“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.
Roger Esbenshade, president of Esbenshade’s Greenhouses Inc., with a poinsettia cutting and the pot it will grow in.
Retailers and consumers might count down the number of shopping days left until the holidays. At Esbenshade’s Greenhouses Inc. in Lancaster County, it’s a calendar of growing days.
One of the 100 biggest greenhouse operations in the United States, family-owned Esbenshade’s is a significant grower of poinsettias. Royer’s Flowers & Gifts is one of Esbenshade’s biggest poinsettia customers, to the tune of 30,000 plants each year.
In order for Royer’s to have poinsettias to sell starting around Thanksgiving, Esbenshade’s has to start growing the traditional Christmas plants during the summer.
In fact, poinsettias account for 75 percent of Esbenshade’s summer workload and 15 to 20 percent of the company’s annual sales. Esbenshade’s sells poinsettias to customers throughout Pennsylvania and into surrounding states and sometimes as far away as Boston.
This helps to explain why Roger Esbenshade, the company’s president, has a young poinsettia spilled out on a desk in his air-conditioned office in mid-July, when the outside temperature is approaching 90 degrees.
A computer controls when mist sprays on young poinsettia plants.
Three stages of root growth on poinsettia cuttings.
Poinsettias grown for the 2012 holiday season.
He has been looking at the plant’s roots under a microscope, “to make sure nothing funny is going on.” Besides proper root development, he tests for levels of pH and fertilizer in the “growing medium,” a mixture of composted bark, peat and the mineral perlite, which appears as tiny white rocks.
“If you wait until the plant itself starts to show the problem, then it’s usually much wider spread and much more difficult to make a correction,” Esbenshade said.
His parents – Lamar and Nancy – founded the company in 1960. Today, Esbenshade and brothers Fred, Scott and Terry own and operate the wholesale business from a complex of buildings on Route 322 just north of Lititz. A sister (there are seven siblings in all) works part-time for the company.
Every week throughout most of the summer, Esbenshade’s receives poinsettia cuttings from three different suppliers. These cuttings are two and one-half inch stems that will become the hundreds of thousands of poinsettias that Esbenshade’s will nurture in its greenhouses.
The cuttings have no roots; those will come in short order but only after Esbenshade’s workers stick them into the bark-peat-perlite mixture in pots. (Esbenshade’s also grows starter plants for other growers; these roots develop in a foam cube). The plants will stay in these pots right up until they are delivered to Royer’s.
The pots are in Esbenshade’s “Gilbert” greenhouse, which is named in memory of an employee who died. They are lined up, row upon row, on tables and under automated misters.
A pinch to unleash potential
A cutting by itself is fragile: left in the sun for 20 minutes, Esbenshade said, it will die. Regular misting is necessary for the cuttings to sprout roots. A computer considers plant and air temperature, humidity, light intensity to determine each burst of mist for each table.
It takes four weeks for the plant roots to grow fully. At that point, Esbenshade’s “pinches” – snapping off the tip – the cutting to force lateral branch growth. Everywhere there is a leaf is the potential to grow a new stem. This potential is unleashed by the pinching.
“There’s a hormonal change in that plant that stimulates that growth,” Esbenshade said.
At up to 100 degrees, poinsettias will grow faster the higher the temperature. Above 100 degrees, growth tapers.
Red poinsettias are the traditional variety and account for 70 percent of the plants the company grows, although they come in many varieties and sizes. When asked what his favorite variety is, Esbenshade at first quipped:
“By December 25th, my personal favorite is an empty greenhouse.”
Really it’s the “marble star,” whose leaves (or bracts) feature a “bold pink center” and white edges, Esbenshade said.
Esbenshade’s follows strict growing schedules to ensure that it produces the highest-quality plants it can for Royer’s, which holds Esbenshade’s to exacting standards. What’s more, Royer’s is based just 15 miles away in Lebanon, which makes it easy for co-owners Mike Royer or Tom Royer to get a first-hand look at the crop.
Variety (some grow faster than others) and hoped-for size determine the growing schedule.
“If we want a plant that’s 30 inches tall, then we have to start that in June,” Esbenshade said. “If we want one that’s 8 inches tall, that doesn’t get started until August.”
It’s possible to force faster growth, but then the plant lacks the stem strength and big bracts that distinguish the Esbenshade’s plants from, say, the poinsettias found at big-box retailers.
“It has to look different,” Esbenshade said of his company’s poinsettia crop. “The average consumer has to recognize that it’s something substantially different. We don’t try to explain to them that it’s different, we grow something that they recognize is different.”
The readers of Susquehanna Style magazine have voted Royer’s their favorite florist in Lancaster County.
The magazine dubbed its July issue the “Best of Lancaster” edition.
Royer’s has five Lancaster County stores: Columbia, Ephrata, Lancaster North, Lancaster West and Leola.
In June, Royer’s was named top florist in Susquehanna Style’s “Best of Harrisburg Edition.”
Royer’s Flowers & Gifts is the florist of choice for the readers of Susquehanna Style magazine.
The glossy monthly publication dubbed June its “Best of Harrisburg Edition,” featuring the best local businesses as voted by its readers.
Royer’s has two Harrisburg-area stores and one in Camp Hill among its 17 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties. Click here for the complete list of locations.
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.
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.
Supporting local business is essential for the economic and environmental prosperity of America. Local business success is good for everyone involved, from the owner to vendors to you, the customer. When you support local florists, grocers, restaurateurs, and other entrepreneurs, you put more money back into the local economy and your pocketbook. Supporting local business means lower prices.
Unbeknownst to most customers, national chains must mark up their prices to account for their large infrastructures. When you pay for roses from a faceless corporation or gift baskets from a nationwide business, you’re not just paying for that item; you’re paying for the additional costs that go into shipping those wares to the store, the fees that factor into the company’s marketing strategies, and even the price of the CEO’s personal expenditures. Local businesses don’t have those added expenses. When you buy from a local business, what you see is what you get. You won’t be paying for anything other than the service or product you want. Supporting local business creates more jobs.
By supporting local business, you may be creating a job for your neighbor. When you buy from neighborhood florists, you might be giving those in your area the chance to provide for their families. When your community is healthy and thriving, it means less money is needed for unemployment services. It can also translate into less crime and poverty, which means less tax money is required to combat these problems. In the end, both your neighborhood and your bank account benefit. Supporting local business reduces our carbon footprint.
Local businesses like working with local vendors. Not only does it cost less to work with other area entrepreneurs, but also it means less natural resources are needed for transportation expenses. Not only will you be saving the environment when you buy local wedding flowers, groceries, or other desired wares, but you also will be benefiting from the savings passed on from the business to you.
Royer’s Flowers & Gifts has 17 south central Pennsylvania locations that offer customers the best quality floral arrangements and gift baskets. Our florists can provide beautiful wedding flowers, holiday flowers, and sympathy flowers to suit every style and budget. To learn more about our services, or to speak with one of our friendly representatives, please call (717) 769-1413.
