Cape Coral, FL Florists

Cape Coral Flower Shop News

'Shark Tank' investment Alice's Table blossoms in Cape Coral, Southwest Florida - News-Press

Alice and less than a month later, I became the Southwest Florida event exec." She is pleased with the initial response, with classes at Anthony's on the Boulevard in Cape Coral, private classes at Shell Point in Fort Myers and bookings for bridal showers, holidays and even themed events.  Petals and Pilates is a pilates class on May 11 followed by the Alice's Table floral arranging class with snacks sponsored by Kind. A second one will be held an afternoon on May 12 at Lynq restaurant called "Mom's Day Out at the Lynq," which includes a complimentary glass of Champagne.   A return to Tipsy Cow is set for May 20.  "People are looking for more relaxing activities to do around town — and this one really uses the sense of touch, sight and smell," Beck said. The attendees don aprons to protect their clothing, and get a brief introduction to flower arranging, with tips liberally sprinkled in along the way. They can do arrangements, wreaths and flower crowns for flower girls or other festivities. "I love the fact that many of the instructional tips you learn can help someone create an arrangement at home the next time they run into their local grocery store for flowers like a pro," Beck said. From how much water the flowers need and the water temperature, stripping the leaves off to keep them above the water level, and marking the container off in a tic-tac-toe grid with tape to keep proportions right, she kept the class on track. A mishap with hydrangeas had her scrambling at the last minute. "They get a little persnickety," Beck said. "We're not giving you brown flowers. We want you guys to make the most beautiful arrangements." She substituted a solitary yellow rose. "We're not cheap and chintzy with these flowers," Beck said, the va... https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2018/04/28/shark-tank-investment-alices-table-blossoms-cape-coral-southwest-florida/510159002/

'Shark Tank' investment Alice's Table blossoms in Cape Coral, Southwest Florida - The News-Press

Alice and less than a month later, I became the Southwest Florida event exec." She is pleased with the initial response, with classes at Anthony's on the Boulevard in Cape Coral, private classes at Shell Point in Fort Myers and bookings for bridal showers, holidays and even themed events.  Petals and Pilates is a pilates class on May 11 followed by the Alice's Table floral arranging class with snacks sponsored by Kind. A second one will be held an afternoon on May 12 at Lynq restaurant called "Mom's Day Out at the Lynq," which includes a complimentary glass of Champagne.   A return to Tipsy Cow is set for May 20.  "People are looking for more relaxing activities to do around town — and this one really uses the sense of touch, sight and smell," Beck said. The attendees don aprons to protect their clothing, and get a brief introduction to flower arranging, with tips liberally sprinkled in along the way. They can do arrangements, wreaths and flower crowns for flower girls or other festivities. "I love the fact that many of the instructional tips you learn can help someone create an arrangement at home the next time they run into their local grocery store for flowers like a pro," Beck said. From how much water the flowers need and the water temperature, stripping the leaves off to keep them above the water level, and marking the container off in a tic-tac-toe grid with tape to keep proportions right, she kept the class on track. A mishap with hydrangeas had her scrambling at the last minute. "They get a little persnickety," Beck said. "We're not giving you brown flowers. We want you guys to make the most beautiful arrangements." She substituted a solitary yellow rose. "We're not cheap and chintzy with these flowers," Beck said, the va... https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2018/04/28/shark-tank-investment-alices-table-blossoms-cape-coral-southwest-florida/510159002/

'Shark Tank' investment Alice's Table blossoms in Cape Coral, Southwest Florida - The News-Press

Show CaptionsLast SlideNext SlideMelissa Beck distributes floral pieces during an Alice's Table event at the Tipsy Cow in Bonita Springs. The classes are available throughout Southwest Florida and Cape Coral.(Photo: Stacey Henson/ The News-Press)Melissa Beck is swimming with the sharks with her dive into hosting colorful Alice's Table "girls nights out.""I love playing with flowers, but it's a very expensive habit," Beck told the nine women sitting at a table at the Tipsy Cow ice cream store in Bonita Springs. "Not only do we have fun, but we do it in a place that's fun," she said, touting the rum raisin ice cream made with real rum.The concept, blooming across the country after investors choose Alice's Table on the show "Shark Tank," gives attendees hands-on, step-by-step instruction and a "recipe" that lets them create a colorful floral arrangements to take home. Beck is the second in Florida to sign on, the other in St. Petersburg.Peggy Davis, of Bonita Springs, celebrated her birthday with two daughters, Tara Adragna of Naples and Danielle Maiero of Bonita Springs, at the ice cream shop."I'm a flower fanatic," she said. "This was fantastic.""Shark Tan...

5 things: Where have all the flowers gone in Cape Coral? - The News-Press

Workers in a field at Gulf Coast Farms in Cape Coral in 1947.(Photo: Special to News-Press)Beginning with the first flower farms in the 1930s and continuing into the 1960s, Fort Myers was known as the Gladiolus capital of the world. One of the largest farms was in the northwest section of present-day Cape Coral, along Veterans Parkway.1.     A young Norman Cox of Evansville, Indiana,  purchased the land just south of Pine Island Road fronting Matlacha Pass in 1941. In 1945, he planted 2 million gladiolus bulbs. In time, Gulf Coast Farms grew to 2165 acres, of which 1441 were arable. Some 18 million bulbs were planted annually.Workers loading cut flowers onto a truck in the field at Gulf Coast Farms in Cape Coral in 1947. (Photo: Special to News-Press)2.     The gladioli were harvested in November and mid-June. Migrant workers went into the fields and cut down the tall, green stalks before they bloomed, so the fields were not, as one fancies, stiped with hundreds of acres of gl...

The formulas and patterns behind floral design - Naples Daily News

CLOSE Plant Nite participants gather at Southwest Florida bars and breweries to decorate their take-home plants. Register for an event in Naples, Fort Myers or Cape Coral at plantnite.com. WochitBuy PhotoFloral designer Michael Gaffney gives a demonstration, sharing personal tips and tricks for arranging flowers at Kapnick Hall inside Naples Botanical Garden on Monday, Dec. 4, 2017.(Photo: Liam James Doyle/Naples Daily News)Buy PhotoThere's a science behind the elegantly arranged bouquet of hydrangeas, or the bushel of roses with a trail of ivy a bride grasps as she walks down the aisle.Like many beautiful things, it takes work.About 150 gardening enthusiasts learned from one of the experts this week in an event hosted by the Naples Garden Club at Naples Botanical Garden. Michael Gaffney, director of the American School for Floral Design and world renowned floral designer, lead a workshop Monday on the patterns and formulas of floral design."It's a science more than anything," he said.More: Husband and wife floral design team brings fresh, creative style to NaplesMore: Garden education: Students learn sustainable garden... http://www.naplesnews.com/story/life/home-garden/2017/12/11/formulas-and-patterns-behind-floral-design/921147001/

Flower power: Business continues to bloom at Skyway Creations in Colorado Springs - Colorado Springs Gazette

You’re still dealing with the trucks and the delivery and the product.”That product comes largely from California, with flowers bred in that state, and from Florida, a conduit for flowers from South America.“We’ve always bought from California and Florida,” Don says. But he’s also had to look to producers closer to home to fulfill a growing desire for more unusual flowers.“We need so many varieties of flowers now. We used to be able to order a big case of this and that. Now we need this special flower.”A desire for more variety isn’t the only change he has seen in consumer tastes. “They say the rose will never die, it will always be a contender,” he says, But, “the rose has finally faded a little bit in the public eye.” One increasingly popular flower, particularly with “the younger crowd,” is the Gerbera daisy.Those younger buyers have also spurred plant sales.“The millennials,” he says, “have caught on to plants again. In some ways, green plant sales died for a while, but millennials really like what we do here. The succulents are quite popular.”At the same time, though, the corporate world is embracing artificial greenery as a way to cut down on maintenance costs, Don says.“We’re doing more artificial than we’ve ever done, and that’s definitely the wave of the future.” He admires how far the artificial greenery has come — “some of the artificial these days will totally fool you” — but cautions that even artificial plants need care, specifically dusting. Colorado Springs workshop teaches ancient craft of blacksmithingWeddings continue to provide steady business. “We do as many as 100 weddings a year, so two a weekend.”Corporate customers, such as local hotels, also remain key to the business.“The hotels are still strong,” Don says. “We’re not doing the centerpiece work, the party work, that we used to get with the hotels.”He calls the 2008 economic crisis “the 25% recession.”“We lost about 25% of our customers, and the rest were asking for a 25% discount. If you can’t do it, somebody else will, so what do you do? You sharpen your pencil and go for it.”That was just one of many economic downturns the business has survived over a half-century.“We’ve always been lucky, we’ve never laid anybody off,” Don says. There have been times where he has gone to his staff and warned them that either someone would have to go or everyone would need to trim their hours, “and everyone has always been willing to do that. That says a lot for my crew.”Other flower shops have not fared as well; Don has seen several vanish over the years. He looks at Skyway and Platte Floral, which has been around for nearly 100 years, as “the two big guns on the block as far as full service.”“We’re so lucky to both still be here in the town,” Lori says.Big-box stores and grocery stores emerged as competition 20 or 30 years ago, and Don thinks that is finally taking its toll a bit. “You see an awful lot of people lined up at the supermarkets at holiday time.”But, he said, “we still get them with the quality,” and the customer service.“We spend the time with people,” he says. He u... https://gazette.com/business/flower-power-business-continues-to-bloom-at-skyway-creations-in-colorado-springs/article_d5c342b4-5821-11ea-b62d-7be600878467.html

Local Florists Show Gratitude for Healthcare Workers With Colorful Display - NBC 6 South Florida

The floral artists say the colorful displays are meant tobring some positivity during turbulent times.“Flowers are with us throughout our entire lives,” DeborahDe La Flor with Florida’s State Florist Association said. “From the verybeginning, until the time of our passing, through all kinds of trials andtribulations, and triumphs.” Corridors at Jackson Memorial were filled with flowers, offeringa mental break for many workers.“We’ve come together as florists and created this beautifulinstallation that will make all those who enter feel better just by seeingflowers and the glory of them,” De La Flor said. ... https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/local-florists-show-gratitude-for-healthcare-workers-with-colorful-display/2261512/

Boynton Beach flower shop donating arrangements to nursing homes and hospitals - WPTV.com

The shop would like to donate more flowers to nursing homes or people who are in the hospital. The shop can be contacted at 561-708-1745.Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned nursing homes from accepting visitors for 30 days except when a patient is near death in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. https://www.wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/boynton-beach/boynton-beach-flower-shop-donating-arrangements-to-nursing-homes-and-hospitals

After 125 years, Manatee company delivering fresh flowers differently - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The company ships to a variety of retail chains and independent garden centers. You can find Manatee Farms products at more than 150 retail florists throughout Florida, 50-plus independent garden centers from Naples to Central Florida, and at supermarkets, such as Albertson’s and Safeway, as well as wholesalers and brokers nationwide.Flowers and feelingsThough the business depends on executing the logistics of delivering fresh products, Preston is equally comfortable talking about the value of what Manatee Fruit Co. brings to its customers.“Flowers are a business of feelings," he said. "There’s a saying that flowers are the language of love, and they really are. When you think about the unspoken word, the word you can never really say, you can say that with flowers.“Flowers fulfill that moment when no one really knows what to say, and we’ll always need that.”That's the message of the company's latest transformation.Hurricane Irma slowed the rollout of the company's re-branding effort last year, damaging several buildings, including greenhouses and a packing house that was built in 1926. But by April the new Manatee Farms brand was fully formed and public with a new look, feel and focus as well as  name.Cortez Floral and Manatee Floral, two companies under the umbrella company Manatee Fruit Co., were consolidated.Beyond fresh, sustainably grownManatee Farms now is offering “choices that matter” to consumers that care about how the products they buy are produced. The goal is to attract, engage and inform consumers and to be as transparent as possible about where and how their flowers are produced.Robert McLaughlin, chief sustainability and marketing officer for Manatee Farms, has largely spearheaded the re-branding.“This is the decade of responsible choices, and that resonates with consumers,” McLaughlin said. “We focus on eco-friendly flowers and plants, ensuring that they are certified so that we can ensure that every flower is held to certain standards.”According to Manatee Farms, its eco-friendly flowers also are good for the people who work on the farms that grow them and means that “every purchase helps improve the lives of farmworkers by providing fair wages, health care benefits, education programs and employment of women.”The company requires that farms they work with have sustainability certifications, such as USDA Organic, Rainforest Alliance or Fresh from Florida. According to the company, certified farms employ 60 percent women and are far more likely to offer higher wages and produce higher standards of living for their workers.Many of these farms also use integrated pest management as opposed to heavy pesticides, meaning that more common-sense, long-term practices are used to achieve the same results. Examples are vacuuming pests out of plants and using organisms like spiders to eat harmful pests, such as thrips, which puncture and damage plants.Getting the word outIn an effort to create a more direct link between customers and its product, the company is placing interactive digital kiosks in some stores that can help educate consumers about where their flowers come from.“We want to create a source for the consumers so that we’re reaching out in different ways and allowing access to all this information right in the retailer,” McLaughlin said.The ultimate goal is to attract customers, engage them, inform them and send them to the retailers that carry the Manatee Farms brand.For McLaughlin, part of the re-branding is taking into account a balanced three-pillar approach when talking about environmental sustainability: environmental, economic and social.“There tends to be a lot of misinformation. You can have something be organic, but that has nothing to do with whether or not you have chemical runoff,” McLaughlin said. “It’s about more than just having certifications or seals on a product.”Preston has seen a lot of change at the family company over the years, and someday there will be others in the family making the decisions right there beside him, he said, and maybe after him, too.But if Preston has his way, one thing will remain constant: the business will continue to serve the community and people will continue to feel good about the brand.“Branding is... https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20180611/after-125-years-manatee-company-delivering-fresh-flowers-differently