If you’ve ordered flowers at Boesen the Florist’s 3801 Ingersoll Ave. store, there’s a good chance you know Lee Donnellan.

Ever since he joined the company 20 years ago, he’s worked at the flower shop’s front counter, taking orders for many of Des Moines’ best-known residents.

“(The Boesens) wanted me to be on the front and get to know the customers,” said Donnellan, who earlier in his career worked as a floral designer. “So that’s what I’ve been doing.”

The 50-year-old, family-owned company hasn’t had many non-family members other than Donnellan reach 20 years of service. Last Thursday, the company scheduled a going-away party for him at the Ingersoll store.

“This party really just reflects Lee,” said Tom Boesen, one of the owners. “He wanted to have it at the flower shop. He not only wanted the employees; he wanted some of his customers to come as well.” The guest list included about 100 people.

The best retirement parties are geared to the personality and wishes of the person who’s retiring, say Boesen and other managers of companies that provide services for retirement parties.

Catered retirement parties are usually organized by a spouse rather than the company, said Marcus Christiani, general manager of Christiani’s VIP Catering Service Inc.

Many of the dinners are traditional affairs and run on the formal side, but there’s room for originality.

“I did a retirement not too long ago where the lady wanted a ‘Survivor’ theme to her party: tiki torches, Japanese lanterns, things you’d find in the South Pacific,” Christiani said. “That was definitely an original approach. Most of the time they want it to be more elegant.”

When companies fete a longtime employee at retirement, gold watches still appear to be fairly popular.   “I think it’s been pretty steady over the years,” said Pam Bonta, assistant manager at Greenberg Jewelry Co.’s Valley West Mall store. “We have one company that will buy four or five watches at a time and then have them engraved.”

On average, the gold watches bought for gifts are pretty nice, Bonta said. The companies buying them usually spend about $150 per watch, she said.   Who does the best job honoring their retiring employees? It’s the tightly knit organizations such as fire departments, police departments, schools, state agencies and the military, said Dave Fertig, owner of Awards Program Services Inc. in Des Moines.

“And usually it’s fellow employees getting together to purchase something,” he said.

Retirement plaques aren’t very popular with businesses as gifts to employees, particularly for top managers or executives.

“At that level of business and industry, they are extremely conservative,” Fertig said.

Fertig said he tries to promote more creative items to businesses, though many still err on the cheap side.

“When a company wants to spend only $5 for an item for 25 years of service, that makes me nuts,” he said. “Yet I can’t argue about it with the customers. Possibly it’s because the employees only saw that person once or twice each three or four months.”