Petal pushing by Kimiko Martinez

Petal pushing

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October 6, 2005 Petal pushing Kimiko learns how to wield her flower power. By Kimiko L. Martinez kimiko.martinez@intakeweekly.com Nothing makes me smile like Gerbera daisies. I mean, flowers in general will make most any girl's day. Tulips, lilies, orchids -- I love them all. But there's just something about Gerberas that makes you wanna grin. Knowing how I (and most of the population) feel about flowers, I thought it'd be fun to deliver flowers for a day. What could be more enjoyable than brightening someone's day, all day, right? 9 a.m., Coby Palmer Designs, 2376 E. 54th St. When I arrive at 9 a.m., Coby Palmer has already been to the market and has the day's deliveries spread out on a desk with the order and a map stapled to each. He's busy working on an arrangement. We'll have a couple of stops Downtown before we head north

Everything's coming up roses: INtake reporter Kimiko Martinez replaces flower vases at McCormick and Schmick's restaurant, 110 N. Illinois St., as part of her daylong stint working as a flower delivery person. She traveled by van with Blake Palmer, 29, and Jeff Peterson, 25, of Coby Palmer Designs, 2376 E 54th St., to various homes and businesses. -Michelle Pemberton / INtake

around lunchtime. Blake Palmer, 29, and Jeff Peterson, 25, start loading the van for the two Downtown deliveries. We make a quick stop to drop off two centerpieces at the Lilly Endowment office (literally just handing them off to the guard), before heading to the Hilton. The van is freezing, partially because Blake Palmer likes to keep cool and partly because it's better for the flowers. 9:45 a.m., McCormick & Schmick's We park in the loading dock behind the Hilton and navigate our way through a couple of winding hallways and a kitchen before ending up in the dining room of McCormick & Schmick's. "It's like a maze sometimes," Palmer said. It takes a good half-hour or so to collect the vases from each table, toss the wilting orchids, dump the water and refill them with fresh flowers. Palmer cuts the stems at an angle with a sharp knife and plucks off the bottom blossom before plopping it back into clean water.

About this job • Salary range: From $8 to $10 per hour. • Job requirements: Driver's license with a good driving record. • Best part of the job: Freedom and independence. Since you're constantly out and about, you can listen to your own music and sort of do your own thing while out on the road. • Worst part of the job: Getting there isn't always as easy as it should be. Navigating through

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Petal pushing

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Most of the orchids still look pretty healthy after a week, but some are starting to droop and wilt, so it's a good thing we're there to change them. Palmer and Peterson water a couple of the other plants, and we're back through the maze to the van. We grab a quick cup of coffee and a Krispy Kreme doughnut at 7-Eleven before heading back to the shop. It's already almost 11 a.m. by the time we walk through the back door, and Coby Palmer has about six vases sitting on

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construction, country roads and back alleys for deliveries can take a lot longer than expected. • Perks: Getting to see some really cool places -exclusive country clubs, penthouse apartments and celebrity homes.

the back table that are ready to be loaded. Coby Palmer reviews a handful of order slips that are laying on the desk before we start loading the van. We're to head to Community North Hospital first. Blake Palmer stays behind to help clean roses and finish preparing for a couple of other big deliveries. An order for 52 centerpieces has to be delivered, as well as a funeral arrangement. "It's a fairly busy day," Coby Palmer said. 11:15 a.m., Northside deliveries It's a decent drive from Palmer's shop, next door to Marco's Restaurant on 54th Street, to Community North. Much of the

What they wish you knew • It's tiring: It may not seem like an intense job, but being on the road all the time can certainly lead to a driving coma. • You've gotta like your own company: It's good to be friendly, because you do interact with other people during the day. But a big bulk of the time is spent alone while traveling from place to place.

job is pretty quiet, Peterson said, on the road from one place to another. Both Palmer and Peterson say it's one of the best parts of the job, just hanging out, listening to music and doing your own thing while on the road. If I were alone, I guarantee I'd have the radio on full blast or my hands-free set hooked up so I could chat with friends while on these half-hour treks to Carmel and Westfield. "I know this city like the back of my hand," said Peterson, who's had this delivery job for several years now. "And I've delivered all over. Everywhere." He has set up flowers for events at some super-exclusive country clubs and for celebrities like Larry Bird. At Community North, we hand the flowers to a volunteer at an information desk, sign the delivery log and take off again. We're in and out within five minutes. But getting to our next destination, a home in a gated community, takes about 10 minutes. Fifteen, if you count pulling up to the wrong gate and having to back out and drive to the next one. But that sort of stuff happens a lot. We're afraid no one's going to be home, but a woman comes to the door and smiles. "It's my birthday," she says, taking the vase. At the next house, we're not so lucky. The flowers are for a girl's 11th birthday. The weather is nice, so we leave the flowers by the front door. Peterson gives the family a courtesy call to let them know we've left the arrangement on the porch, and we're off to another hospital. It seems like 90 percent of this job is really just getting from one place to another.

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Petal pushing

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"It can be a pain in the butt, when you've got to drive from Carmel or Westfield or Noblesville all the way down to someplace like Greenwood," Peterson said, "then back to the shop and out to Avon or somewhere like that." But it's all just part of the job. After dropping another arrangement off at St. Vincent's Hospital, we head further north for a home delivery. There's some massive road construction going on near the housing community we're trying to get to, and we're stopped for a good five or six minutes before we make a U-turn and try another route. The next street is blocked too, so we turn around and try again. Construction detours about double the delivery time to this address, but we make the drop and head to Carmel High School for the final stop before heading back to the shop. It's almost 1:30 p.m. by the time we finish that load. Blake Palmer is heading out with a van full of flowers as we pull in. That much driving has made me sleepy. And there was significantly less face-to-face interaction than I'd expected, but the people we did see (even the hospital volunteers) were all friendly and seemed happy to see us. There were only a couple of Gerberas in the arrangements, but people were smiling all the same.

2/25/2009 11:23 AM