Joliet’s Palmer Florist celebrates 100 years of a family business

A Crest Hill woman will forever treasure the kindness a Joliet florist showed her more than 16 years ago.

On the Friday before Mother’s Day in 2007, MaryLou Wagnon went to Palmer Florist in Joliet to order flowers for her mother, who had just died.

“The gentleman who took my order presented me with one beautiful rose, saying to me through my tears, ‘It’s hard enough losing your mother but harder so close to Mother’s Day,’ ” Wagnon said. “I’ll never forget this act of kindness and sympathy. One flower made a big impression on me, and [I] will always be thankful for his kindness.”

Wagnon said the flowers for her mother’s funeral were outstanding, too. But she said the thoughtfulness “touched my heart.”

“Every time I drive by the place, I think of that man’s kindness,” Wagnon said. “He was not worried about the sale of the flowers but that I was broken-hearted at burying my mother so close to Mother’s Day.”

Palmer Florist, located at 1327 N. Raynor Ave., Joliet, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and Paul “Peep” Palmer is the store’s third-generation owner.

They are my go-to florist because I can always depend on them. Their work is beautiful and top-quality. I may only have a vague idea of what I really want, but whatever I have in my head always turns out so much better than I imagined.”

—  Pat Perrier of Crest Hill, repeat Palmer Florist customer

Palmer said his grandparents Leo and Winifred Palmer started the business after they immigrated from Greece and England, respectively, and met and married in the U.S.

When Leo Palmer died, their son Paul Leo Palmer took over the business. He died in 2007.

Palmer said he never intended to run the family business. He started working in the shop at its former Chicago Street location when he was only 5 years old.

“I used to clean roses, boxes of 600 roses,” Palmer said. “They’d give me a penny a rose to clean them. This is back in 1960. It still took you all day for $6.”

Growing up, Palmer worked holidays – he still doesn’t like the smell of Easter lilies – because of the increase in holiday orders.

“All my friends went to Florida,” Palmer said. “But the holidays were the busiest time for the family, and you had to work.”

He changed his mind at age 25. He was working for a shopping mall developer performing sales analyses when he learned that flower shops “did the best” per square foot.

So Palmer opened Artistic Floral at the Louis Joliet Mall and ran it from 1978 to 1980 until it was time to run the family business, he said.

Palmer said he is glad he made the decision, and he has no plans of retiring.

“The people of Joliet have been good to me,” he said.

Palmer is not married and has no children. He’s lost three brothers – two in the past year, he said – including Charlie Palmer, whom people called “a modern-day Jesus.”

“He went through his whole life without an enemy,” Palmer said.

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He loves when customers trust him to use his creativity in their arrangements, and he hires “retired guys” as delivery drivers, he said.

“They often thank me for getting them out of the house,” Palmer said.

Customer satisfaction

Kim Ratliff, formerly of Joliet, moved to Colorado 26 years ago and still orders from Palmer Florist when sending flowers to local family and friends, she said.

“They always do an amazing job,” Ratliff said.

Pat Perrier of Crest Hill said she’s also been a customer of Palmer Florist for years.

“They are my go-to florist because I can always depend on them,” Perrier said. “Their work is beautiful and top-quality. I may only have a vague idea of what I really want, but whatever I have in my head always turns out so much better than I imagined.”

When Pat Desiderio of Joliet thinks about Palmer Florist, she thinks about the lovely gift one of her children gave her on Christmas Eve in 1984.

The Desiderios lived a block from Palmer Florist and often walked past it on the way to Mitchell’s Food Mart because “they always had such pretty displays,” Desiderio said.

So on Christmas Eve, the child, then 13, bought a poinsettia with their own money and had it delivered to Desiderio.

“I cried,” Desiderio said.

What’s hot, what’s not

According to Paul “Peep” Palmer:

What’s hot: Roses. Palmer Florist only carries extra fancy roses of its top-selling flower. Extra fancy means a high petal count and longer stems.

What’s not: Corsages. Palmer Florist used to sell 300 to 400 corsages on Mother’s Day. Now it sells little to none.

What’s hot: Consistent sales year-round. In the past, sales dipped in January, July and August.

What’s not: Football mums. These big, inexpensive flowers were for homecoming dances and funerals in the 1950s through 1970s.

How to grow a successful floral business

According to Paul “Peep” Palmer:

• Keep overhead low

• Watch out for checks

• Drop everything for funerals, even if it’s the busiest time of year

• Don’t use “run-of-the-mill flowers”

• Avoid carnations unless a customer asks for them

• Be patient – and also realize you can’t make everyone happy

• And finally: “Take the time to be nice to everybody. Life is too short”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Palmer Florist

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday

WHERE: 1327 N. Raynor Ave., Joliet

INFO: Call 815-726-4441 or visit palmerfloristinc.com.