Palmer Flowers

Palmer Flowers was founded in 1976 by Spiro Palmer with an initial location at College Ave. and Olive St. in Old Town Fort Collins. In 1983 Palmer Flowers moved to their first state of the art building near College Ave. and Horsetooth Rd., just west of their current home. Palmer Flowers then expanded through the acquisition of Paul Wood Florist in 2010, merger with Front Range Flowers in 2015 (which created Palmer Flowers Loveland) and the purchase of Cottonwood Florist in Greeley in 2022 (creating Palmer Flowers Greeley).

In 2014 Spiro Palmer sold majority interest in Palmer Flowers to five long-time employees: Michelle Adams, Patsy Deines, Susan Stockwell, Sue Wambeke-Charles, and Lisa Stadele. Two more employee owners, Tim and Danielle Jordan were added with the merger with Front Range Flowers the following year, bringing the current ownership group to seven.

Today Palmer Flowers is the largest retail florist in Northern Colorado with four locations. The company has 110-120 employees year round, rising to 200 during the busy wedding season. Palmer Flowers prides itself on offering every single commercially available flower to customers and works directly with growers to obtain fresher flowers, allowing for Palmer's freshness guarantee.

Character

While he is no longer part of the company's day-to-day operations, Spiro Palmer's values are the core of how Palmer Flowers operates today. Hard work, excellence, customer service, innovation, and creativity are all highly valued and expected of the leadership and staff. To ensure the leadership stays committed to those values, blind surveys of employees and one-on-one check in meetings are conducted throughout the year.

The leadership team also exhibits a high degree of trust amongst themselves, which was built through the process of transitioning to employee ownership and the merger with Front Range Flowers. Taking the company from a single owner to seven over the course of less than two years required the building of significant trust between both longtime and new employees.

Culture

The leadership team at Palmer strives to take a "say yes" attitude to employee suggestions, taking each suggestion seriously and looking for ways to make it happen rather than reasons to say no. When the niece of a long-time employee was diagnosed with cancer, employees started an initiative, with the full support of leadership, to sell paper cranes to raise money to donate to the family.

A testament to Palmer Flower's positive culture comes not just from the long tenure of many employees or the consistently positive exit interviews, but also the number of employees that return to the company for multiple stints. Palmer Flowers also recently added a human resource coordinator to help formalize onboarding and employee relations as well as establish reporting procedures.

Customers

Palmer Flowers president Tim Jordan sees their role almost as a utility, a necessary service to the community. People buy flowers for some of the most emotional and significant moments in their life from marriage to their soulmate to the birth of a child to the death of a loved one. Palmer Flowers takes seriously its responsibility in providing the largest range of the freshest flowers possible for these occasions.

This was especially apparent right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the limits on large gatherings immediately shut down Palmer's wedding and event business, people soon realized that sending flowers was one of the best ways to physically connect with loved ones during a period of social distancing and isolation. Palmer was able to quickly pivot to delivering bouquets and arrangements, helping people maintain those connections and relationships.

Community

As the market leader in the floral industry in Northern Colorado, Palmer Flowers takes seriously its commitment to community organizations. Palmer has partnered with BBB Accredited Charity Respite Care Inc. for over 30 years. The company does everything it can to respond to every request for donations or support, trying to provide something even if it cannot fulfill the specific request.

Palmer has also supported sustainability efforts, particularly in helping to grow the Northern Colorado flower growing industry. It was not that long ago that virtually all of Palmer Flowers inventory came from overseas, and needed to be shipped quickly for freshness. Now during the local growing season, Palmer can source about 65% of their stock from Northern Colorado growers. This supports the local economy as well as significantly reducing the environmental impact of Palmer's business.