Make a mental bookmark for Nov. 1-9.
That’s when our annual “Bouquets for Books” book drive returns to collect new children’s books for area public libraries.
It’s really simple – and rewarding – for you to help out.
Just bring a new book to any of our stores during the event, and you will receive a free bouquet (up to three bouquets per family per visit, while supplies last).
In its seven-year history, Bouquets for Books has collected more than 10,000 books for the libraries.
Royer’s exclusive: Corazon rose
The poet and writer Gertrude Stein was wrong.
A rose is a rose is a rose, she said.
If she meant to suggest that all roses are alike, then she was wrong.
We’d like to introduce you to the Corazon rose. It’s unlike any other rose we sell. Don’t get us wrong, we love them all, no matter the variety. But they aren’t one and the same.
Which is why it’s going to take some educating in order for our customers to appreciate what sets Corazon apart from other rose varieties.
First, let’s start with the name: Corazon. It’s pronounced coh-rah-SOHN, and it means “heart” in Spanish.
Corazon only comes in red.
It is grown in Quito, Ecuador, high in the Andes Mountains, approximately 2,800 miles south of Harrisburg.
But a lot of flowers are grown in Quito, including other varieties of roses.
So what’s special about Corazon?
• Its bloom opens fully, like a garden rose
• Its bloom is extra large: almost 5 inches across
• Its petals re-curl at the margins, giving Corazon a classic look
• It lasts a long time: seven days given proper care.
Corazon was a blue-ribbon winner at the Society of American Florists’ most recent convention.
What’s more, Corazon is exclusive to Royer’s. No other florist in our market area can carry Corazon.
Tom Royer, our senior vice president and chief operating officer, has been making regular trips to flower farms in South America for decades. You’d expect that it takes a lot to impress him, right?
Color him impressed – the color red, of course – when it comes to Corazon.
“Number one, it’s the head size,” Tom said. “They’re incredible. The color is just absolutely gorgeous. And it looks like you cut the rose out of your garden.
“It’s all about the characteristics of the rose. Even though it opens quickly, it lasts a long time. I was shocked how long.”
Of course, what gives Corazon its unique appeal also makes for a unique challenge in getting customers to embrace it.
“It’s a test for us,” Tom said. “It’s exciting because it’s a different type of rose. Hopefully it will go really well and people will be mad at us because we don’t have enough of them.”
Schreiber Pediatric teen camp visits Royer’s corporate complex
We were thrilled to be a stop once again for Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center‘s teen camp, which provides participants with an opportunity to work on social skills and learn life skills during outings in the community.
The children toured much of Royer’s corporate complex in Lebanon on Aug. 22. The teen camp has visited Royer’s for the past several years.
“Our thanks to Royer’s for helping us make this happen,” said Jay Graver, Schreiber’s director of educational services.
Based in Lancaster County, Schreiber offers outpatient physical, occupational and speech-language therapy to children with disabilities, developmental delays and acquired injuries.
Kids club members celebrate summer, look ahead to Oct. 26 event
Nat King Cole gave us “Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer.”
The Royer’s Kids Club added “daisy” to the rhyming pattern with its Aug. 17 event. Available in each of our stores, the free event gave children ages 5 to 12 an opportunity to make a Sweet Summer Daisy Bowl arrangement.
The kids club’s final 2013 event is on Oct. 26, when all stores will celebrate Halloween and our annual “Bouquets for Books” book drive to benefit local libraries. We’ll provide more details in the weeks to come.
West York store
West York store
West York store
Orla Egolf wins Royer’s Kids Club birthday card design contest
Paula Egolf is a professional artist, her acrylic paintings having been exhibited at juried shows, galleries and museums.
Apparently she’s also an inspiration to her 10-year old granddaughter Orla Egolf (photo).
Orla, a fourth-grader in the School District of Lancaster, is the winner of Royer’s Flowers & Gifts’ 2013 birthday card design contest. Her prize is a flower delivery on her next birthday.
“She’s very much her own person,” Paula Egolf said of Orla. “Since she was a baby, she has always had a very definite bent toward color and design.”
Orla’s design – comprising a cake with candles, bumble bees, smiley-face balloon and, of course, flowers – graces the electronic card that all Royer’s Kids Club members will receive on their birthdays in the coming year.
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 www.royers.com/kidsclub. Membership benefits include a membership card, Web site activities, an e-mail newsletter, contests and in-store events.
In search of the best rose
“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
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.
Sisters Annie and Maddie celebrate birthdays at Royer’s
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.”
Best of the West (Shore): Royer’s tops Sentinel survey
For the second year in a row, the readers of the Carlisle Sentinel newspaper have voted Royer’s Flowers as the best florist on the West Shore.
The newspaper announced the results of its 11th annual “Best of West Shore” survey in the Aug. 4 print edition.
Readers cast thousands of ballots, submitted by mail and online.
This is just the latest in a string of top-florist honors for Royer’s:
May: York Sunday News’ “Best of York County”
June: Susquehanna Style magazine’s “Best of Harrisburg”
July: Susquehanna Style’s “Best of Lancaster”
‘Royer’s Stems Hunger’ food drive collects nearly 2,500 pounds for area food banks
Our third-annual “Royer’s Stems Hunger” food drive collected 2,486 pounds of non-perishable items for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and the Greater Berks Food Bank.
From June 21 to 29, Royer’s asked customers to drop off donations at any of our 17 Royer’s in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties. In return, customers received a free carnation for each food item, up to a maximum of six carnations per family per visit.
This year’s donations exceeded the amount of food collected in the food drive’s first two years combined.
The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank distributes more than 16 million pounds of food and grocery products every year to more than 600 soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries in 27 central Pennsylvania counties.
The Greater Berks Food Bank collects, stores and distributes food to more than 270 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, after-school programs, and senior housing facilities in Berks, Schuylkill and western Montgomery counties.
Savor summer at free Royer’s Kids Club event Aug. 17 in all stores
It’s getting to be back-to-school time, but the Royer’s Kids Club isn’t letting go of summer easily.
For the next free kids club event, on Aug. 17, children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a Sweet Summer Daisy Bowl arrangement. Participants also will receive a balloon.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at each of Royer’s 17 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
Registration is required by calling your nearest Royer’s store. Visit www.royers.com for locations and contact information.
For more information about Royer’s Kids Club, visit www.royers.com/kidsclub.