Spring and Easter are on full display in our stores, as evidenced by these photos from our Hershey location.
Signs of the season
Category: Flowers
Valentine’s Day survival guide: 5 tips
Love is all around at Valentine’s Day, but you never want to take matters of the heart for granted.
Our survival guide is here to help, before, during and after the holiday. And it’ll help you whether you’re giving or receiving flowers — or both.
SHOP EARLY
One of the keys to a successful Valentine’s Day is not forgetting that it is Valentine’s Day. Order your flowers early and even have them delivered early. This way, you’ll be sure to stay ahead of any snowstorms, and the recipient will just have longer to enjoy the flowers.
What’s more, Royer’s offers a special incentive: Have your Valentine’s Day order delivered Feb. 12 or earlier, and the delivery will include a coupon for a free dozen-rose bunch redeemable in March.
SHOP LOCALLY
The big national retailers will spend a lot of time and money bombarding you with their offers, but you’ll get the most bang for your bouquet when you purchase it from a local florist. Don’t take our word for it, though. Just watch this story from NBC News.
don’t let the ‘dogs’ out
Be wary of “deceptive order gatherers,” or DOGs, that often make it look like they are local florists but aren’t. They might even be located out of state. And if they sink their teeth into your order, they’ll take an unnecessary bite out of your wallet. Click here for details on why you will want to avoid them.
PICK YOUR PRICE POINTS
It’s the thought that counts, so you don’t have to spend a lot to show that you care about someone. In this Fox 43 Morning News appearance, we offer five options for below $50.
handle with care
Given proper amounts of water and cool-enough temperatures, high-quality roses from a local florist can last a week or longer. Just follow these easy steps.
With these tips, you’re not just going to survive Valentine’s Day, but you’re going to thrive.
And what’s not to love about that?
How to care for fresh-cut roses
We’re on a mission to turn Valentine’s Day into Valentine’s Week.
No, we’re not talking about a loved one having to send you flowers for seven days in a row. Rather, we want to make sure that you get a week’s worth of enjoyment out of those beautiful fresh-cut roses you just received.
With just a little bit of effort on your part, high-quality roses from your local florist should open and last at least five days, and many times for seven days or more.
If you receive roses in a vase
- They will use more water than you think, so add water pretty much daily.
- If after five days or so the water is getting pretty dirty, pull the roses out, re-cut the stems and put them back in the vase with fresh water. Add a packet of floral preservative, available from your florist.
- If the water is relatively clean, it is best to leave it alone as it will have some preservative left in it.
If you receive roses loose or in a box
- If the roses came with tubes on the stems, remove the tubes and re-cut the stems about 1 inch from the bottom. It is best to cut at an angle, which creates more surface area for water intake.
- Place the roses in a vase with water that is room temperature to a little warm.
- Add floral preservative to the water; you should have received a packet with the delivery.
- Only change the water if it becomes noticeably dirty.
If your roses don’t begin to open
- Within a day or two, your roses should begin to open. If they don’t, remove them from the vase, re-cut the stems (at an angle), and return them to the vase.
- If they still do not begin to open, re-cut the stems but this time also float the flowers in a bath of water for an hour or two to rehydrate them. Then return them to the vase. Most times, this will bring the roses around.
Keep them cool
- Keep roses away from a heat source, such as a vent or direct sunlight.
- When they aren’t on display, or while you’re sleeping, you can even place the roses in an unheated room or garage.
Here’s to a Happy Valentine’s Day or, better yet, Valentine’s Week.
We’re in South America getting your Valentine’s Day flowers
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and so are your roses.
Royer’s is on site in Colombia, South America, where our flowers are being cut, processed and shipped for delivery to our Lebanon distribution center. This hands-on approach ensures the highest quality product will be in our stores and delivered to homes and businesses throughout Valentine’s Week.
Processing roses
Packing roses
Roses in cooler
Automatic rose grader
Roses on racks, ready for processing
Barry talks Thanksgiving flowers and Christmas wreaths with Fox 43 Morning News
Before his latest appearance on Fox 43, Barry Spengler stopped at a drugstore for a bottle of hairspray.
It wasn’t an act of vanity. Rather, Barry brought it to the TV studio as a prop for his visit with Fox 43’s Amanda McCall.
She introduced Barry, Royer’s vice president of operations, by noting: “The food certainly is important, but don’t forget the Thanksgiving centerpiece.”
Barry brought two centerpieces, including a small one made in a wicker basket that looked like a turkey and a larger one to show how simple it is to convert from Thanksgiving to Christmas use.
If you’re visiting for Thanksgiving, Barry recommended loose flowers as a hostess gift.
“This always works,” he said. “It works like a champ.”
If you’re the recipient of loose flowers, Barry suggested creating a tape grid — essentially an X across the opening of your vase — to support the flowers.
As for the hairspray, it’s Barry’s not-so-secret tip for making Christmas wreaths last longer. It acts like glue to hold the wreath together and gives it a nice sheen.
“It will glue it together,” he said. “It will make (the wreath) last so much nicer. It won’t get that brown hue as fast. It will hold up so much nicer against the wind and the sun and all that.”
You can watch the full segment here:
Fox 43 Morning News features Royer’s annual children’s book drive
You might say that Fox 43 Morning News carved out some time to talk about Halloween and, more so, Royer’s annual children’s book drive.
Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, joined host Chris Garrett to discuss “Bouquets for Books,” which returns for its ninth year Nov. 1-8. In its first eight years, the book drive collected more than 12,400 new children’s books for area public libraries.
Customers who donate a new children’s book will receive a free bouquet, up to three per family per visit. Barry explained that the book drive kicks off Saturday with a Royer’s Kids Club event, open to ages 5 to 12 in all stores.
Barry also showcased an assortment of Halloween arrangements.
You can view the entire segment by clicking here.
Introducing your rewards program: Petal Perks
Research shows the emotional and behavioral benefits associated with flowers and plants. Having them around your home or office is a great way to keep your spirits bright as daylight dwindles.
You’ll get another lift from our new customer rewards program: Petal Perks.
We included Petal Perks cards in our fall catalog. If you didn’t receive one, you can pick one up at any of our stores.
With Petal Perks, customers earn one point for each penny they spend and 300 points for each order they place: every 15,000 points earns a $5 discount on a future purchase.
Petal Perks applies to all purchases, whether made in store, online or on the phone. What’s more, points don’t expire as long as you make at least two purchases annually.
Here you’ll find complete details about Petal Perks.
So with winter fast approaching, be sure to keep plenty of flowers and plants around. They’ll help you perk up, and you can get the most out of Petal Perks.
The making of our fall catalog
Our 40-page fall catalog arrived in tens of thousands of mailboxes in October. (If you didn’t receive one, you can pick up a copy at any of our stores.)
With each of our catalogs, we change approximately 20 percent of the product lineup. Ultimately, it’s our customers who determine which arrangements stay in the lineup over the long haul.
How an arrangement makes it into the menu is an exhaustive process. It’s a long way from auditioning for a role to walking the red carpet, in other words.
Weak-selling arrangements are removed, or they are redesigned to give them a more current look. Sometimes an arrangement is discontinued because its container is no longer available.
Once we know how many items are being removed, we begin developing the new items. Inspiration comes from visiting other florists; from walking through gift trade shows in Atlanta and Dallas; from visiting container suppliers to spot trends in colors and styles.
Some of the ideas come from previous holiday selections. If a Mother’s Day item sells out early, for instance, we know there is strong customer demand for it, and it could get into the lineup.
Flower growers are part of the process, too, as we constantly seek out new suppliers. They must be able to provide premium product on a consistent basis. Currently, we are testing flowers from Ethiopia.
In late May, a small team pulls together new containers, flowers and ideas in order to develop new arrangement concepts.
Value engineered
Once we have the concepts, a team of designers turns them into actual arrangements, collaborating on some items or coming up with their own interpretations on others.
We buy flowers in all varieties and colors to keep our lineup fresh and interesting for our customers and designers alike. We also want flowers that we know will be available for at least a year.
With the arrangements made, the original group reconvenes in June/July to make final selections.
The arrangements are “value engineered” to give the best value to our customers. Perhaps better-priced flowers or containers can be used without upsetting the integrity of the designs.
Finally, the approved arrangements are professionally photographed for inclusion in the catalog.
And now it’s in the hands of our customers, who will vote with their pocketbooks and ultimately determine which arrangements stay in our lineup.
We get your homecoming going on Fox 43
It was a sort of homecoming for our Barry Spengler, making his first appearance on Fox 43 Morning News in a number of months.
But Barry was there to talk about a different kind of homecoming: the high school dance kind.
Joining Fox 43’s Heather Warner, Barry showed some of the bling and accents that are popular these days.
Homecoming, he said, tends to be less formal.
“It’s not like prom,” he said “You can go a little bit over the top. It’s cool.”
Other highlights:
- Not all girls go to homecoming with a date but rather attend with a group of girlfriends. Parents can make it special by getting “a little something” for them, Barry said, holding a small wrist corsage.
- For guys who want to make a really good impression: While you’re getting a corsage for your date, try also bringing a single rose for her mother.
“You’ll score some huge points,” Barry said, “that or just a little bouquet for the hand. Big points.”
5 things you should know about caring for annual plants
So you bought annual plants in a container at your local florist, garden center or home-improvement store.
Annual plants – such as petunias, geraniums and begonias that complete their life cycles in one year – pose perennial challenges once you bring them home.
Here are five things you should know about caring for your annuals:
1. You have to add nutrients: Your plant didn’t come in nutrient-rich soil. Rather, it’s a potting mix that includes peat moss. This mixture is inert, meaning that it doesn’t contain the nutrients found in soil. So you have to add the nutrients by applying fertilizer on a regular basis.
2. Fertilizer is soluble, so you have to keep adding it: Regular watering of your annual plants will wash out the added nutrients if the container has drainage holes on the bottom.
3. Don’t add too much fertilizer: One of the ingredients in fertilizer is salt. Too much fertilizer – and with it, too much salt – can damage plant roots. The salt in the fertilizer will remove whatever moisture is left in the roots and burn them.
4. Cut the amount in half: Whatever dosage the fertilizer manufacturer recommends, consider cutting the amount in half and fertilizing every time you water. This way you have less of a chance of burning the roots, and your plant gets a continual supply of nutrients rather than peaks and valleys.
5. Give them a pinch: Remove the old blooms and pinch a plant’s tips, which will force out new growth. An occasional light trim will keep a plant bushy and blooming.
With proper care, your annual plants will bloom beautifully for you this summer.