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Category: Flowers

Royer’s exclusive: Corazon rose

Posted on by Neal

 
Corazon_on_black
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.”
 

In search of the best rose

Posted on by Neal

“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.
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.

Sisters Annie and Maddie celebrate birthdays at Royer’s

Posted on by Neal

Birthday girls Maddie, left, and sister Annie.
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.”

Calling all kids club members: We want you to design our next birthday card

Posted on by Neal

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.
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!

Feed me, Seymour

Posted on by Neal

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A little while back, a customer purchased cut hydrangeas from one of our stores. A brunch was being held in honor of her mother-in-law, and the customer was making hydrangea centerpieces for the occasion.
We placed a special order for the South America-grown flowers, so we knew they were as fresh as could be. Yet the customer was back in our store within 24 hours, her hydrangeas having wilted.
We replaced them so that her needs were met, but in the meantime we recut the original flowers and put them in water with cut-flower food. Within hours, they looked gorgeous again.
The moral to this story? If you’re going to work with cut hydrangeas – lots and lots of consumers are these days, and with good reasons – then don’t skimp on flower food.
Garden feel
Hydrangea flowers have big heads – a single one can be 4 to 8 inches wide – and make a bold statement with great ease. Just plop them in any kind of water-holding container (canning jars are popular) and they look terrific, bringing a garden feel indoors.
Clearly, hydrangeas are popular these days: You’ll find lots of evidence on Pinterest, the online bulletin board. In fact, we incorporated them into a number of our arrangements and deliver loose hydrangeas to our stores a couple of times each week.
Once you get the flowers home, make certain that they have plenty of water that has been mixed with flower food. You can purchase packets of food from your local florist; mix one packet per quart of water.
Hydrangeas represent a great value because you don’t need many of them to make a big impression and, with proper care, they last a long time.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mums the word year-round

Posted on by Neal

Many of us decorate porches and patios with hardy mums in the fall. But a little bit of loving and some attention to the calendar can help you get the most out of your mums and even keep them blooming in a garden for years to come.
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If you planted mums in the ground back in the fall, then the summer months are important in their growth cycle.

Pinching: By July 15, you should pinch the top growth back 1 to 2 inches. This will ensure that your mums bloom in the fall rather than during the summer.

Feeding: From spring through July, nourish your mums twice a month with an all-purpose garden fertilizer mixed in water. Stop feeding in August.
Controlling pests: Aphids are the most common pests that afflict garden mums. These are small soft-bodied insects about the size of a pinhead. They range in color from green to yellow to black. They make their livings by sucking the sap out of tender new growth. To control them, spray an all-purpose insecticide or insecticidal soap on the plants once a week for a couple of weeks. Take care not to spray plants in direct sun or when the temperature is above 90 degrees.

Now, if you are thinking about planting your potted mum for the first time, here are some steps to take:

• Be sure to water your potted mums daily as warm days will make them thirsty. At the same time, too much water can damage the roots; provide drainage in decorative pots or baskets.
• It’s best to plant the mums in October so their roots have time to grow before cold weather sets in.
• Once the mums are planted, water them thoroughly a couple of times each week through mid-November. This will encourage the roots to grow deeply. The deeper the roots, the stronger the plants will be.
• In late spring, cut the plants down 6 to 8 inches above the ground. This will give you bushy, compact plants with lots of flowers. As spring gives way to summer, follow the instructions above relative to feeding and pinching.

Design conference inspires new wedding ideas

Posted on by Neal

We have some exciting news to share with you about our wedding plans.
Not a specific wedding, mind you, but rather the new wedding styles and flowers that we’re working to offer brides and grooms.
If you’ve followed this blog, you know about the extra effort – namely, regular trips to South America – we make to ensure the highest-quality flowers for our customers.
Similarly, earlier this year we sent several Royer’s representatives to a wedding design conference offered by floral wholesaler Florabundance Inc. The event, called “Inspirational Design Days,” took place on Dos Pueblos Ranch, overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, Calif.
Cheryl Brill, Royer’s vice president of retail operations, was joined on the trip by Holly Newpower and Jennifer Stout, Royer’s store managers at Camp Hill and Shillington, respectively.
The experience gave them an opportunity to work with beautiful product that they typically don’t handle, Cheryl said, and to design in a natural, unconstructed way without concern for budgets, costs or recipes.
The participants designed wedding bouquets; beachside ceremony decorations; and a 30-foot-long centerpiece comprising mossy birch branches, strands of ivy gathered in the adjoining woods, and small vintage vases filled with groupings of garden roses, tulips, cut hyacinths, clematis, accented with candelabra and votive candles.
It was akin to a spa day for florists – or what Cheryl called a “guiltless playground.”
As a next step, we’re training our wedding consultants on the flowers and styles exhibited at the Florabundance seminar. We’re also redesigning the wedding content on royers.com.
Our intent is to provide more options for our wedding-planning customers.
“We must serve our more traditional customers as we always have,” Cheryl said, “while still keeping abreast of the newest trends in the industry. Inspirational Design Days was a great opportunity to do just that.”

Joost Bongaerts in his cooler at Florabundance in Carpinteria, Calif. (Genevieve Leiper Photography)
Cheryl Brill, Royer’s vice president of retail operations. (Genevieve Leiper Photography)
Tablescape decorated and ready for dinner. (Genevieve Leiper Photography)
Florabundance participants at outside ceremony decorated at Dos Pueblos Ranch. (Genevieve Leiper Photography)

 

Royer’s teams with WSOX to honor 20 administrative professionals

Posted on by Neal

Admin Asst Day 2013-WSOX
Royer’s stores opened a half-hour early on Administrative Professionals Day, making it easier for customers to pick up flowers on their way to work.
Meanwhile, listeners of greatest hits radio station WSOX (96.1 FM) had a chance to nominate a co-worker to receive a free floral bouquet compliments of Royer’s. WSOX’s yellow van delivered the bouquets to 20 surprised and delighted administrative professionals in Lancaster and York counties.
You can hear some of the reactions by listening to these clips:
Clip #1
Clip #2
 

We’ll handle your long-distance Mother’s Day order

Posted on by Neal

Flowers are a time-honored way of letting mom know just how much you love her. But sending flowers long distance can be confusing and sometimes disappointing, especially if you are not familiar with the process and some of the pitfalls.
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The Internet has given rise to thousands of flower-delivery options. But how do you know you’re really getting a good price and high-quality service? And will the flowers arrive on time?
That great price might not be so great
Many websites touting great prices show you a gorgeous arrangement – only to deliver a bunch of flowers in a box that mom still has to put in a vase. In many cases, what is delivered is similar to what you’ll find in a grocery store or at a street vendor. It might be a nice bouquet but not arranged in a container; often, the container costs extra.
After adding extra charges such as service and delivery fees, the great price that first got your attention might not be any better than what a local florist would charge.
Beware of unscrupulous companies
Perhaps you know of a florist where mom lives. But be careful if you use a search engine to find contact information for that florist. Many unscrupulous companies make themselves appear to be local florists – maybe the one that you’re familiar with – by using a similar name or even a local phone number (that ultimately rings to another state).
These companies tend to charge high service and delivery fees, only to hand off the delivery to someone else. They charge you fees that they didn’t earn, and you don’t get what you paid for.
Call early – and call Royer’s
You can avoid these hassles and ensure the best results by placing your order early – and by calling us when you do.
We’re proud to be your local florist, but we also are one of the largest senders of long-distance orders in the country. Other florists want to keep us happy because they want to continue receiving our business. We also foster our relationships with them through our regular participation in national florist meetings.
In short, we can resolve the rare problem when it occurs. What’s more, we have strong ties to FTD and Teleflora, the two largest wire services that florists use to transmit their orders, and they will step in if necessary to make sure that problems are addressed to our customers’ satisfaction.
Sending flowers long distance can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. Just call us, and we’ll make the process easy. We’ll handle your out-of-town order with the same care and attention it would receive if we were delivering it ourselves.