Batesville Flower Shop News
A passion for farm life: Woman's love for flowers shows in successful florist biz - Danville Advocate
Tuesday, July 18, 2017I’ve never seen anyone look at a flower and not like it. A flower, to me, is like a smile,” Gibson said, breaking into laughter. “I know that sounds corny.” She was born in Batesville, Indiana and grew up in Covington, then moved to Lexington with her mom. In the mid-1980s, she made her way to Burgin, where she lived with her first husband and their two daughters. It was there, while living in Burgin, that Gibson got started growing plants with a friend Ann Gautier. They would raise tobacco plants in greenhouses for someone else who allowed them use of a smaller greenhouse for flowers. After a few years, that opportunity ended and they were looking for a new location to raise the flowers that had been started in the smaller greenhouse. It was around 1993, which is when Gibson moved with her daughters to a farm near Perryville, when she was remarrying. Another friend was selling a greenhouse she had built, so Gibson and Gautier bought it, and moved it to her farm. The time growing plants led her to a chance to work for Key’s Nursery and Landscaping, where she stayed about 10 years. “I learned tons of information on shrubs, bushes, trees, when to dig them, when to plant them, when to prune them, all of that kinds of stuff,” she said. “I ... http://www.amnews.com/2017/07/11/a-passion-for-farm-life-womans-love-for-flowers-shows-in-successful-florist-biz/
In lieu of flowers, justice: Paper runs 'Walking Dead' obit *SPOILERS* - WHP Harrisburg
Tuesday, November 15, 2016BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) —Many viewers of AMC's "The Walking Dead" took the shocking deaths of two fan favorites in the latest season premiere as personally as a death in the family. One Arkansas newspaper took it a step further.This week, the Batesville Guard newspaper published an obituary for — spoiler alert— the popular character of Glenn Rhee, who was brutally killed in the newest episode of the zombie apocalypse drama.With a headline of "RIP, Glenn," the obituary says the character's "commitment to moral principles in a world-gone-mad breathed hope and promise into those around him." The obit seeks justice for Rhee's death in lieu of flowers.The newspaper says the obituary was written by Frank Vaughn, a soldier currently stationed in Puerto Rico who writes occasional columns for the paper. http://local21news.com/news/offbeat/in-lieu-of-flowers-justice-paper-runs-walking-dead-obit
Slideshow: Flowers Foods revives Wonder Bread plant - Food Business News (registration)
Tuesday, October 04, 2016Kansas City made sense. A distribution network was already established in the region.“Flowers products were already in the market, but it was a far reach from our Batesville, Ark.; Atlanta; Bardstown, Ky.; and Denton, Texas, bakeries that were supplying goods here,” Mr. Frankum said.This involved “burning a lot of fuel and driving a lot of miles,” according to Mr. Benton.“Lenexa gives us the ability to get the pans close to the shoppers, in other words, to be freshest to the market, and we are having a lot of success here,” Mr. Frankum said.The bakery’s independent distributor partners currently supply grocery stores and supermarkets primarily, with limited service to private label and food service customers. The Lenexa site sits adjacent to I-35, which links the central region of the U.S. from north to southwest. Goods baked here move on tractor trailers and through a DSD network of independent distributors reaching west to Topeka and Wichita, Kas.; north to Lincoln and Omaha, Neb.; south to Springfield and Joplin, Mo.; and east to St. Louis and eastern Illinois.“A lot of our market didn’t exist until we opened this bakery,” Mr. Frankum said.Now, a year after startup, Flowers’ decision has paid off, especially the choice to maximize output of buns.“Our distributor partners could not have served the market over the Fourth of July holiday without this bakery,” Mr. Frankum said. “And we’re able to supplement product to Denton to fill a temporary production gap there.”Flowers sifted through the Hostess assets carefully, selling some locations and transferring equipment to its other bakeries as needed.“We knew that Lenexa was one of the best plants Hostess had as far as equipment and location,” Mr. Benton said. “That’s why we chose it.”Mr. Frankum’s management team at Flowers Baking Co. of Lenexa includes Todd Hamann, vice-president of sales; Amber Mangiaracino, director of manufacturing; Brian Rutecki, director of engineering; and Damien Butler, director of human resources.With a total of 137,354 square feet under roof on 10.2 acres, the facility uses 50,190 square feet for processing, 13,776 square feet for packaging and 54,360 square feet for warehousing. The office and ancillary facilities cover 19,028 square feet. The bakery employs 160 company staff members and has 142 outsourced associates, including sanitation through Ambassador Services. Approximately 125 independent distributor partners sell fresh bakery foods to retail customers in the market every day.Lenexa houses two processing lines, one for bread, the other for buns, and it has seven packaging lines, four for bread and three for buns. Packaging will soon expand with the addition of two bulk bun packers. Product styles comprise round-top bread, giant and king sandwich loaves, cluster and individual hamburger buns, and cluster hot dog buns. Bread is offered as single loaves and in 2-packs, while buns go out in 8-, 12- and 16-packs.Four exterior silos, with more than 400,000 lbs total capacity, supply flour needs at Lenexa.“The wheat is grown in Kansas, milled in Kansas and baked in Kansas," Mr. Frankum said. "We like it that this bakery’s supply chain is so close to the farmer’s field... http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Business_News/2016/09/Slideshow_Flowers_Foods_revive.aspx?ID%3D%257BB273D4BF-DBDA-4C2A-AAA6-FC4DDB66880F%257D
Cincy Flower Show highlights upcoming home, garden events - Cincinnati.com
Monday, April 11, 2016Buy PhotoA flower-filled beer stein by the Olde Garden Shack of Milford and Batesville, Indiana, at the 2015 Cincinnati Flower Show.(Photo: The Enquirer/Cara Owsley)Buy PhotoThe Cincinnati Flower Show at Yeatman’s Cove starts on Wednesday ... which is a great reminder that spring has sprung in full force – aside from a minor snow shower or two.With the earth coming back to life, it’s a great time to start thinking about your home and your garden and everything in between. Here’s some info on the Flower Show and a list of exhibits, classes, tours and more that should get your green thumb digging and your feng shui swinging.April 13-17: Cincinnati Flower Show: An International AdventureFloral displays and design demonstrations, celebrity lectures, international flavors, culinary events and live entertainment for all ages.Wednesday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Ask the Experts Box Luncheon With Ron Wilson and Rita Heikenfeld at noon. An Evening in Munich at 6 p.m.Thursday: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Master Gardeners Event at 10 a.m. Lunch and Learn with Sharon McGukin at 11 a.m. Wine tasti... http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2016/04/11/cincy-flower-show-highlights-upcoming-home-garden-events/82901500/
Jackson Attorney to Represent Flowers in Possible Seventh Trial - Jackson Free Press
Tuesday, July 09, 2019A lead attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice plans to represent Curtis Flowers (pictured) if he is tried for a seventh time for the 1994 murders of four people in Winona, Miss. AP Photo/Winona Times, Dale Gerstenslager, Pool, File A Jackson-area civil rights attorney is vowing to represent an African American man after a prosecutor accused of racial bias said he plans to try him a seventh time for the same murder case.Rob McDuff, the director of the Mississippi Center for Justice’s impact litigation project, announced on July 2 that he will represent Curtis Flowers if prosecutor Doug Evans tries him again for the 1996 slayings of four people at a furniture store in Winona, Miss. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Flowers’ 2010 murder conviction, finding that Evans was racially discriminatory in jury selection.“Curtis Flowers’ formidable struggle to secure a trial free from racial discrimination fits within MCJ’s core mission of racial and economic justice,” Mississipp... http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/jul/08/jackson-attorney-represent-flowers-possible-sevent/
Clarence Thomas Breaks a Three-Year Silence at Supreme Court - The New York Times
Wednesday, April 03, 2019WASHINGTON — For the first 55 minutes of a Supreme Court argument on Wednesday about racial discrimination in jury selection, the justices seemed united in their view that a white Mississippi prosecutor had violated the Constitution in his determined efforts to exclude black jurors from the six trials of Curtis Flowers, who was convicted of murdering four people in a furniture store.As Mr. Flowers’s lawyer concluded her argument, Justice Clarence Thomas asked his first questions from the bench since 2016. He wanted to know whether the defense lawyer in the sixth trial had excluded any jurors. The lawyer said yes.“And what was the race of the jurors struck there?” Justice Thomas asked.White, said the lawyer, Sheri Lynn Johnson.Justice Thomas holds the modern record for silence on the bench. Before his questions in 2016, he had gone a decade without asking one. His explanations have varied, but he has said lately that the other justices asked so many questions that they were rude to the lawyers before them.The balance of the argument went well for Mr. Flowers, whose case has attracted widespread attention. Justices across the ideological spectrum said the track re... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/us/politics/clarence-thomas-speaks-supreme-court.html
MSU Florist invites public to holiday open house - Mississippi State Newsroom
Monday, December 17, 2018Contact: Vanessa BeesonSTARKVILLE, Miss.—The public is invited to ring in the holiday cheer at the upcoming Mississippi State University Florist open house. The event, which includes coffee, cookies and a McCarty pottery door prize giveaway, takes place Friday [Nov. 16] from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the flower shop located at 100 Lee Blvd. in the center of campus.The holiday open house is a chance for Bulldog fans to shop local and check out all that the University Florist has to offer from made-in-Mississippi gift selections, including McCarty pottery and Wolfe Studio ceramic birds, to unique MSU gifts and much more. A complete array of MSU ornaments and holiday arrangements also will be on display and available to order or purchase.“This is our way of kicking off the holiday season and giving the community a chance to stop by and check out all we have to offer,” said Taylor Bowden, florist manager.The University Florist at Mississippi State is a retail shop operated by the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It serves as a practi... https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2018/11/msu-florist-invites-public-holiday-open-house/
Rising shipping costs spell the end of Norridgewock Christmas wreath company - Press Herald
Monday, December 17, 2018Newburgh, which also makes wreathes. Corliss said the struggles for wreath-makers in Maine and beyond just keep mounting.Piper Mountain charges $26 per wreath, with $13 for shipping east of the Mississippi and another $1 westward.“Absolutely, shipping has become a bear,” Corliss said, saying the mailing companies have jacked costs severely the last six years and added additional home delivery fees. “It’s got me a little unawares this year. We did not raise our price, and, of course, when you say shipping, you don’t just blame UPS and FedEx; it’s also the cost of the box, the cost of the labor to decorate that wreath and put it in the box.”There’s also a growing challenge getting so-called “fir tippers” who bring in the balsam harvest from the woods, Corliss said.“The tips that we used to make the wreaths for years was 25 cents a pound for people to go out into the woods. Last year we were paying 40 cents a pound. This year I was offering 40 cents and no one came until I discovered some people offering 50 cents in this area,” he said.In Norridgewock, Christmas Tree Acres was once one of the largest Christmas tree farms in the state, and its former owner and founder, Dwight Newman, was a past president of the Maine Christmas Tree Association.Bolduc did not respond to a message left on his home phone or an email sent to the business. A phone call to the number on a “For Sale” sign on the building at 69 Depot St. also was not returned.Newman, who died in 2012, was a florist and greenhouse owner in Winchester, Massachusetts, when he started the tree farm on Sandy River Road in 1965. He eventually moved to Maine and with his wife, Nancy, started a mail-order Christmas tree and wreath business out of the Depot Street building, according to Newman’s obituary and Morning Sentinel archives.Newman retired in 1995, at which point he sold the wreath company to its current owner, David Bolduc.In the message on the website, Bolduc talks about shipping expenses increasing more than 27 percent in a single year. It said the average cost for shipping a wreath is $18 to $20 each, but the company charged only $11.25 for shipping.Leman, the Ellsworth wreath maker, said that sounds about right. His company ships about 6,000 wreaths each year to places all around the country. Six years ago, he said the average shipping cost per wreath was about $8 to $12, with $12 for wreaths going to the West Coast.Now it costs $25 to $30 to send a wreath to the west coast via UPS and “close to $16 bucks to send it next door.”The U.S. Postal Service is also an option, but the rates are generally more expensive than UPS or FedEx to ship wreaths across the country, Leman said.Representatives for both companies said in emails that dimensional weight pricing is a common industry practice, and they have efforts in place to help customers improve their packaging practices.“It allows us to make the best use of space in our vehicles and encourages customers to make packaging adjustments,” said FedEx spokeswoman Rae Lyn. “Ultimately, more efficient packaging is good for our customers and ... https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/08/closure-of-longtime-norridgewock-christmas-wreath-company-a-sign-of-higher-costs-industry-challenges/