Dutch Antique Hydrangea
As we count down the days to the end of 2020, let’s talk about some flowers! Believe it or not, not all arrangements leaving our shop right now are red & green! This arrangement in a footed compote caught my eye yesterday because of the gorgeous Dutch Antique Hydrangea bloom! The bloom is so large and voluptuous that it takes up about a third of the entire arrangement! If you have taken one of our design classes, you know that using a giant bloom like this requires some balancing with other elements in the design.
To me, Antique Hydrangea blooms are a fantastic example of the perfection in nature’s imperfections! Every bloom is different and every shipment arrives with lots of variations. With knobby and crooked stems and giant heads, the color varies from creamy greens to blues, reds & purples. Sometimes, all of these vintage colors are in a single bloom! The complex colors make Antique Hydrangea look equally comfortable in an arrangement with peach and pink roses and ranunculus as it does in a holiday mix of deep red roses, anemone and tulips! In fact, you don’t even need to be that complicated! A bunch of Antique Hydrangea head to head in a vase is simply perfect too!
When hydrangea blooms arrive at Andrew’s Garden, they are often wilted and tired from their traveling time on the road. I’m not a road trip person, so I completely get it. Here’s the tip you can use to impress your friends-unlike most flowers, hydrangea blooms love HOT water! If you have a hydrangea bloom in an arrangement and it’s looking a little droopy, try giving it a fresh cut and putting it in a vase with hot water-not boiling, but more like a nice hot bath. They really appreciate deep water too, so sink that stem as low as you can go into the water. Try not to get the petals wet though, we don’t want them to start to mold. That’s what we do when hydrangeas arrive at our shop-give them a fresh cut and drop the stems deep in hot water. They perk up quickly and the flower heads become firm and ready to go! With proper care for your arrangement when you get it home, Antique Hydrangea blooms should last a good 5-7 days at a minimum, sometimes much longer. Unlike other varieties of hydrangea that may collapse as they get older, Antique Hydrangea blooms are more likely to start to dry. In fact, dried Antique Hydrangea blooms are gorgeous! When you’re ready, stop adding water and let the blooms dry on their own. It can help to hang them upside down, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You may eventually want to replace the dried blooms if they get dusty and brittle, but you can enjoy dried Antique Hydrangea for a good long while first!
We love using hydrangeas in our designs at Andrew’s Garden! Next time you are in the shop, take a look around and see how many varieties we have on hand that day! Our supply is different every day!
Be Well, Friends – and Flower On!
November Holiday Shopping Hours
NOVEMBER SHOPPING HOURS
October 31-November 1 | CLOSED | Set up Jingle & Mingle-Reimagined | |
November 2 | 9am – 6pm | HOLIDAY REVEAL | |
November 3 | CLOSED | Election Day | |
November 4-22 | Monday – Friday | 9am – 10am | Appointment Only |
10am – 6pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins | ||
6pm – 8pm | Appointment Only | ||
Saturday | 9am – 11am | Appointment Only | |
11am – 2pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins | ||
2pm – 5pm | Appointment Only | ||
Sunday | 11am – 2pm | Appointment Only | |
November 23-24 | 9am – 7pm | ||
November 25 | 9am – 5pm | ||
November 26 | CLOSED | HAPPY THANKSGIVING! | |
November 27 | Black Friday | 9am – 5pm | Appointment Only |
November 28 | Small Business Saturday | 9am – 6pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins |
November 29 | CLOSED | ||
November 30 | 9am – 6pm |
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Jingle & Mingle-Reimagined!!
2020 just keeps on giving, doesn’t it? What a year! We are so grateful that we are still here. We are still standing. For the moment, our doors are still open for shopping inside! We are doing everything we can to keep our staff and our customers safe. We will be eternally grateful for the way our community has stepped up to keep our business, and so many others, alive this year. I can’t imagine a place I’d rather be right now than Downtown Wheaton. Seriously. It’s been real hard, but you’ve had our backs like we never expected. Our business community is strong & resilient, but we still need your support more than ever. One of the best things about being a business owner in Downtown Wheaton is how we work together with the other business owners. Our situations are all different, but we all understand the struggles that have made 2020 what it is. Thanks to YOU, thanks to the Downtown Wheaton Association (Elle!!), thanks to the City of Wheaton, thanks to all of the hardworking owners & staff of downtown businesses. You’re awesome!!
That brings us to the holidays. Did you know that Andrew & I shop for our holiday merchandise in January every year?! Yes, JANUARY. Just as we pack up one Christmas, we are already choosing a color scheme & theme for the next Christmas. Do you remember January 2020? COVID-19 had not reached our radar yet. So, we planned for the best holiday season yet for Andrew’s Garden. We really pushed the envelope and bought some extraordinary things to share with you! We planned for our Jingle & Mingle Open House to be the best ever with a huge crowd of excited, festive people ready to take home lots of beautiful things. Nope. 2020 had something else in mind. We couldn’t cancel Jingle & Mingle. We had to reimagine it!
People always tell us that they want to just sit down and stay inside our shop for a while. When we host our Design Classes, our classmates have a change to enjoy some private time inside the shop. It makes us feel good when we hear that because we want Andrew’s Garden to be an experience, not just a store. So, in an effort to keep everyone safe and yet still experience Andrew’s Garden this season, we bring you JINGLE & MINGLE-REIMAGINED! We have scheduled a series of exclusive shopping appointments limited to 6 customers at a time. Our recommendation is to bring a group of 6 people (maybe your “pandemic pod”?) and have your own private shopping celebration. We will provide some treats as usual, but packaged just for you. You will have 45 minutes to browse uninterrupted. Our design staff will be on hand to help you put together the perfect décor or find the perfect gift. You may also want to take the time while you’re here to pre-order your Thanksgiving and Christmas floral arrangements. It must sound like a good idea because, as of the writing of this blog, we have nearly 150 people already signed up!!
In order to accommodate all of these appointments, our hours for walk-in customers will be limited during the month of November. Our December hours may be adjusted too, but we are waiting to see what the next couple of weeks bring our way. (We even have a Plan B in mind just in case we have to pivot again, but we’re not going to talk about that yet!) If you do not already have tickets, please visit the Events page on our website and reserve them right away! It’s easy and FREE. Please see our updated hours below.
We can’t wait to see you soon. In the meantime, enjoy a sneak peek at our very messy prep for Jingle & Mingle-Reimagined!!! Aggie is our master of tie-ons, and she is making everything look spectacular for you!
So, wear your mask, watch your distance, & wash your hands. BE WELL & FLOWER ON!!
–Tonya
NOVEMBER SHOPPING HOURS
October 31-November 1 | CLOSED | Set up Jingle & Mingle-Reimagined | |
November 2 | 9am – 6pm | HOLIDAY REVEAL | |
November 3 | CLOSED | Election Day | |
November 4-22 | Monday – Friday | 9am – 10am | Appointment Only |
10am – 6pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins | ||
6pm – 8pm | Appointment Only | ||
Saturday | 9am – 11am | Appointment Only | |
11am – 2pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins | ||
2pm – 5pm | Appointment Only | ||
Sunday | 11am – 2pm | Appointment Only | |
November 23-24 | 9am – 7pm | ||
November 25 | 9am – 5pm | ||
November 26 | CLOSED | HAPPY THANKSGIVING! | |
November 27 | Black Friday | 9am – 5pm | Appointment Only |
November 28 | Small Business Saturday | 9am – 6pm | OPEN for Walk-Ins |
November 29 | CLOSED | ||
November 30 | 9am – 6pm |
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Sprinkle Kindness Like Rose Petals!




Important Updates & an Appeal for Small Businesses
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