‘We take extra care’: Carol Stream family-owned flower shop delivers arrangements with a personal touch

For students attending Glenbard North and West Chicago high schools, Oct. 4 is a red-letter date on the calendar.

Both schools have scheduled their homecoming dances for that night.

As they have for decades, John Gul and his small staff at Fresh & Silk Flowers, 578 Army Trail Road in Carol Stream, will be ready for the rush.

Gul, as in “gull,” estimated that up to 200 of the company’s corsages and boutonnières will adorn West Chicago and Glenbard North students as they head out to their homecoming celebrations.

The florist’s full-time designer and two part-time designers, one being Gul’s wife of 56 years, Joslyn, will have them looking sharp.

“We are very hands-on, and we are so customer-oriented,” said John Gul, who by 11 a.m. on a recent day had already delivered six orders.

Four more deliveries were scheduled that same afternoon in the Fresh & Silk Flowers van he called “a traveling billboard.” It’s painted fire-engine red with flower details.

“We really take a lot of pride in doing things ourselves and getting them done correctly,” said Gul, who can arrange for international deliveries to be made within a couple days.

Fresh & Silk Flowers celebrated its 30th anniversary under Gul’s ownership this past Mother’s Day, one of the company’s two busiest times of year. The other is Valentine’s Day.

A former assistant manager at Santa’s Village in East Dundee, he simply was looking for a profitable business, florist or otherwise. The former shop owner, who operated Fresh & Silk Flowers under the same name for six years, naturally said it made money.

“I have a marketing and retail background so it was just a matter of walking in,” Gul said.

After Gul took over, he tripled his business due to a more amiable touch with customers than his predecessor.

“He didn’t understand the concept of repeat business,” said Gul, whose son, David, is a partner and another son, Scott, helps with deliveries at the busiest times.

“We always try to go the extra mile because we’re family owned, so we take extra care,” said Joslyn Gul.

The shop’s celebrity clients have included Steve Martin, Chuck Norris, William Shatner, Kiss’ Paul Stanley, Henry Winkler and the comedic magicians Penn & Teller.

Picking up a multitude of boxes once a week from the airport, where the company’s flowers arrive from Ecuador and Columbia, the couple and their staff clean the stems and place them in lukewarm water for a day “so they drink water and last longer.”

As a pro tip, Gul said new stems respond better to water that is lukewarm, not cold. He cautioned that freshly cut flower stems must be placed in water within 20 seconds or oxygen seals the cuts and reduces the flowers’ ability to take water.

Fresh & Silk Flowers goes through some 500 roses in a week, he said. And while in 1995 silk flowers comprised about 30% of his business, today it’s around 2%.

“We still do them and we do a really good job with them, but they’re not as meaningful as they used to be,” he said.

New tariffs have driven up his costs about 12%, he said, but the company has held its pricing.

“The consumers have got it difficult enough these days. We can handle it,” Gul said.

Fresh & Silk Flowers also offers floral-themed paper weights, scented oils and oil lamps, vases, balloons for special events, and the Ty line of stuffed “Beanie Babies” and the larger “Beanie Boos.”

“A lot of men, sometimes women, want that extra item,” Gul said.

Over his 30 years owning Fresh & Silk Flowers, Gul went from not caring much what business he owned, to caring a lot.

“This is almost a love of the business,” he said. “I have an example: You’re a UPS driver. You take a box to a person’s house, and you’re done. And I’m sure the person appreciates the delivery.

“However, if you deliver flowers to that same person, you have the smile on the face, the thank you. Sometimes, depending on the situation, you have the customer crying at the door, knowing that their husband or boyfriend didn’t forget things,” Gul said.

“There’s a definite realization that I made somebody happy.”