So you bought annual plants in a container at your local florist, garden center or home-improvement store.
Annual plants – such as petunias, geraniums and begonias that complete their life cycles in one year – pose perennial challenges once you bring them home.
Here are five things you should know about caring for your annuals:
1. You have to add nutrients: Your plant didn’t come in nutrient-rich soil. Rather, it’s a potting mix that includes peat moss. This mixture is inert, meaning that it doesn’t contain the nutrients found in soil. So you have to add the nutrients by applying fertilizer on a regular basis.
2. Fertilizer is soluble, so you have to keep adding it: Regular watering of your annual plants will wash out the added nutrients if the container has drainage holes on the bottom.
3. Don’t add too much fertilizer: One of the ingredients in fertilizer is salt. Too much fertilizer – and with it, too much salt – can damage plant roots. The salt in the fertilizer will remove whatever moisture is left in the roots and burn them.
4. Cut the amount in half: Whatever dosage the fertilizer manufacturer recommends, consider cutting the amount in half and fertilizing every time you water. This way you have less of a chance of burning the roots, and your plant gets a continual supply of nutrients rather than peaks and valleys.
5. Give them a pinch: Remove the old blooms and pinch a plant’s tips, which will force out new growth. An occasional light trim will keep a plant bushy and blooming.
With proper care, your annual plants will bloom beautifully for you this summer.
Category: Uncategorized
A thorny problem is solved by our annual May-June rose sale
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, author
Indeed, June is National Rose Month, which coincides conveniently with the fact that roses are abundant this time of year.
That abundance explains why Royer’s has its rose sale every June.
As everyone knows, roses, especially red ones, are in great demand at Valentine’s Day. Hence, prices go up for florists and customers alike. Even then, however, the law of supply and demand comes into play.
There’s considerably less demand for yellow and orange and white roses, which become more affordable for us and, in turn, for our customers. This Valentine’s Day, we offered a “rainbow” mixed-rose (colors other than red) arrangement with babies breath, valued at $59.99, for $39.99.
A rose farm typically harvests its crop every six to eight weeks. Conveniently after the Valentine’s Day harvest comes the one for Mother’s Day. But while there’s another big crop of roses in late spring, there is not a corresponding holiday to absorb all of those flowers.
So we created our annual rose sale, which this year started May 17 and runs through June 22. We discount rose arrangements by $10 for one dozen and by $20 for two dozen, among other offers.
Yes, in June the world smells of roses.
There’s also the whiff of our annual rose sale in the air.
Coming up Rosie: costumed flower returns
If you passed our Lebanon store on May 8 or 11 (Mother’s Day), you might have seen something that no one has seen in a long time.
Our costumed rose, aka Rosie, made a couple of appearances, soaking up some sun (after a decade spent mostly in storage) and waving to passersby on South 12th Street. The costume dates at least to the 1990s.
Greg M. Royer, the store’s assistant manager, remembered the costume from a corporate meeting.
“And then it just kind of came to me,” he said, “maybe it would be a good way to get people in the door.”
Shannon Fink, the store manager, located the box containing the costume in the basement of one of the buildings within Royer’s corporate complex.
“Nobody wanted to volunteer to be Rosie at first,” Shannon said, quipping, “so somebody was forced to.”
That somebody was Greg, who’s giving the thumbs-up in the photo above. The costume also comes with a leotard, gloves and shoe coverings.
“I was hoping that somebody else would want to do it,” he said.
But the Royer family is nothing if not hands on when it comes to the flower business, so it should come as no surprise that Greg’s grandfather, Ken Royer, and uncle, Tom Royer, donned the costume in the past.
Greg, the great-grandson of the company’s founders, Hannah and Lester Royer, is the fourth generation of the family to work for Royer’s.
He’s the third generation to play Rosie.
Annual plants add beauty: 3 tips for taking care of them
Colorful flowering annual baskets and pots provide an easy and inexpensive way to increase the beauty and enjoyment of outside living areas.
Annual plants are available in a wide range of colors and varieties, offering something for everyone.
Care is simple. Just keep these things in mind:
• Choose plants suited to the light levels they’re growing in:
- Sunny spots require plants that thrive in the sun, such as geraniums, petunias, marigolds, salvia, ageratum, alyssum and portulaca.
- Plants that do better with partial shade are begonias, impatiens, fuchsia and coleus.
• Container plants drink lots of water. Check them daily.
• To keep the blooms coming all season, add a water-soluble fertilizer a couple of times each week when watering. Plants also can be encouraged to bloom and stay “bushy” by pinching off the spent blooms.
Flowers help stem the morning blahs: Harvard study
Maybe it’s the long winter or the still-cold mornings, or just too much work and not enough sleep. There are any number of reasons why it can be tough to get at ’em in the morning.
When it comes to a pick-me-up, caffeine isn’t for all tastes. But everyone can start their days with flowers — and with good reason.
People are happier and more energetic after looking at flowers first thing in the morning, according to a behavioral study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital.
“The morning blahs, it turns out, is a real phenomenon, with positive moods — happiness, friendliness and warmth, for example — manifesting much later in the day,” said lead researcher Dr. Nancy Etcoff. “Interestingly, when we placed a small bouquet of flowers into their morning routines, people perked up.”
The final study results demonstrated that flowers affect people emotionally at home, causing them to feel less anxious and more compassionate. They even reported a boost of energy that lasted all day.
“What I find interesting is that by starting the day in a more positive mood, you are likely to transfer those happier feelings to others — it’s what is called mood contagion,” Etcoff said. “And, the kitchen is the place where families tend to gather in the morning — imagine how big a difference a better morning mood can make.”
To learn more about this study and ways to incorporate flowers into your kitchen, click here.
Join the Royer’s Kids Club on March 15 for our free St. Patrick’s Day event
At the end of the rainbow is another free Royer’s Kids Club event for ages 5 to 12.
Join us March 15 for an opportunity to decorate a white carnation by giving it a smiling face. You’ll be able to take your creation home in a bud vase and watch as the green dye in the water changes the color of the flower.
Participants also will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. at 17 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
Registration is required by calling your nearest store. Click here for locations and contact information.
Royer’s joins Fox 43 for ‘Wedding Week’
You’ve found Mr. Right, but understand that there’s no wrong when it comes to your wedding flowers.
That’s the message that Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, conveyed during his “Wedding Week” appearance on Fox 43.
Five or 10 years ago, for instance, few brides-to-be would have thought of combining lime green and pink. Not so today.
“If I can get through anything, there’s no wrong,” Barry said, “and, frankly, it looks really cool.”
You can view Barry’s interview with Fox 43’s Andrea Michaels in the two segments below.
Meanwhile, click here for wedding resources on our website.
Hearts afire in Hershey
It’s most famous as Chocolate Town, but Hershey also is home to one of our 17 stores.
The Hershey store was a popular destination on Valentine’s Day morning. Here’s a glimpse into what was going on.
Rather than national services, call your local florist to get the most bang for your buck on Valentine’s Day: NBC’s “Today”
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, NBC’s “Today” put three national floral delivery services to the test. The results weren’t always pretty, with “Today” concluding that what customers received didn’t always match what they ordered from the 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora and FTD websites.
In the clip above, “Today” consults with a flower expert on the subject of getting the most bang for your buck.
The takeaway? Shop a local florist.
In his introduction, “Today” correspondent Jeff Rossen said: “Here’s tip No. 1: Experts say call your local florist. Most of them deliver. You can say to them, ‘What flowers are fresh today?’ You have that personal communication, so experts say you’re more likely to get what you pay for.”
Five Valentine’s Day options for below $50
Love is in the air. And don’t you forget it.
Barry Spengler, Royer’s vice president of operations, visited Fox 43 today to remind viewers that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. In fact, it’s just one week away.
“With this ugly weather, everybody’s hankering for some spring,” Barry told Fox 43’s Amanda McCall. “This is a way to do it. So don’t forget Valentine’s Day.”
Barry quashed the notion that Valentine’s Day flowers have to involve big bucks. He got to the heart of the matter with five options for below $50 each:
1. Single rose: $5; “So let’s say it’s a father looking for Mom, a couple kids … . That happens a lot,” Barry said.
2. Flower handful: $5 to $10; “Some people are a little less traditional. They like tulips. We sell a lot of tulips over the holiday.”
3. Single rose with bear: $15 to $18; “Really cute. That’s a great thing for a kid, as well.”
4. Mixed bunch: $15 to $20; Barry noted that these easily can be dropped in a vase: “Most people have vases around the house.”
5. Dozen rainbow roses: $40; “They’re just mixed-color roses. We put them in a vase. We do have a little better price than red roses because [the non-red] colors are a little less expensive at this holiday.”
As an added bonus, Barry noted, Royer’s is offering an incentive to encourage customers to have their Valentine’s Day orders delivered by Feb. 13: The recipient will get a coupon for a free dozen-rose bouquet.