Sarasota, FL Florists

Sarasota Flower Shop News

Are Commercial Wildflowers Ever Truly 'Wild'? - The Atlantic

Wildflower florists cater to customers eager to fill their events with local foliage. Her sister operates another William’s Wildflowers in Florida, one that supplies pickings from in and around Sarasota.The first goal of the New York operation is to expand native plant populations to help foster wildlife habitats. Roughly half of the money the business brings in after each event goes toward furthering planting efforts. But to maintain the operation, Andre also picks some of what she grows—and what she collects off uncurated plots of land—for wedding and special event orders. “I think I’ll always keep foraging, always keep that idea fresh in people’s minds—that this was from the wild, specifically picked for your wedding,” she says.To Andre, the only true wildflowers are the ones that grow without the help of a human hand. In the spring, when blossoms like black-eyed Susans proliferate in eastern New York, Andre wakes up early in the morning and forages along roadway patches to make most of her arrangements. But Andre relies on other sources of plants, too. Through summer and fall when untended and truly “wild” blossoms, by her definition, are harder to come by, she purchases more of her materials from local nurseries. She also draws from her own property, which was passed down from her grandfather, the business’s namesake. It is this plot of land that blurs the definition of wildflowers: While it is flush with a range of indigenous plants, left to grow as they please, Andre chooses which species are planted. Sprouts of tiny, purple inverted ice cream cones known as blue vervain, clusters of miniature tulips called turtlehead, and four kinds of aster—Stokes’, arrowleaf, New England and New York—are just some of the plants Andre tends to in her yard.This plot of land helps Andre navigate the challenge of maintaining a business with a primary goal of increasing a plant’s population, but then having to pick that very plant to keep the operation going. If Andre only foraged her stock, she would deplete the very blossoms she is trying to revive. “It makes me almost incredibly sad at times to have to cut down these flowers that are so beautiful and that bees are swarming around and loving and other pollinators are just in love with and the bugs ...” Andre trails off. So instead, she curates her grandfather’s property with a collection of indigenous upstate New York plants. The plot became a home for wildlife, and Andre pulls the small amount she needs for bouquets. And while they may not be as “wild” as their siblings on untended property, they allow her to avoid overplucking native populations. Besides, she points out, in the seven years the property was unattended, the land was overrun with garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed, Ja...

Valentine's Day happenings in Bradenton-Sarasota - Bradenton Herald (blog)

Wine pairing is available for an additional $20. The evening will include live music by a piano and violin duo. For details about the menu, visit cestlaviesarasota.com. Call 941-355-2323 to make reservations.1,364 number of U.S. manufacturing establishments that produced primarily chocolate and cocoa products in 2014, employing 42,043 peopleSource: U.S. Census Bureau ? The Polo Bar & Grill, 10670 Boardwalk Loop, Lakewood Ranch, will offer a Valentine’s Day menu on Tuesday. The evening will include a performance by strolling violinist Laurie Vodnoy-Wright. To view the menu, visit pologrillandbar.com/valentines-day-2017. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 941-782-0899, ext. 2, or online at pologrillandbar.com/reservations.? The Table Creekside, 5365 Tamiami Trail South. Sarasota, is offering a special Valentine’s Day menu in addition to its usual dinner menu through Feb. 14. For details on the menu, visit tablesrq.com. For reservations, call 941-921-9465.13,765 the number of florist establishments nationwide in 2014Source: U.S. Census Bureau? Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, 2001 Siesta Drive, has a three-course menu available through Feb. 19 for couples who can’t make it out on Tuesday. To view the menu details and make reservations online visit flemingssteakhouse.com. Call the Sarasota location at 941-358-9463 for more information. And if you’re flying solo this Valentine’s Day, or you and your sweetie don’t have a ton of extra cash to splurge on a fancy meal, Dunkin’ Donuts has you covered. The coffee-and-pastry chain is offering fudge brownie swirl-flavored coffee and vanilla cupcake-flavored coffee in addition to two heart-shaped donuts; one is the Chocolate-Covered Raspberry Heart Donut, a chocolate-covered with raspberry filling, and the other is the Brownie Batter Crumble Heart Donut, with brownie batter flavored buttercreme filling, frosted with ch... http://www.bradenton.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/cravings-blog/article132032909.html

Sarasota detectives search for potted plant pilferer - Bradenton Herald

Sarasota Police detectives are searching for a suspect in the thefts of potted plants and a metal bench worth a total of $1,000, according to a Sarasota Police Department press release.From a video released by the Sarasota Police Department, a man is seen walking into a courtyard at Awesome Orchids, 330 S. Pineapple Ave. No. 101, on after 2 a.m. on Sept. 15.Detectives say several potted plants were first taken between 5:30 p.m. Sept. 1 and 9:30 a.m. Sept. 2, when the shop was closed. More plants and a metal bench, bolted to the cement, were taken between Sept. 14 and 15 after business hours.Anyone with information can call Detective Dan Riley at 941-954-7062 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 941-366-8477 or online at http://sarasotacrimestoppers.com. http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/crime/article104610291.html

Flower Art Festival - SRQ Magazine

Vatican.For the second festival, Tonya and I traveled to Genzano by train and stayed at a friend's house, Alessandro Settimi, who started and sold two restaurants in Sarasota. His mother Simonetta took us in as her own daughters, feeding us the best homemade Italian food we ever had. In fact, she was the one responsible for the incredible tiramisu that was served when they first opened Matto Matto, which used to be in Burns Square.We spent most of our time at the Infiorata di Genzano di Roma and witnessed thousands of graceful and glamorous flowers of all colors being ripped apart by volunteers who separated the petals, leaves and seeds so the festival artists could use the parts as their medium to make carpets of flower paintings on the road surface Observing and meeting the artists was the main purpose of my trip as we prepare for the first Floralia Infiorata in the US this coming spring. It will be another ephemeral cultural event that affords visitors the opportunity to see the creative process from beginning to end. And just like the Chalk Festival, it will be no easy feat. Teams of volunteers will have to organize petal colors and materials into large baskets and throughout the night, they will have to help the artists place the petals in order to turn the street into a carpet of flower paintings by morning, but unlike the Chalk Festival that started from scratch, we head into our first Infiorata with some knowledge about such festivals.The Infiorata technique was invented in 1625 by a Vatican officer, Benedetto Drei, a florist and architect who headed the Apostolic Floreria. He used flowers to emulate a mosaic painting as an homage during the feast of the patron saints Peter and Paul of Rome. The art form now is celebrated throughout Italy, but the one in Genzano is the longest continuously running Infiorata festival, dating back to 1778.We were fortunate to attend this year during the Jubilee because the students, who normally create a mini-Infiorata at another time, got to present a few days earlier. By the time the professionals finished, the students’ flowers were starting to wilt and the wind blew some of the designs away. While standing in the town square at the fountain and viewing both streets, you could see the contrast with the professional exhibition that remained bright and the designs bold and the students' looking antiquated. Both were beautiful.The following day, a religious parade took place on the flower carpets with hundreds of people dressed in medieval and traditional garments. As a finale, the town children got to run over the artwork, blending all the colors and designs together. On my last day, I hiked to the top of the Molar, the highest peak of the Lattari Mountains, with pavement artist Vito Mercurio, where I got to see a panoramic view of where I had traveled for two weeks. It was a bittersweet ending. http://www.srqmagazine.com/articles/439/Flower-Art-Festival

Corpse flowers are invading the East Coast - Toledo Blade

Because of the timing, most people who view the plant won’t smell much, but the sight alone is spectacle enough.The other two titan arums are in the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Fla. Its first, named Seymour, bloomed a couple weeks ago. The second, Audrey, opened over the weekend. The names come from the 1986 movie about a man-eating plant, The Little Shop of Horrors.Horticulturists at the three botanical institutions hope to share pollen for breeding purposes, because the arum does not self-pollinate. Washington and New York have live webcams. Selby Gardens has Facebook updates.As with the Washington specimen, known internally as Charlotte to distinguish it from George, which bloomed three years ago, Audrey is currently in a coiled phase. The central spire, known as a spadix, is growing at about 6 inches a day while wrapped partially in a skirt called a spathe. This resembles a furled umbrella that is getting fatter by the hour. Botanically, the titan arum is the largest unbranched flower structure in the plant kingdom.Its flowering has become a hugely popular if not common phenomenon in botanical gardens around the world, not least because this plant draws thousands of ticket-paying visitors. Uniquely, admission to the U.S. Botanic Garden is free, and its grower, Elliott Norman, and plant curator, Bill McLaughlin, are simply thrilled to get visitors during the oppressive heat and humidity of high summer in Washington. Visitors are itching to take a selfie for their social media sites, they say. “It’s a bucket list for people to experience,” Mr. McLaughlin said.“A large, smelly bucket,” Mr. Norman added. He has been growing this week’s titan arum since 2010, when it was a pea-size offset of its mother bulb, or corm. Its bulb is now about 50 pounds, small for a blooming titan, but nothing about this plant has been predictable. Norman usually can figure out three months in advance if new growth will turn into a flower, rather than the more common and persistent leafy stalk. But Charlotte only gave him a couple of weeks notice. Its mother plant has yet to bloom.The plant is also growing at a rate and size beyond expectations, given the smallish girth of its bulb. As of Thursday morning, it was 79 inches high — the Florida pair are about 60 inches, the New York specimen 76 inches.“It took us by surprise, and its performance has been amazing; it’s far larger than expected,” Mr. McLaughlin said.When George bloomed in 2013, the horticulturists set up a step ladder after hours to get pictures and to experience the most potent period of odor. Mr. Norman, being an incurable romantic, took his wife along. “After the third wave we decided to leave. We thought the next one would cause us to fall off the ladder,” he said.Related Items: New York City ,new york ,united states ,north america... http://www.toledoblade.com/Gardening/2016/08/03/Corpse-flowers-are-invading-the-East-Coast.html

Royer's Flowers and Gifts CEO talks about returning to the family business - Reading Eagle

The only thing I buy from the U.S. is some of our greens that we use to make arrangements. We get stuff from the west coast, the northwest of the United States, and we get some stuff from Florida. In the summer, we use a lot of locally grown flowers, like sunflowers. There's an Amish family that we've worked with for like 15 years that grows a lot of our sunflowers that we use during the summer. We don't get any greenhouse-grown flowers anymore."BW: How often do you or someone from Royer's travel out of the country to inspect flowers? TR: "At least two or three times a year. I go to all the farms that I buy roses from to go inspect them. While they're in the process of cutting them, harvesting them, I'm there seeing what they're doing to make sure that the cut point on the rose is right: it's not too far open, it's not too tight, I check on the head size to make sure the size of the flower is the right number of centimeters and also to make sure they're fresh. After I do that inspection, I'm there for two or three days, and then I fly into Miami where we fly our flowers and they clear customs there, and I inspect them again to make sure everything is OK, then we load them on our refrigerated trucks to ship them up here to Pennsylvania."BW: How has the internet changed the flower business? TR: "I would say about half of our business runs through the internet. It's been very helpful for us for communication and showing people what we have. One of the biggest issues we had at Valentine's Day before the advent of the internet, we couldn't handle the volume of business on Valentine's Day because we didn't have enough infrastructure to be able to deal with it. We needed 100 phone lines instead of 12. We just didn't have enough structure. People waited until the last minute. It's been a wonderful thing."BW: Are there any plans for additional Royer's locations? TR: "We're always looking at potential growth through acquisition. There are always things out there that we're aware of, nothing that I can report. We're always looking to grow."BW: Do you think your grandparents would have ever imagined the company would get as big as it is? TR: "No. My dad told me when he was younger he wanted to be the largest florist in Lebanon County. Back then, there was a lot of flower shops in Lebanon. It was very competitive. There was a lot of really good family businesses that were florists. It was a constant struggle with competition, but he eventually realized his goal of being the largest florist in Lebanon County and now we're probably the largest florist in the country because of our size. They never had an idea that it would grow to the size it is today."BW: Are you indeed the largest florist in the country? TR: "I'm pretty sure about that, because I know all the biggest florists in the country, and we're bigger than all of them. Grocery store chains sell a lot more flowers than I do by sheer numbers. But a traditional retail flower shop, we're the largest in the country."— Interview by Brad RhenFYIAge: 63Residence: Hummelstown, Dauphin CountyEducation: Penn State, 1977, business; Lebanon High School, 1973Work History: After college worked at a Whataburger in Texas for two years. Returned to Pennsylvania in 1980 and started at Royer's as a painter. Was also a store manager in Lancaster, distribution manager for about 25 years, chief operating officer and senior vice president for about 20 years, and he became CEO in January.Best Piece of Management Advice: "Six P" rule: prior proper planning prevents poor performanceFamily: He and his wife, Cindy, have six kids — five girls, one boy — who range in age from 10 to 32Hobbies: golf, yard workRoyer's Flowers and GiftsAddress: 810 S. 12th St... https://www.readingeagle.com/business-weekly/article/royers-flowers-and-gifts-ceo-talks-about-returning-to-the-family-business

Jackie Lacey, AAF, AIFD, CFD, PFCI, Is Named National President of American Institute of Floral Designers - PerishableNews

BloomNet offers to flower shop owners and floral designers. He assisted in the launch of Floriology® Institute located in Jacksonville, Florida and he serves as an instructor at the Institute. Floriology® Institute is recognized as one of the country’s foremost centers for innovative floral design and florist-related education. Mr. Lacey also engages florists and shares his knowledge throughout the floral industry at state and regional trade shows, company sponsored events, and Floriology® “on the road” educational events.During his distinguished career, Mr. Lacey has owned flower shops in Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina and he is one of the nation’s leading authorities on retail floral operations and best practices. He has also won numerous awards and earned many accolades through floral design competitions at the national, state and local levels. He is also renowned internationally for his leading-edge approaches to design and his imaginative floral creations. In addition, he has shared the principles, elements and artistry of his craft during memorable stage presentations, wowing audiences around the world. His floral designs and educational insights have been featured in many magazines, including Floriology®, Flowers &, Modern Bride and Inside Weddings. He has provided his talents to such notable events as the Tournament of Roses Parade, and many celebrities have also called upon his expertise.“I am honored at being named President of such a prestigious industry organization as the American Institute of Floral Designers,” said Mr. Lacey. “The journey to becoming President has been educational, enlighteni... https://www.perishablenews.com/floral/jackie-lacey-aaf-aifd-cfd-pfci-is-named-national-president-of-american-institute-of-floral-designers/

Bridal Bliss: Keva and Leonard's Bahamian Wedding Was A Photographer's Dream - Essence

Leonard are a young God-fearing couple that wanted their wedding to be both rustic and spiritual.The couple met online in 2017 while Leo pursued his master’s degree at the University of Central Florida while working at Bethune-Cookman University. Both of them are photographers, and Keva admired his work enough to inquire about him taking some birthday photos for her. “Initially, Keva wanted to shoot in Nassau,” Leo explains, “but I was persistent insisting about shooting in her hometown Bimini because I’ve always wanted to visit.” Their connection was instant, and there were many signs from the Lord up above that told Leo he should make Keva his wife. With the help of Keva’s pastor, family and close friends, he pulled off a memorable engagement that is wife will cherish for eternity. “I felt his words with every fiber of my being and I said YES! ,” Keva remembers. “There were no tears on the outside, but inside, my heart was crying and leaping for joy.”Thanks to the help of their inner circle, Leo and Keva received help with their DIY accouterments which allowed them to stay on budget. “We were blessed with numerous family and friends who supported our union, so we didn’t have to ... https://www.essence.com/love/weddings/bridal-bliss-keva-and-leonards-bahamian-wedding-was-a-photographers-dream/

Armstrong, Charlie Hugh - The Chattanoogan

Charlie Hugh Armstrong, 87, of Chattanooga, passed away on Monday, August 5, 2019, in Jacksonville, Florida.  Charlie dedicated more than 50 years to the pharmacy profession, as an owner/pharmacist of Lakeside Pharmacy in Chattanooga; as a pioneer in the treatment of decubitus ulcers; and as a leader in Tennessee hospice development in the mid-80s. He was a longtime PCCA (Professional Compounding Centers of America) member, former PCCA pharmacy consultant, and most recently, PCCA treasurer, serving on the board of directors. Charlie went home to be with his Lord on Monday, August 5, 2019. He joined PCCA as a member in May 1984, began helping out with pharmacy consulting calls in the early 1990s, became a major PCCA shareholder and treasurer in November 1998, and then officially joined the PCCA team in September 1999. He retired from PCCA in January 2004, but continued to serve as a consultant and on the board of directors until March 2019. His son, Charles H. Armstrong, Jr., known by all as “Chick,” continued his father’s legacy by joining the PC... https://www.chattanoogan.com/2019/8/8/394276/Armstrong-Charlie-Hugh.aspx