.
Support other small businesses in Downtown Wheaton and other neighborhoods. We are all in this together and we all appreciate your support more than you know. Supporting small businesses now means they have a better chance of still being there after the storm passes.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will continue to post any changes to our website and social media pages. We thank each and every one of you who has already reached out in the last few days to give us your support.

Be safe, wash your hands, and look for the helpers.

-Andrew & Tonya – and all of the staff at Andrew’s Garden

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Thankful Musings from Tonya on Small Business Saturday…

We have enjoyed seeing so many of you these past few days! We love making beautiful floral arrangements that end up in so many homes in Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Naperville, Chicago, and far beyond. We pack quite a few for travel! Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Family & Friends (we like to call them our “chosen family”) at my table, in my home. I love working really hard to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. No shortcuts. Food is love, right? Sharing a Thanksgiving meal with people I love is priceless. Andrew & I love knowing that so many of our flowers and other gifts from Andrew’s Garden are gracing similar celebrations in so many homes. We are very grateful.

This small business, Andrew’s Garden, is our second home. We love it. Andrew & I pour our hearts & minds into Andrew’s Garden. Our employees do too. They are part of our extended family. That is what a Small Business is to us. Our Andrew’s Garden family, our downtown Wheaton business community, our customers from near & far-all of you are very important to us. We love getting to know you and making your experience at Andrew’s Garden something special.

Today, I am exhausted. Andrew & I have been working 12-14 hour days for too many days in November. We work hard to transform Andrew’s Garden into something especially beautiful for Jingle & Mingle every year. When you are packing up your Christmas decorations, we literally start planning & buying holiday inventory in January each year. We couldn’t make the holidays so special each year without other tireless hours & talents from our staff. Thank you to Micheale, Aggie, Patrick, Brenda, & Brendan – and Sophie & Dina who have recently left us. Andrew & I are so lucky to have found a solid group of people who really care about Andrew’s Garden too.

People ask us nearly every day if the construction in downtown Wheaton has affected us. IT HAS!

Look at those beautiful sidewalks, new planters, benches, bike racks & streetlights! We have some great ideas for next summer to use the new space. If Andrew & I can’t be in Paris as often as we’d like, why not create a little more of it right here to Wheaton, right? If we can bring it to life, it is going to be wonderful.
Our water pressure is better! You have no idea how old those pipes under the streets were! The benefits of new sewer and water lines are not visible, but they sure make a difference in our shop life. It is so frustrating to fill lots & lots of buckets of water with low water pressure!
New businesses are arriving! Our new downtown streetscape is more attractive to other retailers, restaurants and service providers! We all benefit from new business neighbors!
Parking is easier and more plentiful-plus we now have an ADA parking spot right in front of our shop for those of our customers that need easier access! And don’t forget – the Wheaton Place Garage is free and only a block away! Andrew & I park there every day.

We try not to focus on it, but there has been a down-side to the construction too. It is hard for small, independent businesses to absorb your absence. None of us like to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced. Without even thinking too hard about it, we avoid the extra effort it may take to visit businesses in the middle of a construction zone. We need your help so that we are still here to enjoy the benefits of the construction itself! Anyone who has remodeled a kitchen or bathroom knows that you have to endure the inconvenience before you get to enjoy the results! We don’t want to see any more businesses close around us – and we certainly don’t want to be one of them.

Please don’t forget to support the small businesses in your community. Small Business Saturday is a great day to recognize us – but we need you every day of every month in every year.

Thank you to those of you who tell us frequently that we have something special at Andrew’s Garden!

Thank you to those of you who walk in the door and exclaim, “It smells so good in here!”

Thank you to those of you who trusted us with your weddings 10 years ago when we were brand new!

Thank you to those of you who saw something new & creative in our little shop 6 years ago!

Thank you to those of you write reviews and recommend us to your friends!

Thank you to those of you who follow us on social media from all corners of the world!

Thank you to those of you who are inspired by our ideas and keep coming back!

Thank you to those of you who came to see us this summer even if the construction outside wasn’t fun!

Thank you to those of you we haven’t met yet who continue to discover Andrew’s Garden.

Thank you for reading if you got this far. I am an attorney first and florist second – and I tend to be wordy. So sorry. Now, go out and shop today with the local, independent businesses in your neighborhood. We will consider ourselves lucky if it includes Andrew’s Garden!

Happy Thanksgiving from Tonya, Andrew & our Family

AG Thanksgiving Collection 2018

After a long, hot, summer, we are always excited when fall flowers and greens start arriving at the shop. Colors and textures change – and so do our designs! We are very excited to introduce our AG Thanksgiving Collection 2018! This year’s collection represents some of our ideas for the season – but remember – all of our creations are custom made just for you! Use the collection as a guide, but it certainly won’t limit our creativity!

We are now taking orders for Thanksgiving deliveries! Order early for the best options. Call the shop at 630-456-4689 or order right here!

Music inspires us at Andrew’s Garden, so we hope you enjoy the musical themes we chose for our Thanksgiving Collection!

“Autumn in New York” – Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

“Harvest Moon” – Neil Young

If you love “Harvest Moon,” but it is a little too big, try this mini version we are calling “Thankful.” It is a smaller version of the same beautiful and heavy-glass moon vase!

“Thankful” – Kelly Clarkson

“Mashed Potatoes” – James Brown

“Groovy Gravy” – Quincy Jones

“Autumn Leaves” – Nat King Cole

AG Signature Bouquets

Maybe one of our AG Signature Bouquets is more your style? They’re the perfect solution when you want to grab a quick bouquet or you already have a favorite vase at home! Our AG Signature Bouquets are delivered in a bag of water in our gift bags.

“Be Thankful” – Natalie Cole

We wish you the very best as you begin the 2018 holiday season. Don’t forget to spend time with the ones you love. Happy Thanksgiving from Andrew’s Garden!!

— Andrew, Tonya & the entire staff at Andrew’s Garden

AG Mother’s Day Collection 2018

Show her how unique and special you think she is by sending her a bespoke arrangement designed by Andrew’s Garden. We are pleased to release our AG Mother’s Day Collection 2018. This collection represents inspired designs to celebrate all of the women who have had an impact on our lives. Whether you call her Mom, Mama, Grandma, Nonna, Ya-Ya, Grammy, Honey, Dear, Sweetheart or even Dear Friend, she means the world to you. Show her how much you love her on Mother’s Day.

Order early for the best selection and the best delivery options. Call our shop at 630-456-4689 or order online right here.

Unique Premium Blooms – Bespoke Designs

Each Andrew’s Garden design is custom-made just for you from the freshest premium blooms available. In fact, we seek out the most exquisite and beautiful blooms you won’t find just anywhere! Order a Designer’s Choice arrangement or choose from the collection. Each Spring arrangement will be full of the season’s most special blooms. From lilacs to tulips, sweet pea to ranunculus – the choices are wonderful this time of year!