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Category: Mother’s Day

Royer’s Flowers and Gifts is preparing to serve Central Pennsylvania for Mother’s Day

Posted on by Amber

We hosted our media day event for Mother’s Day on Friday, May 2, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into preparing for a huge floral holiday.

“We’ll do about 20,000 arrangements in a two-week period or so,” said Geoff Royer, Royer’s Flowers and Gifts Vice President of Production and Product Development. “Some of those get made in central design and the rest get made in the store.”

Royer said that for major floral holidays, Valentine’s Day is of course the biggest day with Christmas being the busiest month, but Mother’s Day is typically the busiest week.

Mother’s Day is unique however because there isn’t a specific popular flower people seek out like there is with roses and Valentine’s Day.

“For Mother’s Day we do a lot of hydrangeas, but it’s more of a mixed flower holiday,” Royer said. “We’ll do some roses and things like that, but most of the arrangements we make are combinations of different flowers.”

Mother’s Day is also when we offer our annual flower pots and hanging baskets. The weather begins to warm up enough for these plants to thrive just in time for the holiday. Royer offered some tips for those who will be getting these plants or those who might receive one as a gift.

“They like to be watered, but you don’t want to overwater them because they kind of rot,” Royer said. “I always water hanging baskets by weight, so if they feel like they’re pretty heavy they’re probably ok. If they feel like they’re light as a feather, you’re going to want to water them.” 

For the patio pots, Royer said he uses the soil as an indicator of whether they need to be watered.“The patio pots you can kind of look at and see,” Royer said. “If the top of the soil is 9starting to turn like a cocoa-colored brown then sometimes they need water. On really hot days, sometimes the smaller containers are going to need to be watered twice.” 

Royer said that the annuals are great plants to get now because they will last most of the summer until the temperature starts to reach 90 and 100 degrees. However, he noted that some of our annual plants are heat resistant and can last all throughout the summer.

Royer also highlighted the popularity of our direct ship option during the holiday due to many people living far from their mothers.

“Our direct ship option is a really good tool for people to use because they see what they’re going to get, they get Royer’s product and it goes right to their mom,” Royer said.

Behind Geoff at media day were the many Royer’s workers busy arranging and boxing flowers to prepare for the holiday weekend. They were busy trimming roses and placing hydrangeas to make sure each customer received a beautiful bouquet to celebrate the special day. 

Thanks to their hard work and dedication, we will be ready to serve the Central Pennsylvania community and help celebrate everything moms do.

We will be open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from May 8-10 and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 11 for Mother’s Day.

We celebrate ‘Mom’ every day at Royer’s Flowers

Posted on by Neal
Hannah “Mom” Royer and husband, Lester, the founders of Royer’s Flowers & Gifts.

Her friends called her “Hanny” or “Beckie” back in 1922 when Hannah Sherman of Myerstown, Lebanon County, was a senior at Elizabethtown College.

Born in 1901, Hannah was a member of the college’s Homerian Literary Society, participated in chorus and glee club, played tennis and baseball.

“What can be more pleasing than a young lady who is virtuous and adorned with womanly graces?” read the text beneath her senior photo in the Etonian yearbook. “She is always pleasant and scatters sunshine wherever she goes.”

Hannah was pursuing a two-year “pedagogical course” to become a teacher at a time when mandatory school attendance laws were driving demand for educators and providing a new career opportunity for women.

‘She will bring joy’

“We predict for her a successful future, for we know that her whole heart will be in her work, whatever it may be,” the yearbook concluded, “and she will bring joy into the lives of the friends she meets.”

Hannah would become a first-grade teacher, marry classmate Lester Royer of Black Rock, Md., and raise a family. She would assume a new nickname, “Mom,” and prove the Etonian remarkably prescient.

But teaching wasn’t her true calling. Hannah, whose remarkable life would see her to age 96, would put her whole heart into the floral business. Her enduring legacy is Royer’s Flowers & Gifts, which has become one of the most successful flower shops in American history.

Hannah and Lester, a high school biology teacher, married in 1925 and had their first child in 1929, the year of the stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression. By 1937, they had three children and were living on Lester’s salary alone.

Both Hannah and Lester, known as “Pop,” had grown up on farms. At their Lebanon home, they grew enough produce to help feed their family and sell some to neighbors for additional income.

Their son Ken, in his book “Retailing Flowers Profitably,” said Hannah “expanded our crop selection to include African violets, which she grew on her windowsills.

“The violets were sold at first by our next-door neighbor, who worked in a garment factory in Lebanon … . The addition of violets made our business a year-round enterprise rather than a summer-only produce business.”

Patient and persistent

Ken, who would follow his parents into the family floral business, noted that his mother started selling flowers at local farmers markets, refusing to let the initially tepid response wilt her will. Hannah, whom Ken described as patient and persistent, kept going back until business picked up.

“I have often reflected on this sequence and decided that my mother’s decision to go back after that first dismal experience was probably the most important event in the development of the business we now enjoy,” Ken wrote.

By 1945, having fielded requests for cut flowers, Mom Royer concluded that she needed training in floral arranging. Off she went to a two-week course in Gloucester, Mass.

Upon her return, the family converted the two-car garage behind its house into the South Side Flower Shop. The store operated from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but after-hours customers could summon Hannah with a bell that rang in the family home.

Lester ultimately would join the business full-time, operating the greenhouses while Hannah ran the retail store.

Lester was a lay minister in their church, which Ken said was “always his first love. Business was not a source of inspiration or an emotional stimulation to him. Mom was the driving force behind the business.”

Hannah and Lester sold the business, renamed Royer’s Flowers, to their sons Ken and Glenn in the 1950s. With 16 stores in south-central and eastern Pennsylvania and three location in the Columbus, Ohio, area, the business remains under family ownership.

Ken’s sons Greg, who is chairman, and Tom, president and CEO, represent the third generation. They were later joined by Greg’s sons Andrew and Geoff, who serve as vice presidents. More of the fourth generation is waiting in the wings as cousins Tommy Royer and Evan Royer are pursuing business degrees in college with plans of joining the family business.

To put that into perspective, according to the Conway Center for Family Business in Ohio, only 3 percent of family businesses operate at the fourth-generation level and beyond.

Mother’s Day comes but once a year, but every day that Royer’s Flowers & Gifts operates is a celebration of the legacy of Hannah “Mom” Royer.

M is for Mother’s Day and Morning News

Posted on by Neal

Woody Felty of Royer’s talks Mother’s Day with Fox 43’s Amy Lutz.

Kids love flowers.
“What kid hasn’t picked flowers out of the yard and carried them inside?,” said Woody Felty, Royer’s vice president of merchandising.
Woody visited Fox 43 on May 2 to discuss Mother’s Day, which is May 11. He appeared in-studio with Fox 43 Morning News co-anchor Amy Lutz.
“My daughter thinks the yellow ones that are growing in the grass are, in fact, flowers,” Lutz said. “I have not had the heart to tell her otherwise.”
“They’re still pretty, aren’t they?” Woody said of dandelions. “Even a weed has some color and texture.”

‘Mom’s going to share’

But if plants and flowers are more to your liking, Woody offered a range of options, from traditional mixed bouquets and plants to trendier succulents and terrariums. He noted that an estimated one-third of American adults will buy cut flowers or plants as a gift for this Mother’s Day.
Terrariums, he said, are “pretty much a self-contained arrangement.” The glass dome creates condensation that then waters the plant, resulting in “a rain forest, tropical feel.”
Children like giving gifts to Mom, too. He suggested a plush teddy bear, or a box of chocolates “because Mom’s going to share.”
For mothers receiving fresh-cut flowers, Woody said, can make them last their longest by recutting the stems at least one inch from the bottom and add preservative (a packet should come with the flowers) to the water. A bouquet from Royer’s is designed to be dropped into a vase without much effort on the part of the recipient.
“It’s pretty much a drop and go,” Woody said.
To view the segment, click on this link.

Making of Mother’s Day: Charmed Cube arrangement

Posted on by Neal

It’s Mother’s Day, but many days go into making it a truly special occasion.
Our central design department in Lebanon is handcrafting thousands of arrangements across eight days in order to help meet the needs of our stores.
Below are photos of one team making our Charmed Cube arrangement. It comprises a four-inch raspberry-colored cube; hot pink carnations; pink mini-carnations; lavender daisy pompons; lavender button pompons; and babies breath.
Think Mom would like it? You can click here to send her one.

M is for Mother’s Day and a morning on abc27

Posted on by Neal

Karissa Shatzer of abc27 is live with Barry Spengler, Royer's vice president of operations, at our Camp Hill store.
Karissa Shatzer of abc27 is live with Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations.

Having completed three live segments and starting her fourth, abc27’s Karissa Shatzer knew a lot more about Mother’s Day flower options than when she began.
What she didn’t know was which one(s) she liked best.
“Well, after this, it might be even harder to choose because there’s so much here,” she told viewers.
Shatzer interviewed Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, at our Camp Hill store on May 4, 2015.
Among the options Barry offered:

  • Silk arrangements, which are good for people who suffer from allergies;
  • Cut-flower arrangement, already made, for $15 to $30;
  • Dendrobium orchids, which are popular for proms, too;
  • Rose bunch, which Mom can design and arrange;
  • Gerbera daisies.

“That’s a really popular flower,” Barry said. “We sell an awful lot of Gerbera daisies.”
You can see more suggestions by watching the entire segment:

Mother’s Day: making of our Traditions Basket

Posted on by Neal

It takes a variety of flowers and many hands to create our Traditions Basket.
In fact, Royer’s team members working in our central design department in Lebanon handcrafted hundreds of the baskets in the days leading up to Mother’s Day.
The baskets comprise Baker Fern, pink mini carnations, red carnations, daisy pompons (lavender, yellow and white), alstroemeria, gypsophilia (baby’s breath), and a bow.
You can follow the design process in the slideshow below; to order a Traditions Basket, click here.

Royer’s delivers Mother’s Day flower and plant tips to Fox 43

Posted on by Neal

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Barry Spengler of Royer’s Flowers talks Mother’s Day with Fox 43’s Heather Warner.

Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, has a simple message when it comes to Mother’s Day.
“The key,” he told Fox 43’s Heather Warner, “just don’t forget Mom. That’s bad.”
Barry offered a number of options, from one or two roses wrapped up to a mixed bouquet in a vase to porch plants such as gerbera daisies or calla lilies.
Potted plants want to be outside, he said, and require a lot of water.
“People under-water these,” he said. “They need a lot of water. I get a gallon jug, fill it all the way up. And I usually dump most of the gallon a day on it. All of the excess will run out. …
“And every once a week, I usually add the fertilizer to the jug and fill it.”
You can view the entire segment below.

Don’t let ‘DOGs’ take a bite out of your Mother’s Day order

Posted on by Neal

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Our Google search for “flowers hershey, pa” returned several sponsored links from what appear to be local florists.
On one website, there’s this message: “Hershey, Pennsylvania Flower Delivery by our local florist to Hershey TODAY!”
The owner of that website is in Michigan.
On the home page of another of the websites is this: “Best Hershey, PA Same Day Flower Delivery!” The page lists Hershey-area hotels, schools, funeral homes. It even includes a Hershey weather forecast.
The company behind that website is out of New Jersey.

‘Deceptive order gatherer’

Each of the companies is what is known in the floral industry as an “order gatherer,” or sometimes derided as a “deceptive order gatherer,” or DOG, as described in a recent story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

They take orders and then broker them to local florists or even ship the flowers (unarranged, of course) via UPS or FedEx. These DOGs, which operate year-round, are hunting for your Mother’s Day order. And if they get it, they’ll likely take a bite out of your wallet that will exceed what you would have paid by working with your local florist to place the order.

The order gatherer will entice you with deals that look great but, upon closer inspection, probably aren’t.
In almost all cases, the order gatherers present their flowers at discounted prices. A tulip bouquet valued at $81.99 is shown as marked down to $44.99, for instance. They also tend to upsell, so that when you select a standard or regular arrangement it defaults to a “deluxe” (read: more expensive) version.

Costly commissions and fees

On one order gather’s website, the home page featured a “best seller” arrangement of lilies, roses and alstroemeria valued at $34.99 but discounted to $27.99. When we clicked on it, our selection instead chose the deluxe version: valued at $44.99 but with a “Google discount” of $9 that put the total at $35.99.
At checkout, there was a $2.99 charge for same-day delivery – and a service/handling fee of $14.99. Our total was $53.97 even with the so-called Google discount.
Order gatherers typically deduct a 20 percent commission and other fees from orders, according to the Inquirer article. So if a flower order is valued at $44.99, that leaves less than $36 for the local florist, who then must deduct his delivery fee. Pretty soon, that $44.99 worth of flowers is maybe only a $28 value or less to the customer.
“It’s a no-win situation,” the Inquirer noted of this practice. The florist “can either fill the full order and lose money, or substitute a cheaper arrangement and risk consumer outrage.”

Let your local florist help

Either way, it might not be a risk worth taking when it comes to the impression you wish to make on the recipient. If you have a strong and trusting relationship with your local florist, then why not let them help you with an out-of-town flower delivery?
Reputable florists will make sure you get the value and quality that you deserve on your long-distance orders. After all, they want to be treated fairly when they are on the receiving end of orders.
The deceptive order gatherers, on the other hand, extract high service and delivery fees – only to hand off the order to someone else.
Another one of the order gatherers we examined offered same-day delivery of a gerbera arrangement valued at $49.99 but discounted to $29.99. Then another offer appeared, lowering the price to $9.99. But a service charge of $19.99 and a handling charge of $10.50 brought the total to $40.48.
The order gatherer won’t earn those fees, and you won’t get what you paid for.
When it comes to flowers, these DOGs aren’t man’s best friend.