Palmer Florist is one of Joliet’s oldest locally owned small businesses. The business has been impacted by the spread of the coronavirus. (John Ferak/Patch) Eighty percent of the flowers sold at Palmer Florist in Joliet come from Ecuador. (Photo by John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor) Eighty percent of the flowers sold at Palmer Florist in Joliet come from Ecuador. (Image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch ) Palmer Florist is not allowing walk-in customer traffic during the new coronavirus outbreak. (John Ferak/Patch) (John Ferak/Patch) Eighty percent of the flowers sold at Palmer Florist in Joliet come from Ecuador. (Photo by John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor) Eighty percent of the flowers sold at Palmer Florist in Joliet come from Ecuador. (Image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch ) Palmer Florist is not allowing walk-in customer traffic during the new coronavirus outbreak. (John Ferak/Patch) (John Ferak/Patch) JOLIET, IL —Easter Sunday is just days away and that means Palmer Florist, one of Joliet’s longest running small family businesses, is usually delivering beautiful floral arrangements to several of Joliet’s Roman Catholic churches. Not this year. As has been the case for the past few weeks, Joliet’s churches will remain empty on Easter Sunday because of the new coronavirus outbreak. Funeral homes have also had to dramatically scale back their services. Many small businesses throughout Joliet remain shut down temporarily. Palmer Florist has been in Joliet since 1923. The third-generation small business has been at 1327 N. Raynor Ave. since 1964. Paul Palmer has run the business since 1978. He is like the unofficial mayor of Raynor Avenue. When he stands in his parking lot, several motorists who approach the stop sign in front of his business yell hello or engage in small talk with him if there aren’t any other cars coming. People walking along Raynor Avenue […]