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.
