Thirty-five years ago, on November 1st, 1988, Ilene Gilberston opened Flowers on Main in the building that now houses Spoke-n-Sport. After working in the aerospace industry in California, Ilene moved to the Midwest, her husband’s home. Without much opportunity to continue in the aerospace field in rural South Dakota, Ilene turned to flowers. “They smell great. People love them. What can go wrong with that?” She shared about her journey, “I winged it. I found a place, that was small at first and just did it from the heart and gut. We learned from our mistakes and continued to grow. It’s always a learning process. You never get too old to learn.”
Now, Ilene is passing her knowledge on to a new owner, Brianna Munoz, who is also a transplant to South Dakota. Brianna has been at Flowers on Main for over a year and a half but before that, she was in the Marine Corps Band and started her flower journey in Virginia. “I worked for a floral event business, weddings, and things like that throughout the DC area. When my husband finished his time in the military, Brookings was his hometown, so we ended up here.”
Ilene has strong confidence in Brianna. “She has so much energy, great ideas, and is enthusiastic about the flower world.” Brianna is feeling the pressure though. “I have big shoes to fill. Flowers on Main does so much through town, whether through the hospital, seasonal roping, funeral arrangements, cemetery memorials, and the college.” Speaking of holiday roping, the shop goes through over 6000 feet of roping a year, over a mile! Ilene will stay on with the business to help with seasonal transitions. “That’s one of the things I will help Brianna transition into. All those holiday traditions I’ve done for customers for so many years; they don’t even think about calling for them. I just show up and do it year after year!”
Behind teary eyes, Ilene tried to pinpoint a favorite memory. “I don’t have just one favorite. The best times are when someone makes a special trip to come in and say the flowers they sent or received were perfect and they appreciate you being here. It makes all the bad times worthwhile.” Brianna agreed, “Sometimes it can get so busy and hectic. You can be at your max level of stress for the day and someone comes in with a kind word and all that stress melts away. You think, ‘Alright, I can do this!’”