skip to main content

Extending the Life of your Spring Bulbs

Even after the Easter Bunny has visited and the last eggs are hunted, Easter bulbs – such as daffodils (narcissus), hyacinths, and tulips will bring beauty and color into your home. In fact, you can make the flowers last a lot longer by following these few tips.

The key to making the blooms last longer is to keep the plants in a cool place, such as your garage or porch. For smaller plants, such as a single-bloom hyacinth, finding space in your refrigerator will work just as well. This will stall the normal aging process, extending the life of the blooms.

Keeping your bulbs in a cool place overnight or while at work will help extend the life of your bloom and allow for maximum enjoyment when you are at home. Not all bulbs are freeze tolerant so keep temperatures in mind, especially overnight.

Like any living plant, it’s also important to keep the plants watered. Most bulbs like to be watered at soil level rather than overhead. Do not overwater, the soil should not be saturated at all times.

After your bulb plants have finished blooming, let the plant die back into itself. Allowing the leaves to yellow and wither before removing will help nourish the bulb for the following year by. Keep in mind this is different from deadheading the bloom which can be beneficial to bulb growth. Keep the bulb in its pot and store in a cool, dark place. In early fall, separate the bulbs and plant them in your garden in anticipation of their blooming again next spring. Be mindful that some bulbs will not come back depending on climates, among other reasons, following these tips does not guarantee that your bulbs will bloom again.

The making of our Easter Centerpiece


It’s known in our catalog as item No. 4109, but many numbers go into the making of our Easter Centerpiece.
There’s 10, the number of baker fern. Seven lavender daisy pompons. And five heads of purple statice.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Easter without four glitter eggs, in addition to the arrangement’s other elements.
The accompanying photos show one of our central design teams handcrafting the Easter Centerpiece, no doubt making one just for you!
To order an Easter Centerpiece for yourself or to send to someone else, please click here.

We’re putting our best ‘Bunny Face’ forward with free kids club event March 25

Bunny Face 2
Bunny Face, I love you. Bunny Face, I need you.
If you’re between the ages of 5 and 12, you can make your own Bunny Face to bring home for Easter.
The Royer’s Kids Club will play host to a free kids club event March 25 in all stores. Besides making a carnation bunny, participants will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling your nearest Royer’s store.

Royer’s Kids Club gets head start on Easter with free event March 12

croppedRoyer'sEaster4100
Royer’s stores will be hoppin’ on March 12. An egg-cellent time is sure to be had by all.
The Royer’s Kids Club is getting a head start on the Easter Bunny with a free event in all Royer’s stores. Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a special Easter arrangement and will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Registration is required by calling your nearest Royer’s store.

Fox 43: spring and Easter flowers

Fox 43 Morning News' Amy Lutz and Royer's Barry Spengler.
Fox 43 Morning News’ Amy Lutz and Royer’s Barry Spengler.

It was another egg-cellent visit to Fox 43 Morning News for Barry Spengler, our vice president of operations. He joined host Amy Lutz to discuss spring and Easter flowers and plants.
“Winter’s kind of getting out of the way,” Barry said, “and let’s get some spring.”
Among the highlights:

  • With hyacinth and tulips, the plants sometimes are immature when you get them. Just give them three to five days to develop. “Don’t be afraid of them,” Barry said, “… you’ll see them open up in the home. So just be patient.”
  • Unlike in the fall, a mum this time of year is not a hardy mum. “So enjoy it inside, you can put it on your porch for the summer,” Barry said. “But don’t put it in the ground, it will die for next year.”
  • Easter lilies and calla lilies offer a nice fragrance and can be planted outside but should be kept in a protected area, such as near your home.
  • With bulb plants, once their blooms are “shot,” let the foliage die back into the bulb. This will provide nutrients that will strengthen the bulb. “Over the summer, you can just let that dry in the pot, plant it in the fall, and you’ll see them next year,” Barry said.

Here’s the entire segment:

Photos from another egg-cellent kids club event


Things really got hopping at our March 14 Royer’s Kids Club event, as evidenced by these photos from our West York store.
We had a great turnout as the kids made carnation Easter bunnies.
We certainly had a terrific time, and we look forward to more fun down the bunny trail as we have three more kids club events this year:

  • June 20: Help us kick off our annual food drive, “Royer’s Stems Hunger,” and enter our kids club birthday card design contest.
  • Aug. 22: Summer vacation is coming to an end, so we’re going to help ease you back to school.
  • Oct. 31: It’s Halloween, so be sure to wear your costume as we celebrate the holiday and kick off our annual “Bouquets for Books” children’s book drive to benefit area public libraries.

We’ll share more details closer to each event, of course.
In the meantime, we wish you and your family a Happy Easter!

Put our free March 14 kids club event in your Easter basket

Easter fun is just a hop, skip and jump away for Royer’s Kids Club participants.
Kids Club Spring 2015 #2
On March 14, children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to create a carnation bunny, complete with greens, an egg-and-ribbon stick-in, and pipe cleaners (for ears).
Participants also will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. at all of our 16 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
Admission is free but registration is required by calling your nearest store.
Click here for locations and contact information.

How the lily became a symbol of Easter and other floral facts about the holiday

Photo: Matt H. Wade
Photo: Matt H. Wade

Numerous accounts identify her as Mrs. Thomas Sargent, a resident of Philadelphia who visited Bermuda in the 1880s. Smitten by the lilies she saw there, she brought lily bulbs home with her.
She gave some of them to a local nurseryman named William Harris, “who began growing them, forcing them into spring bloom, and selling to other florists,” writes Leonard Perry, an extension professor at the University of Vermont. “Many began buying this flower for Easter, as they do today, with it symbolizing the Resurrection.”
“Forcing” bulbs – as we described in this post about hyacinths – is the means by which light and temperature can be manipulated in order to control the rate at which a plant grows. In most parts of the United States, lilies naturally would bloom in the summer – weeks after Easter.
Some other facts about Easter lilies:

  • Flowering and green houseplants (46 percent) account for the biggest chunk of Easter/Passover floral sales. Lilies (52 percent) account for most flowering houseplant sales. (aboutflowers.com)
  • Lilies are considered highly toxic to cats. The Society of American Florists recommends keeping lilies out of the reach of cats as ingesting even small amounts of the plant can cause kidney failure. Lilies do not pose a problem for other pets or humans. (aboutflowers.com)
  • In the home, Easter lilies prefer moderately cool temperatures (recommended 60 to 65 degrees during the day, slightly cooler at night). They thrive near a window in bright, indirect natural daylight. (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension)
  • Pennsylvania is among the states that produce the most potted Easter lilies. (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension)