The Flower Basket Holds Beauty for New Lenox

The outside of isn't too much to look at. Plain and unassuming, I've driven by numerous times without even noticing it, or really even realizing that it housed a thriving business within.

Step inside, though, and it's a whole other world: warm and friendly, comfortable and inviting.

To either side as you walk in are sun room areas decorated delicately yet comfortably with various garden and floral themed decorative-related items for sale. Straight ahead is the counter and the work area. To one side of this is the cooler for storing fresh cut flowers.

It's in this central area that you will typically find the center of the business: owners Betty Cleveland and Sharon Laning. Their products and services include plants, fresh cut flowers and gourmet as well as fruit baskets, and it all can be sent or received from anywhere in the world via wire service with other local florists. They specialize in fresh cut floral bouquets.

Betty is the older of the two as well as the quieter of the pair. She has lived in New Lenox her entire life and is one of the original two owners of the The Flower Basket. With a start in the New Lenox Garden Club, she and another member decided to take what they had learned and open a flower shop.

It's Betty who will tell you about growing up in New Lenox and the changes over the decades...including the changes within the very building that houses The Flower Basket.

The building, at 117 Church St., was built around 1950 initially as a “5 and dime” store. It later contained the public library until turning over to the communications center for emergency services. In 1984 it finally became what it is now. Betty herself visited the 5 and dime and brought her kids there when it was a library.

The building is now owned by the more outgoing of the partners, Sharon. A planned five minute stop when she is there can easily become a 30 minute visit with what feels like a new friend. Open, honest and direct, her ease with chatting up customers only adds to the emphasis the shop places on customer service.

Sharon got her start by being a customer of the original two Flower Basket owners.

“I had a relative who was very ill, dying of cancer, and I was taking care of her," she said. "My neighbor told me that there was a new flower shop in town—they had just opened it up—and I like flowers and I like gardening, so I'd stop in to pick something up.

“I was probably the worst one for not calling and ordering ahead because it was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” she continued. “I would have to wait while my more order was being made up so I would talk to the girls and it was usually Janelle, the one that left, and she told me that she was going to retire and so forth. It just peaked my interest because the person that I was taking care of and I always talked about going into business together when the kids were done with school.”

When the other original partner left in 1990, moving to Indiana, Sharon bought her out and became Betty's new partner. Sharon has lived in New Lenox for 36 years.

The ladies consider themselves artists who use quality supplies. Because of that, when asked what they would suggest to customers, their first reply is to allow time for their creations. As Sharon pointed out, “It's always good to order as soon as you know you'll need flowers and to not wait until the last minute.” Special requests that might not be readily in stock, but can arrive within a day. “We don't want to disappoint the customers. That being said, we can always do something.”

Sharon compared it to walking into a bakery and ordering a cake: There are some simple ones kept on hand for walk-ins. However, if the customer wants something particular or otherwise special, certain ingredients or pieces might need to be ordered and it will take time to create even with everything available on-hand.

The expertise learned on the job leads to a vital part of their business: trust from clients.

“If they really don't know or don't have a preference for something, to really trust the designer," Sharon offered as advice. "We don't want anything to leave the store that doesn't look right.”

Being a locally owned flower shop, they're bound to come across customers who are asking themselves, "florist or supermarket?" Diplomatically, Sharon said there's nothing wrong with the products often offered in supermarkets, but that the customers might purchase them impulsively.

“My experience from people that we have come in here that have gone to the supermarket and then come back in here,” Sharon said. "It might be a little less expensive at the supermarket but you're not getting the (experienced) customer service that you get at a florist and the quality, they say, is not the same.”

Being a locally owned business obviously takes a passion, and the women of the Flower Basket show just that: flowers that last from artists that know the floral business and are trusted by customers that return time and time again.

“It is fun," Sharon said. "We have been here for quite a while. We have a lot of really good, loyal customers. Like any small business, a lot of ups and downs with the economy. But we really like what we do.”

The Flower Basket

• Address: 117 Church St.
• Phone: 815-485-7369
• Website: www.​theflowerbasketonline.​com
• Patch Places: See our business directory listing .