Mendenhall, MS Florists

Mendenhall Flower Shop News

Lary's Florist & Designs - Community Impact Newspaper

Lary’s Florist & Designs owner Stacy Mendenhall Parsons said the most rewarding part of her job is when all of the hard work can be justified with a comment from a satisfied customer. “I love being able to bring a girl’s dream wedding to life,” she said. “When a bride and mother of the bride come up to me in tears and say, ‘It’s everything I imagined and then some,’ that is worth all the stress.”Mendenhall Parsons bought the floral shop in 2012. Since then, she has worked to carry on the 50-year legacy of a business rooted in the Friendswood community.Prior to taking ownership of Lary’s, Mendenhall Parsons had a conversation with then-owner Lynn McLean. She told McLean when she was ready to sell the flower and event planning business in Friendswood, she would be ready to buy.Mendenhall Parsons earned a degree in interior design, but worked as an event planner and was also the CEO of a Kentucky-based liquor company. She said Lary’s was the perfect way to leave her fast-paced lifestyle behind.“It was a great experience, but...

Firmly planted: From Disney to daisies, business still blooming for McNutt's flower shop - Timesonline.com

I paid her to say that. Nice job, Gloria.”McNutt handles the store on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, then West joins him on Thursdays and Fridays. A pair of retirees — Bill Mullenax and Tim Mendenhall — deliver the flowers as far north as Chippewa Township and south to the Hopewell Township area.McNutt said business was really booming until the 9/11 terrorist attacks.“It wasn’t just us. I saw a lot of businesses struggle around that time. When I started here in 1974, we had four designers. Now it’s just us.”Sort of.There’s another part-time employee who’s often on hand to visit with customers. It’s Oscar, who works for the box of Milk-Bone treats sitting on a back shelf.The 100-pound Boxer may startle some who venture inside, but he couldn’t be more friendly, McNutt noted.“When people come in, he’s the first thing they see. He’s our greeter.”Faith and familyThat role used to belong to McNutt’s father, Dick, who originally ran the store with his mother, Charleine.McNutt pulled out a photo album and leafed through vintage pictures from the 1970s. There was a shot of his grandmother, Thama Paton, who once worked at the shop. Another showed an overflow crowd during a Christmas open house. He then pointed to a photo of his dad, who died in 2010. He was wearing a red plaid blazer and smiling broadly.“He loved to wait on customers. He was a real people person.”Charleine and Dick McNutt bought the Abbey Shop in 1970, a year after Charleine had started working at the floral and craft store. Dick had retired as a chiropractor and began helping his wife expand the clientele.The original shop was located a couple of blocks north on Third Avenue. A few years later, the McNutts built a new structure at its current location.Mike left his job at Disney in 1973 and returned to deliver flowers for his parents. He became sole owner of the business in 2000.“I just wanted to come home and be closer to family. Sometimes, I wish I hadn’t,” he joked.His brother, Dick, decided the flower business wasn’t for him at an early age. He’s now the director of the Beaver County Drug and Alcohol unit.McNutt’s two sons, Shane, 37, and Chase, 30, worked at the store through high school. Shane has been in the Navy for 18 years and has risen to the rank of chief boatsman. Chase is now a school psychologist in Ohio.His wife, Sue, waited on customers and kept the books for 10 years, but left for a position at Heritage Valley Sewickley hospital to get medical benefits.“I basically told her to go get a job,” McNutt joked.Charleine, now 88, still works a couple of days a week, primarily sweeping the floors.“She drives me crazy sometimes. I tell her she can relax now,” her son said. “She doesn’t have to come in anymore.”McNutt guided a visitor through the four rooms in the basement. He entered a cooler where the flowers are housed at 42 degrees. He buys them fresh daily from two wholesalers in Columbiana, Ohio, and Pittsburgh.He proudly pointed to wooden racks built by his father, which holds more than a dozen spools that feature a rainbow of ribbon.The walls of his tiny office are filled with black-and-white photos from yesteryear. On his desk is a book called “Grace for the Moment,” by Max Lucado. McNutt, who attends New Brighton Christian Assembly, said he’s built his business on Christian principles.“I’m blessed to run this place,” he explained. “I’ve gone through some hard times, but God has always walke... http://www.timesonline.com/community/belocal/firmly-planted-from-disney-to-daisies-business-still-blooming-for/article_ab1485de-462b-11e6-8308-d3fdcf6a1114.html

Clarence Thomas Breaks a Three-Year Silence at Supreme Court - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — 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

Rising shipping costs spell the end of Norridgewock Christmas wreath company - Press Herald

Newburgh, 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/

MSU Florist invites public to holiday open house - Mississippi State Newsroom

Contact: 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/

Closure of longtime Norridgewock Christmas wreath company a sign of higher costs, industry challenges - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel

Newburgh, 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.centralmaine.com/2018/12/08/closure-of-longtime-norridgewock-christmas-wreath-company-a-sign-of-higher-costs-industry-challenges/