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Category: Special Occasions

Best gift ideas for St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Amber

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t typically thought of as a holiday where people give gifts, but these themed and thoughtful items are great for a fun surprise to make your favorite people smile.

They are also great options for host gifts if you are headed out for a party with friends or family. 

Here’s some St. Patrick’s Day gift inspiration:

Give them a rainbow

For the one who brings color into your life, gift them the rainbow with our colorful “Rainbow Smiles” arrangement. It’s a cheery way to show you care and a great decoration for the recipient to display for St. Patrick’s Day and beyond.

Themed Arrangements

A themed flower arrangement is a perfect gift option for the St. Patrick’s Day party host. They went through a lot of work to create a fun night for everyone and giving them flowers that will last weeks shows your appreciation.

We have two other St. Patrick’s Day themed flower arrangements: “Shamrock” and “Luck of the Irish”.

“Shamrock” features two sparkly clovers amongst yellow carnations, green mini hydrangea and white daisy poms.

“Luck of the Irish” is a more subtle nod to the holiday. It includes a gold-orange vase, similar to the color of gold in the pot at the end of the rainbow, and features a sunflower, green hydrangea and white and yellow daisy poms.

Snacks

If you’re looking to thank a party host, our Happy Flower & Candy Set featuring a “Thank you” plush flower is a good option. The host will need to refuel after the party and what better way than chocolate?

If you’re not sure what to bring to the St. Patrick’s Day party, try one of our snack baskets. There’s something for everyone to enjoy while they celebrate.

Our Tootsie Pop Flower Pot is a hit for kids. Its rainbow colors match the St. Patrick’s Day theme and is a small way to include them in celebrations.

A Green Stuffed Animal

You’re never too old for a comforting and cute stuffed animal. Gift a green stuffed animal to keep with the St. Patrick’s Day theme. If you’re considering giving a gift basket, this would be a perfect addition. 

We have many plush options, but our Ryker Rex Plush is a great choice if you’re looking for an all-green stuffed friend.

How to Celebrate International Women’s Day

Posted on by Amber

International Women’s Day sometimes goes by without notice for many – men and women alike. However, the holiday, celebrated March 8, should be one you have noted on your calendar.

It’s right at the beginning of Women’s History Month and is the perfect excuse to uplift the women in your life. Taking the time to show them you care on March 8 will mean the world to them.

If you’re not sure how to celebrate, we’re here to help. Consider one, or multiple, of these options to help the important women you are surrounded by feel special.

Send them flowers

Everyone loves flowers. Sending the women in your life flowers, whether it’s your sister or significant other, is an easy, but meaningful, way to show you support and appreciate them. 

Send them a card

Include a note of gratitude and appreciation for everything they do with the flowers. Tell them how important they are in your life and the impact they have on you. 

Gift a plant to your mom or mother figure

If you’re looking for a gift for your mom or mother figure for International Women’s Day consider a plant. Include a note or card that says “Thank you for helping me grow” to thank them for the role they had in shaping you.

Gift self care items

Women work hard. Many wear multiple “hats” of being a full-time worker, mother, homemaker and more. Sometimes that can get overwhelming. In conjunction with helping ease their load however you can, consider giving them comfort items.

Some self-care gift ideas they might appreciate are blankets, tea, a snack basket or chocolates. 

It is important to acknowledge the contributions women make to our society every day, but International Women’s Day is a good opportunity to uplift the special women in your life. Show them they are loved, appreciated and seen and that their hard work in helping make sure the world keeps turning doesn’t go unnoticed.

Ideas for Employee Appreciation Day

Posted on by Amber

Employee Appreciation Day, which is March 7 this year, is a time for companies to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of their workers.

Employers showing appreciation for their staff helps them to feel valued, enhances relationships and the work environment and can even increase productivity. If you’re looking for a meaningful way to say “thank you” to those who help make your business run we suggest considering these thoughtful options:

Flowers

You can never go wrong with flowers. If you’re worried about it being too personal, don’t be. There are flowers for every occasion.

You are also able to include a message for each arrangement to indicate your message. We also offer add-ons such as “Thank You” balloons and our “Thank You Plush Flower” to help share your gratitude.

We recommend these arrangements for employee appreciation day:

Plants

Plants are especially a great gift if your employees have offices with natural light. Adding a plant to office environments has been shown to increase concentration, decrease stress levels and improve overall worker satisfaction.

These plants are perfect to enhance the office environment:

Snacks

Powering through a work day is fueled by many with coffee and snacks. Help your employees keep their energy up and give them a gift they will love by supplying the snacks.

We have many different snack options that are great for thanking employees:

Tea

Some people prefer to get their caffeine for the workday through tea. If your employees prefer tea, consider gifting them a box of Tea Forte tea. 

Different types of teas have also been proven to reduce anxiety symptoms, which can be especially helpful in a high-stress work environment. Gifting tea to employees shows you understand the pressure they are under and care for their mental health.

A “Thank You” Figurine

Some people love to decorate their space at work to make it feel more comfortable and inviting. If you notice your employees have a lot of items on their desks, such as figurines, pictures, etc., they will probably appreciate something new to include in their workspace.

Willow Tree figures are very popular gifts with meaning. Each one corresponds to a message for the person it is being given to. Gifting one of these decorations will show your employees how much they mean to you.

We recommend these thoughtful Willow Tree figures:

It’s important to make sure your employees feel appreciated all year, but it’s nice to take a day and specifically shine a light on their hard work and dedication.

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Men

Posted on by Amber

Many think of Valentine’s Day as a day for men to do romantic gestures for the women in their lives, but they deserve to be celebrated too.

To help you find the perfect gift for your significant other, we’ve compiled a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide for Men:

Flowers

Men like flowers too. Just because it’s traditional for men to buy women flowers, many also appreciate a vase of fresh flowers. If you’re looking for something “less feminine” try these options – 

Plants

Is your man a plant dad? Give him a new plant for his collection. These Valentine’s-themed plants are perfect gifts that will last well beyond the holiday when taken care of properly.

Chocolate

Who doesn’t love chocolate? We have plenty of options for the sweet tooth in your life.

These are just a few of the options we have in store and online to treat your guy for Valentine’s Day. 

If you choose to order flowers to surprise your significant other, we have a special offer this year!  Have the flowers delivered between Feb. 8-13 and your recipient will receive a coupon for a free dozen roses that is redeemable in-store from March 1-31, 2025.

Plants that will bring you luck in the New Year

Posted on by Amber

A new year means a whole 365 days of new experiences and opportunities await. 

Of course, everyone wants to have a prosperous and successful year. According to certain beliefs, there are plants that can help with that. 

Growing and keeping these plants in your environment could supposedly make 2025 your luckiest year yet:

Peace Lily

Peace Lilies, which are not true lilies, are thought to bring peace to those who tend for them. Those who practice Feng Shui believe the Peace Lily harmonizes the energy whenever it is placed and gives feelings of hope to those in its presence.

Orchid

Orchids are hard to take care of. According to Southern Living, it is believed that caretakers of the plant will be rewarded with good fortune. Others say Orchids are a symbol of creativity and beauty, according to Good Housekeeping.

Philodendron

Feng shui practitioners believe having two philodendron plants in your home helps promote the balanced partnership you hope to achieve with those you live with, according to Good Housekeeping.

ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas Zamifolia)

The ZZ Plant is supposed to bring prosperity to its caretaker. In Feng Shui the ZZ Plant is said to elevate positive energy in relation to wealth and well-being. It is a very hardy plant and is nicknamed the “eternity plant” to symbolize endurance.

Consider adding one of these plants to your home or office to hopefully have your best year yet!

Gift Ideas for Boss’s Day

Posted on by Amber

Boss’s Day, Oct. 16, is a time to show the leadership at your job your appreciation. 

One way to thank your boss for their dedication to helping you grow in your career is with a small gift. Shopping for your boss can be challenging, however, especially if you don’t know them too well outside of the workplace.

To help you find the right gift for your boss we’ve compiled a Boss’s Day Gift Guide for you. These are gifts perfect for anyone.

Boss’s Day Gift Guide:

Retro Succulents

Plants have been shown to contribute to the well-being of employees, making this a perfect gift for the boss who has to put in long hours at the office. It will give them a connection to nature. 

The Retro Succulent dish garden is a good desk plant option. Succulents are easy to care for and the stylish, minimalist container adds a zen feeling to whatever space it is placed in.

Kork Succulent

Our Kork Succulent is another modern option to brighten up an office space. The neutral colors will blend in with any style and are a nice option for those with smaller work spaces.

Happy Face Succulent Garden

Add a pop of color with this mini succulent garden. The happy container will quickly brighten up an office.

Chocolate & Mug Gift Set

Help fuel your boss’s day with a new mug for their coffee and sweet treats from Hershey’s Chocolate.

Presentation Box of Tea – Wellbeing

Gift your boss a moment of relaxation with a collection of teas focused on wellness. There are three specifically curated herbal teas in this collection and two green teas.

Asher Milk Chocolate Pretzels

Keep it simple, but thoughtful with a bag of milk chocolate covered pretzels from Asher’s Chocolates, a family-owned business based in Souderton, Pennsylvania. Perfect for a boss who keeps a stocked snack drawer.

Flowers

You can’t go wrong with flowers. For Boss’s Day, we recommend our Tuscan, Small arrangement. It features a bold vase with cheery carnations and daisy poms. 

However you choose to honor your, they will appreciate the recognition for their hard work and dedication.

Garden roses are back and a popular option for weddings

Posted on by Neal


Garden roses, which once were the everyday rose sold by local flower shops, are back in their uniquely big and fragrant ways.
Their large blooms and strong scent not only distinguish them from today’s standard roses but also make them an increasingly popular option for weddings and other special occasions.
This is how Alexandra Farms in Bogota, Colombia, the source for most of the garden roses that Royer’s buys, toasts its product: “Garden roses are to roses what champagne is to wine.”

BRED FOR PERFORMANCE

Decades ago, Royer’s and other florists grew their own garden roses. What today is known as a standard or modern rose didn’t exist.
By the 1970s, however, an oil embargo made it prohibitively expensive for Royer’s and other domestic florists to heat their greenhouses. Meanwhile, Bogota, by virtue of lying on a plateau near the equator, enjoyed warm days and cool nights – or near-perfect conditions for rose production. (Today, the major rose-producing nations are Colombia, Ecuador and Kenya.)
But as with many things in life, there was a tradeoff: The farther away growers were from florists, the hardier that roses (and other flowers) had to be to withstand the added time and rigors involved with shipping.
So, a choice had to be made between flower bloom size and fragrance on the one hand and vase life (or how long a flower lasts once it is cut) on the other. Garden roses have twice as many petals as standard roses, which manifests as significantly bigger blooms than standard rose blooms.
“In many cases,” according to Alexandra Farms, “you couldn’t get a garden rose with a long vase life if you wanted it also to have many petals or fragrance, so [growers] moved toward standard roses. Rather than getting more beauty or fragrance in the varieties they grew, they got longer vase life. In short, [roses] lost some of their charisma in favor of performance.”
Famed rose breeder David Austin changed that by developing a garden rose genetic line specifically for the cut-flower market.
“Now, garden roses are bred for performance in addition to their charismatic qualities,” according to Alexandra Farms, “so you can have the best of both worlds.”
Meanwhile, improvements in post-harvesting techniques – from hydration methods to anti-ethylene treatments (ethylene gas can promote premature flower death) to better packaging – “have enabled us to grow more productively and ship our cut flowers around the world,” according to Alexandra Farms.
The grower said it has tested more than 1,500 varieties of garden roses for beauty but also for shelf and vase life.

ALTERNATIVE TO PEONIES

Garden roses are available in almost every color that exists for standard roses. True to their champagne reputation, garden roses cost more than standard roses, but they are a cost-effective alternative to peonies.
Garden roses are sometimes described as having “powder puff” petals that mirror those of peonies and make them a good substitute when peonies aren’t available.
Peonies require frozen soil – and therefore seasons, Alexandra Farms explained. The plants must freeze in the ground for months in order to sprout in the spring. Based on time of year and availability, peonies can be considerably more expensive than garden roses, which are available year-round.
But Alexandra Farms, which grows 61 varieties of garden roses in Colombia, noted that garden roses don’t have to be limited to weddings and other special events.
They “can be used for anything including home décor, vase work, etc.,” according to the grower. “The garden roses grown at Alexandra Farms were bred and selected for longevity, as well as beauty. They are hardy and work well for any use.”

Homecoming flower trends: Royer’s visits Fox 43

Posted on by Neal

 

Fox 43's Heather Warner with Barry Spengler of Royer's.
Fox 43’s Heather Warner with Barry Spengler of Royer’s.

Fox 43 Morning News’ Heather Warner figures she has a decade until she has to worry about homecoming dances in her household.
But she talked about current homecoming flower trends this morning as she welcomed Barry Spengler of Royer’s to Fox 43’s York studio.
“The newest thing this year … the guys are getting flowers when they ask the lady to the homecoming dance,” he said.
He noted that Royer’s Carlisle store had seen 20 to 25 young men (or in some cases, their mothers) come in to buy flowers in advance of asking girls out. Handing Warner a hand-held rose bouquet, Barry said: “I think it’s one of those things when you ask somebody, you hand them something, it takes the anxiety out of it.”
Warner said: “You can’t say no if they present this, can you?”
Barry quipped, “It’s almost bribery.”
Warner: “I think so. That would have made it awfully tough” to say no.
Other trends Barry touched on:

Rings

Barry eased a ring corsage onto the right hand of Warner, who marveled:
“The day of the corsage with the little rubber band are gone. Very cool.”

Bracelets

Barry demonstrated a snap bracelet on Warner’s arm, explaining where the corsage attaches.
“A lot of the seniors, it’s their last homecoming, they’re saying, ‘I want a little keepsake after the dance,’ ” Barry said. “So they’re getting something in a bracelet like that for after the fact … . And even little trinkets; there’s little butterflies that you can save for after the fact, too.”

Bling

“There is no wrong with bling,” Barry said. “Anything with color, pop, snap. Bright is the thing.”
For instance, he offered a silver bracelet with dendrobium orchids and jewels. Another bracelet featured orange flowers and acorns — to go with a camouflage dress.
“Now, anything goes,” Barry said. “Just don’t get anxiety over the flowers. Just get what you think works.”
Click here to watch the entire segment.
 
 

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.”

4 Occasions Where Flowers Make the Perfect Gift

Posted on by josh

The gift of flowers is always a welcome breath of fresh air for the recipient. Flowers make excellent gifts for many different occasions and can be the perfect choice whether you’re giving a gift to a casual acquaintance or a close loved one. Here are just a few times when flowers make a great gift:
Birthdays
Who doesn’t love to get a bouquet of flowers on their birthday? A bright arrangement of flowers is a celebration of having someone in your life. When it comes to birthdays, flowers make a thoughtful gift for a co-worker, but they’re equally special when they come from a close family member or friends. When you’re not sure what to get someone for their birthday, think flowers.
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is the time that florist sell the most flowers. Of course, roses are Valentine’s standard, but you aren’t limited to them for this occasion. If your significant other has a favorite flower, a gorgeous bouquet of his or her chosen blooms is every bit as romantic as standard red roses.
Retirement
Coming to the end of a career is a major achievement, and flowers are a good way to mark the occasion. Let the retiree know how highly you regard his or her accomplishment by giving the retiree a bright bunch of tulips or a mixed arrangement featuring daises, carnations, and more.
Anniversary
An anniversary is a time for you to show your loved one how appreciated he or she is and to celebrate your ability to stick together as a team through whatever life throws at you. It’s not just women who can receive flowers on an anniversary. Flowers can also be a special gift for a man, especially when you choose flowers in yellow, red, and other less feminine shades.
There’s hardly an occasion that can’t be made more memorable with flowers. To order flowers and for help selecting the perfect arrangement, call Royers Flowers & Gifts at (717) 273-2683. We have a huge selection of top-quality flowers and can add on vases, gift baskets, and more. Contact us to place your order today.