Flowers for Freeport, IL

Freeport wears its history out loud. This is the Pretzel City — the high school teams still carry the name — and Debate Square downtown marks where Lincoln and Douglas held the second of their 1858 debates, the one where Douglas gave the answer that cost him the presidency. That downtown, walkable and low-slung along the Pecatonica River, still sets the center of gravity for the town's flowers: county-seat offices, the historic streets around Stephenson, and the churches that host most of the season's weddings and funerals. Two institutions do the heavy lifting on the delivery calendar. FHN Memorial Hospital on West Stephenson Street pulls the steady stream of get-well and new-baby arrangements, and Highland Community College out on the west edge adds graduation and congratulations orders every spring.

Other Illinois cities.