Jamie Butts of Lebanon said her daughter, Camryn, plays soccer, basketball and swims. But her interests extend beyond sports.
“Drawing and coloring has always been something that she has liked,” Jamie said.
Camryn is a talented artist, too, as evidenced by the Cornwall Elementary fourth-grader winning this year’s Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club birthday card design contest.
Her design will be featured on the electronic card that kids club members will receive on their birthdays in the coming year. Her prize is a free flower delivery on her next birthday.
The Royer’s Kids Club is free to ages 5 to 12. With parental permission, children may register for the kids club at any Royer’s store or online at royers.com/kidsclub. Kids club benefits include a membership card, online activities, quarterly e-mail newsletter, contests and in-store events.
Royer’s name-the-arrangement online contest runs July 15-31
Royer’s Flowers & Gifts’ annual name-the-arrangement contest is four times more fun this summer.
The winning name will apply to one arrangement that’s available in four sizes, small through extra-large.
The person who submits the winning name will receive a small version of the arrangement (retail value $21.99), which features yellow alstroemeria and daisy pom pons, peach hypericum and mini carnations, and orange carnations.
To view the arrangement and enter the contest, visit royers.com/contest.
Limit one entry daily per email address, July 15 through July 31.
AN ARTIST’S PALLET
When boxes of fresh flowers arrive at our distribution center in Lebanon, often they are stacked on wooden pallets. Needless to say, that’s a lot of wooden pallets over time.
As noted by Cheryl Brill, Royer’s vice president of retail operations, pallets became all the rage a few years ago. A quick Internet search reveals pallets that have been “upcycled” into everything from wine bars to bookshelves, pathways (when taken apart) to lights.
Royer’s had its own purpose.
“We originally became interested in the pallets as outdoor artwork as a way to provide color and interest outside in the drearier months,” Cheryl said.
In Ephrata, Cheryl installed pallets on a wall and attached shelves to them. In Shillington, we turned pallets into display pieces for plants and giftware, with two more decorated with sunflowers by resident artist Lori Emerich, assistant manager of our Lebanon store.
In the accompanying gallery, you’ll find numerous examples of our talented staff bringing new purpose and function to old wooden pallets.
OUR STORES ARE ACCEPTING NONPERISHABLE FOOD DONATIONS THROUGH JUNE 30
Amid the flowers, plants and gifts in our stores, this time of year you’ll also find a selection of food.
That’s because we’re in the midst of our annual Royer’s Stems Hunger food drive to benefit the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and the Greater Berks Food Bank.
From June 16-30, we’re collecting nonperishable food in each of our stores. For each item you donate, we’ll give you a free carnation, up to six per visit.
Please consider donating at any of our stores.
STEMS HUNGER, OUR ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE, RETURNS JUNE 16-30
While the holidays are a time of great giving, needs in our communities exist year-round. Summers are tough for some families because the school break cuts off access to food programs.
So for the past seven summers, our “Royer’s Stems Hunger” food drive has collected nonperishable items for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and for the Greater Berks Food Bank. In its history, Stems Hunger has collected more than six tons of food.
Stems Hunger returns this year from June 16-30. For donating at any of our 16 stores, we’ll give you a free carnation for each item, up to six per visit.
In addition, seven Drayer Physical Therapy Institute outpatient centers in the region will collect food for Stems Hunger.
Meanwhile, the Royer’s Kids Club is helping to kick off the food drive June 16 with an event in each store. Participants are asked to bring a food item as the price of admission.
Royer’s annual food drive kicks off with June 16 kids club event
Royer’s Flowers & Gifts’ annual food drive returns June 16-30.
The Royer’s Kids Club will kick it off with an event June 16 in all Royer’s stores.
Children ages 5 to 12 are asked to bring a nonperishable food item as the price of admission.
They will have an opportunity to decorate their own pot and plant marigold seeds in it and to enter the kids club birthday card design contest (the winner receives a flower delivery on his or her birthday). Each participant also will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling the nearest Royer’s store.
OUR ANNUAL ROSE SALE RETURNS MAY 16-JUNE 16
Roses are most closely associated with Valentine’s Day, but they are available year-round.
They’re a particularly good value in June thanks to the natural rose growing cycle, as evidenced by Royer’s annual rose sale, which coincides with National Rose Month in June.
This year’s sale runs May 16-June 16 with specials including:
- Three roses added to any arrangement for $4;
- One-dozen loose red, yellow, pink or rainbow roses for $15.99;
- Two-dozen premium rose arrangement for $69.99 (normally $89.99).
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 those flowers.
Our rose sale taps into that abundant availability, which makes roses less expensive for us and, by extension, for you, our customers.
Royer’s primary rose variety is called Freedom, which makes a big impression with its deep color, size (flowers range from 5 to 7 centimeters across), and long vase life.
No matter the variety, roses have similar characteristics. However, care requirements can differ whether the roses arrive in a vase, loose or in a box, as these care tips explain.
Of course, with our annual rose sale, it’s a great time to give roses as a gift to someone else or to treat yourself.
Driven to succeed: Royer’s participates in Career Vehicle Day at Camp Hill elementary school
Megan Zeller is a designer at Royer’s Camp Hill store, but she first joined the company as a contract driver for Valentine’s Day.
She brought that delivery experience to Career Vehicle Day April 6 at Hoover Elementary School in Camp Hill. Along with sales associate Tracy McEldowney, the Royer’s colleagues explained what it’s like to be a delivery driver.
Royer’s delivery truck was among one-dozen vehicles parked outside the school for the event that highlighted careers in everything from package delivery and TV news to police and EMS.
When delivering delicate flowers, Megan said, “We’ve got to be careful, we’ve got to be smart, we’ve got to be able to lift heavy things, too, because there are a lot of heavy things we deliver.”
With the assistance of computer tablets, Royer’s drivers load packages into their vehicles and then deliver. Megan emphasized the importance of being reliable, “to be where you need to be on time.”
Drivers must be licensed, of course, but they also have to pass a ride-along with a Royer’s manager to confirm that they operate safely when behind the wheel.
“A little fun fact,” Megan told the students and their teacher, “is that when this tablet is with the driver, we can tell how fast they’re going. So we can tell if somebody is driving over the speed of 60, and how many times they’ve gone over the speed of 60, and then we can talk to them when they come back.”
Check your work
The students learned that a driver deals with all manner of weather, from lovely to cold and slippery. Megan asked what a driver should do if delivering to a house where no one was home and the temperature was too cold to leave the flowers outside.
“Yeah, I might have to bring [the flowers] back to the shop,” she said. “I might have to go to a neighbor’s house.”
Not only do their tablets help the drivers keep track of deliveries, but they keep the store manager in the loop. If Aunt Tilly calls wondering where her order is, Megan said, the store manager can look at the status based on information shared from the tablet.
Tracy said a teacher’s adage to check work before turning it in also applies in the flower business. Clutching a big white stuffed bear and holding two Mylar balloons, she urged the students:
“Just like your teacher tells you now before you turn in your test, check your work, well, you have to keep checking your work,” Tracy said. “Because the driver has to check his work to make sure he gets the righty teddy bear to the right person.”
Royer’s Kids Club offers free St. Patrick’s Day event March 17
If you can’t have a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, then the next-best thing just might be a free Royer’s Kids Club event on March 17 to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a St. Patrick’s Day arrangement and will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling your nearest store.
Valentine’s Day: from field to front door
Whether you’re a planner or procrastinator, online or in-store shopper, you can expect the same high-quality product and customer service from Royer’s.
We really shine at Valentine’s Day. It’s our busiest time, and we enjoy the challenge of rising to the occasion. If a customer buys flowers once per year, it’s probably for Feb. 14. And with matters of the heart, the pressure really ramps up to deliver in a special way, for lovers and florists alike.
We handle a similar volume of orders during the Christmas season, but that’s over a month or longer. By comparison, the Valentine’s Day “season” squeezes a similar volume into several days.
From South America, with love
But behind the scenes, Valentine’s Day is months in the making, and it takes us thousands of miles from our stores.
You see, we don’t just place a phone call and wait for roses to come to us. We go directly to the flower farms in South America, where we can see firsthand the crop that’s being grown just for our customers. This way we can make sure everything is to our satisfaction. If there are problems, then we have more time to correct them.
Once the Valentine’s Day crop is harvested, it is flown to Miami, where it is inspected by U.S. customs officials. From there, we move the flowers to a refrigerated tractor-trailer for their journey to Royer’s corporate complex in Lebanon.
The truck is unloaded at our distribution center. The flowers are either picked up by drivers from our stores or, more likely, headed to the back of the building and our central design department.
Central Design: heart of the operation
The demand is so great at Valentine’s Day that our stores simply can’t accommodate all the work. They get a big assist from central design, where teams of workers gather around long tables to package roses in boxes or turn them and other flowers into beautiful arrangements.
Whether you give or receive Valentine’s Day roses, or both, we want to make sure you get the most out of them. In fact, with the right amount of care, you should be able to keep your roses looking just rosy for a week.
Click here for specific care instructions, which differ depending on whether your roses arrived in a vase or loose in a box. Either way, it’s best to keep them cool and, of course, sufficiently watered.
From the farm to your front door, we love making Valentine’s Day special for our customers.
Thanks for letting us show you how.