Bridget Carlson, Author at Ashland Addison Florist Company

We have a few reasons to send flowers today

June 6, 2016 By Bridget Carlson

Here you go

Flowers make the best impression*
You want to make someone else feel good
You want to make yourself feel good
You love knowing that your gift is supporting a hard-working farmer who loves to grow perfect blooms
You love the feeling that an artist has carefully crafted your gift
You know that flowers make people feel special
You know that when people hear that someone sent flowers that responses are often, “ohhhh!!!”
Flowers smell nice
Flowers are pretty
Flowers make small rooms look bigger
Flowers make everything feel a bit more special
Flowers make ordinary celebrations extraordinary
Local florists have cool jobs and the world needs more cool jobs
Local businesses help our urban metropolis feel more warm and fuzzy
Family businesses have cool stories to share
Flowers help gloomy days feel better
Flowers cure seasonal depression (or at least help it)
When you carry flowers around with you, people smile at you
Fresh beautiful flowers do not affect your waistline
Research shows – proves! – that flowers make people more productive*
Flowers come in a lot of different colors
Research shows that flower givers are considered more likable, friendly and emotionally intelligent.*

*Cool research available at aboutflowers.com

We say Mom, you say….

May 5, 2016 By Bridget Carlson

It was fun to ask our team members what they think of when we say “Mom”. For me, the first word that pops up is patience. My mom has six children, and I’ve never seen her flip her lid of spilled milk or blink an eye when one of us called from college upset or in a parenting nightmare… she is calm. She is patient.

When I asked Justin for his thoughts, he said “Mom’s home cooking.” Momma Sheffield must have made some fine meals for the four Sheffield kids. We know around the shops that Bill was a really good cook, too!

But one of my favorite stories is right here in this shop. Zoe has been working at Ashland Addison Florist since she was a teenager! She loves flowers, creative design and has a place in her heart for our customers like no one else. She knows their names, their family members, their special occasions. She has cared for them over the phone through hard times and life’s celebrations. We are lucky enough to have Georgia, her daughter, join our team while she works on her Bachelor’s Degree at Chicago’s DePaul University. We get to see her impressive son, Anthony, as he prepares for West Point in just a few short weeks. We are entertained by her school-aged Luis as he stops by after school and shares his wealth of 1st grade knowledge.

Happy Mother's Day to all of our team members and customers - thanks to role models like Zoe who remind us what this holiday is about!

When I asked Georgia what she thought when I said, Mom, she listed:

Caring * Generous * Humble

Strong * Devoted * Optimistic * Leader

We couldn’t agree more with her description of Zoe. We are lucky to have Zoe and each of our team members who nurture their families, their partners, their friends, our customers and our communities!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our team members and customers – thanks to role models like Zoe who remind us what this holiday is about!

5 ways to show gratitude to important role models on our children’s’ lives (teacher appreciation!)

April 27, 2016 By Bridget Carlson

Gratitude easily gets swept up in the flurry of a long list of to dos with busy moms and busy dads trying to keep their children’s lives full of happiness and engagement. But Teacher Appreciation Day falls at the perfect time, where you’ve really got a great taste as to what your child’s teacher has offered their little soul and growing brain through the school year thus far. You have an idea how this year will fall into line in the scope of their academic career. Here are five easy, peasy teacher gift ideas on how to say thanks to this year’s positive influence in your child’s life.

Spring blooms – Stop by your local flower shop and let your child select the fresh seasonal flowers from the cooler. Your local florist can share with you some fun facts about some of the blooms that could tie back to school – perhaps your child’s taste is tropical and that year at school they enjoyed a lesson on the rain forest together!
Plant a seed – Your favorite teacher is probably enjoying thinking about their time outdoors when the school year wraps up. Bring him or her a bulb plant that can be replanted outdoors so they will remember your child each Spring when the bright bloom blossoms again!
Healthy treat – We all know the fears of cold/flu season and how they carry through to the end of the year! Surprise your teacher with a fresh fruit basket that includes yummy, immune building and disease fighting fruits such as navel oranges!
A gift to share – teachers work very closely with the other teachers from their grade, specialists and administrators – help grow those friendships with a fun treat basket filled with your favorite snacks for the teachers to enjoy during recess or at an after-school meeting.
1. Bring the outside in – A local florist has a lovely selection of blooming plants that would be the perfect addition to your teacher’s window in the classroom and bring some of the outside inside – inspiring new ideas among the classmates! Teacher’s gifts turned into classroom inspiration!

Showing gratitude feels so food. Research from Rutgers shows that people who give flowers make the best impression compared to other gifts studied. They are considered more likable, friendly and emotionally intelligent. The floral gift-giver is regarded as highly caring, trustworthy, loving, successful, and as valuing achievement and beauty in life.* Isn’t that lovely? Perhaps we can credit our great teachers for those impressive titles!

Why celebrate Administrative Professionals’ Day?

April 22, 2016 By Bridget Carlson

We live in such a busy world. We hear it all the time from you, our customers.

You call when you are in the car in between soccer and dance pick up sending flowers to your Mom for her birthday. You are in between meetings and want to surprise your wife for your anniversary.

You are trying to wrap up a successful charity event in between working your full-time job and had a helpful partner make a donation of their valuable time to help others – you want to show appreciation.

You swing in on your way to see a good friend recovering from surgery and want to bring a bouquet of cheerful fresh cut flowers before you head home to make dinner for your family.

You are so busy. When we spend our days, hours and minutes filled with to-do lists, it’s easy to forget to say Thank You to the people who help us get through the day. There has been controversy in the name of Professional Secretaries’ Day, now Administrative Professionals’ Week. Everyone wants to be sensitive and thoughtful on how they address important team members to ensure that everyone knows their value is there, their value is great. People comment that holidays are “made up” and “invented” by marketing companies to increase sales of products and services. And it’s true that everything started somewhere, right? The internet tells us that Secretaries’ Day was started in order to generate interest in the positions and show value to the job.

But today, with how busy we are, are we saying Thank You enough? Are we stopping and looking our team mates directly in the eyes and saying, “Your hard work is recognized.” “I appreciate you.” “Thanks for making our busy days run smoothly.”

So in honor of stopping and showing gratitude, to the question of “Why Celebrate Administrative Professionals’ Day?”

Our answer is “Why not?”

So excited… we could pop!

April 21, 2016 By Bridget Carlson

Of course our first passion is farm-fresh flowers. Justin works closely with growers in South America, California and Holland to bring in fresh cut flowers from beautiful loved farms directly to our Design Studio at 1640 West Fulton Street.

But we realize that our customers love to take their beautiful fresh flower sentiment to the next level. In traditional retail flower shop fashion, we offer class mylar balloons and plush animals – but through the years we looked around our relationships in Chicago and partnered with amazing local businesses like Berco’s Popcorn.

Berco's Popcorn by Ashland Addison Here’s what we love about Berco’s Popcorn. The business started with passion. Matt loves sweets and made a career out of a passion – creating the best popcorn that every can enjoy. It reminded us of Grandpa Roy standing on the corner of Ashland and Addison Streets selling fresh cut flowers out of a truck and eventually turning into our flower world here at Ashland Addison Florist Company.

One of our most popular birthday gifts is our fresh cut flower design with a tin of Berco’s Popcorn. Our customers love how the tin of caramel and cheese mix comes with a cute scoop and share bags! It brings the personal gift to the next level of excitement by inviting other people to share in the celebration!

We also had a blast compiling our fun any occasion Junk Food basket and including a bag of Berco’s Popcorn in it with tons of fun treats – another great share item to send your sister’s work or your college kid’s dorm room!

Have fun checking out our friend Matt’s company Berco’s Popcorn located at

810 W. Armitage Chicago, IL 60614

Google Map Link- Click Here!

Open 7 days a week

2 pm to 8 pm Monday

11:30 am to 8 pm Tuesday-Saturday

11:30 am to 7 pm Sunday

And if you want Berco’s Mix delivered with a fresh flower gift, let us know!