With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, NBC’s “Today” put three national floral delivery services to the test. The results weren’t always pretty, with “Today” concluding that what customers received didn’t always match what they ordered from the 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora and FTD websites.
In the clip above, “Today” consults with a flower expert on the subject of getting the most bang for your buck.
The takeaway? Shop a local florist.
In his introduction, “Today” correspondent Jeff Rossen said: “Here’s tip No. 1: Experts say call your local florist. Most of them deliver. You can say to them, ‘What flowers are fresh today?’ You have that personal communication, so experts say you’re more likely to get what you pay for.”
Love is in the air. And don’t you forget it.
Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, visited Fox 43 today to remind viewers that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. In fact, it’s just one week away.
“With this ugly weather, everybody’s hankering for some spring,” Barry told Fox 43’s Amanda McCall. “This is a way to do it. So don’t forget Valentine’s Day.”
Barry quashed the notion that Valentine’s Day flowers have to involve big bucks. He got to the heart of the matter with five options for below $50 each:
1. Single rose: $5; “So let’s say it’s a father looking for Mom, a couple kids … . That happens a lot,” Barry said.
2. Flower handful: $5 to $10; “Some people are a little less traditional. They like tulips. We sell a lot of tulips over the holiday.”
3. Single rose with bear: $15 to $18; “Really cute. That’s a great thing for a kid, as well.”
4. Mixed bunch: $15 to $20; Barry noted that these easily can be dropped in a vase: “Most people have vases around the house.”
5. Dozen rainbow roses: $40; “They’re just mixed-color roses. We put them in a vase. We do have a little better price than red roses because [the non-red] colors are a little less expensive at this holiday.”
As an added bonus, Barry noted, Royer’s is offering an incentive to encourage customers to have their Valentine’s Day orders delivered by Feb. 13: The recipient will get a coupon for a free dozen-rose bouquet.
We hope to see your family at Saturday’s Royer’s Kids Club event. But even if you can’t make it, you will have four other opportunities to join us throughout 2014.
Be sure to mark your calendars for these dates and event themes:
March 15: St. Patrick’s Day
June 21: Royer’s Stems Hunger (food drive)
Aug. 23: Back to school
Nov. 1: Bouquets for Books (book drive)
Registration is required for all events, which take place on Saturdays and are open to children ages 5 to 12. Typically we offer sessions at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
To keep up on the latest kids club news and events, join the club by clicking here.
See you soon!
If you’re Fox 43 Morning News and you want to talk about Thanksgiving flower and gift trends, you know that Barry Spengler is happy to oblige.
Barry, Royer’s vice president of operations and a regular guest on Fox 43, shared ideas for centerpieces, giftware and hostess gifts with Heather Warner. You can view the segment by clicking here.
Photos from Barry’s appearance:
Carnation turkey centerpiece
Fox 43’s Heather Warner and Royer’s Barry Spengler.
Traditional centerpiece
Ceramic turkey centerpiece
Barry Spengler, right, getting his microphone set before Fox 43 Morning News segment.
Our annual “Bouquets for Books” event runs Nov. 1-9, and our stores are ready to accept your donations of new children’s books to benefit area public libraries.
Take a look at the creative displays that we’ve come up with!
Donate a book and receive a free bouquet, up to three per family per visit.
The poet and writer Gertrude Stein was wrong.
A rose is a rose is a rose, she said.
If she meant to suggest that all roses are alike, then she was wrong.
We’d like to introduce you to the Corazon rose. It’s unlike any other rose we sell. Don’t get us wrong, we love them all, no matter the variety. But they aren’t one and the same.
Which is why it’s going to take some educating in order for our customers to appreciate what sets Corazon apart from other rose varieties.
First, let’s start with the name: Corazon. It’s pronounced coh-rah-SOHN, and it means “heart” in Spanish.
Corazon only comes in red.
It is grown in Quito, Ecuador, high in the Andes Mountains, approximately 2,800 miles south of Harrisburg.
But a lot of flowers are grown in Quito, including other varieties of roses.
So what’s special about Corazon?
• Its bloom opens fully, like a garden rose
• Its bloom is extra large: almost 5 inches across
• Its petals re-curl at the margins, giving Corazon a classic look
• It lasts a long time: seven days given proper care.
Corazon was a blue-ribbon winner at the Society of American Florists’ most recent convention.
What’s more, Corazon is exclusive to Royer’s. No other florist in our market area can carry Corazon.
Tom Royer, our senior vice president and chief operating officer, has been making regular trips to flower farms in South America for decades. You’d expect that it takes a lot to impress him, right?
Color him impressed – the color red, of course – when it comes to Corazon.
“Number one, it’s the head size,” Tom said. “They’re incredible. The color is just absolutely gorgeous. And it looks like you cut the rose out of your garden.
“It’s all about the characteristics of the rose. Even though it opens quickly, it lasts a long time. I was shocked how long.”
Of course, what gives Corazon its unique appeal also makes for a unique challenge in getting customers to embrace it.
“It’s a test for us,” Tom said. “It’s exciting because it’s a different type of rose. Hopefully it will go really well and people will be mad at us because we don’t have enough of them.”
“Where will I wander and wonder? Nobody knows But wherever I`m going I`ll go In search of a Rose”
–From the song “In Search of a Rose” by The Waterboys Tom Royer regularly visits South American farms to check on the flowers that are grown specifically for Royer’s Flowers.
Just after Labor Day, Tom Royer is going in search of a certain type of rose.
“We don’t want a rose,” said Tom, Royer’s senior vice president and chief operating officer. “We want a rose. We want the best rose and that’s what we need to do to be competitive in our business, is find the best of the best.
“We pride ourselves in doing that. Our flowers last longer, they’re bigger. We constantly have to be looking at all the things that are available to us to make what we do in the flower business better than what anybody else does.” Tom, who visits flower farms in South America multiple times each year, will be returning to Quito, Ecuador, to meet with three or four rose growers (and a lily grower).
In some ways, this is nothing new. Tom is always in pursuit of better-looking, longer-lasting flowers.
“I’m constantly looking at farms,” Tom said. “It’s just now that the focus has been more on Ecuadoran roses.”
Specifically, he is looking for roses that have bigger head sizes, consistently. It costs more to ship fresh-cut roses from Quito than from Bogota, Colombia, the single-biggest source of Royer’s roses.
“So all things being equal, why would you buy from Quito?” Tom said.
“Well, Ecuadoran roses have always had a little bigger head size, and we’re focusing more and more on that.”
While its farms are capable of growing roses comparable to what is found in Quito, Bogota experiences more rain and clouds that can be detrimental to head size.
One of the growers that Royer’s buys from in Colombia also operates farms in Quito.
“And so we’re getting some of their Ecuadoran farm’s (roses)” and comparing with the ones from Bogota. “And the thing you see is the head size is bigger.”
Tom’s trip will help him determine which one or two farms in Quito he will work with.
“But we’re experimenting with them because you can’t just get a shipment and say, oh, OK, great, this is wonderful or it’s terrible. One shipment doesn’t tell the story. You have to do it over a number of months.”
And even then it’s a never-ending process. “But wherever I`m going I`ll go In search of a Rose”
Wherever he’s going, Tom is in search of a rose, too. The best rose he can find.
Birthday girls Maddie, left, and sister Annie.
Melissa Castellano is expecting her third child, a boy, in August. When he turns 5, he can join the Royer’s Kids Club.
“If his sisters have anything to say about it,” Melissa quipped.
Sisters Annie, 10, and Maddie, 6, are veterans of the kids club, although the family’s ties to Royer’s run even deeper than that.
When Annie was 3, she attended a holiday open house at our Harrisburg store. It snowed that morning, and to complete the festiveness of the day, Annie won an Advent calendar at the open house.
As Melissa said, Annie “has a bond with the store.”
The girls share August birthdays and like to have their parties together. This year, they wanted a garden party theme – and they wanted to celebrate at Royer’s.
Melissa broached the idea with Harrisburg store manager Shannon Fink at a kids club event. Shannon’s team was more than happy to oblige.
The Castellanos arrived an hour before to set up for the two-hour event. They brought birthday cake and other food, as well as clay pots for the 17 children.
While Annie’s group was eating in the store’s loft, which was decorated as a butterfly garden, Maddie’s party was decorating the pots in the store’s design room.
Melissa’s grandmother died in March, so this was the first time she wasn’t there for Annie and Maddie’s parties. In her honor, the children filled their pots with African violets, the grandmother’s favorite.
The day was a big hit with the birthday girls.
“They loved it,” Melissa said. “The girls said a couple times it was a dream come true to be let loose in a flower shop.”
Would you like to win a flower delivery to your door? You could if you enter the Royer’s Kids Club birthday card design contest. Kids club member Sophia Mazza’s winning design from 2012.
The winning design will adorn the birthday card that each kids club member receives on his or her special day. If we pick your design, you will receive a flower delivery on your birthday.
The contest is open to kids club members, ages 5 to 12. If you aren’t a kids club member yet, you can register here.
Now, download the birthday card contest entry form here, create your design, and drop off the entry at your nearest Royer’s store by July 12.
Good luck!
It’s summertime, which of course means that the kids are home from school and looking for things to do.
Barry Spengler of Royer’s Flowers stopped by Fox 43 Morning News to offer some crafty and fun ideas involving flowers that have the added benefit of not costing a lot to make:
