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Local Flower Shop News

Club to host Violets for Valentines Extravaganza - Ocala

Q&A with Linda Schwambach, president of the club. Question: Where did African violets originate and how did they get to America?Answer: Baron Walter von Saint Paul served as governor of Tanganyika in North East Africa and discovered the flowering plants in the Usambara Mountains. He sent the seeds and some plants to his father, Baron Ulrich von Saint Paul, in Germany. His father shared them with Herman Wendlan, a prominent botanist at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Herrenhauser, Germany. Wendlan determined the plant was a new species and gave the genus name of Saintpaulia in honor of its discoverer. The first species was called Saintpaulia ionantha. Ionantha is Greek for “with violet like flowers.” Later it was discovered there were two distinct plants and the second species was called Saintpaulia confusa.African violets were introduced to the US around 1893 by a Philadelphia florist, W.K. Harris, who obtained plants from a New York florist who received a shipment from Europe. These plants from Africa became known as African violets and are a member of the Gesneriaceae family. In 1927, Armacost and Royston Nursery in Los Angeles, California, obtained seeds from Germany and England. They raised the seedlings and selected 10 to propagate, all single blossoms, in colors of violet, blue and purple. In 1938, African violets became even more popular in the US with the introduction of the fluorescent light bulb. This enabled the plants to bloom almost continuously all year round. Q: What is most unique about African violets?A: African violets are the most popular house plant in the US. They are beautiful and versatile as specimen plants or centerpieces, make great gifts and are enjoyable to grow. African violets thrive under normal household conditions.There are more than 18,500 unique registered hybrids. African violets come in all sizes, leaf shapes, blossom colors and types. They range in size from micro  to large. Leaves come in various shades of green. The underside may be green or shades of pink to red. Leav... http://www.ocala.com/news/20170207/club-to-host-violets-for-valentines-extravaganza

Spokane-area florists say Mother’s Day business is better than usual - The Spokesman-Review

For local florists, May is typically a busy month with graduations, weddings and Mother’s Day. But when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to shift graduations online and engaged couples to postpone weddings, some florists anticipated a drop in business. That hasn’t happened. “People are are spending a lot more on their moms this year,” Terri O’Connor, owner of Rose & Blossom, said, adding the floral shop’s website has seen a 200% increase in sales compared to May 2019. “It’s crazy busy.”O’Connor, who operates Rose & Blossom floral shops in Spokane and Spokane Valley, thinks the uptick in sales could be, in part, because customers can’t take their mothers out to brunch this year as restaurants remain closed amid the statewide stay-home order.People also are buying local instead of through national florists, O’Connor said. “I think this year, too, there is an extra need to be cheered up,” she said.O’Connor said the rise in business this year is a surprise because her storefronts are... https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/may/09/spokane-area-florists-say-mothers-day-business-is-/

Florists reopen ahead of Mother’s Day, planting seed for non-essential businesses’ comeback - Boston Herald

Business is finally blooming for florists.Gov. Charlie Baker’s newly loosened restrictions on some small businesses arrives just in time for Mother’s Day.“We’ve had customers looking for flowers in general the entire time we were closed,” said Central Square Florist manager Jackie Levine who can now open up her Cambridge store. “We kept watching and hoping something would change.Change came Monday afternoon, when the Baker administration quietly updated its essential services guidance to allow a limited number of employees of florist shops and other businesses to reenter closed stores and warehouses to fulfill and ship orders taken over the phone and online.[embedded content]“It really is just an unbelievable feeling after so much negativity,” Levine said.Handling enormous demand for contactless deliveries for Mother’s Day, flower shop owners could lay the foundation for other non-essential businesses to come back from weeks of lockdown.Florists said calls, emails and online orders for bouquets flooded in immediately. https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/05/05/florists-reopen-ahead-of-mothers-day-planting-seed-for-non-essential-businesses-comeback/

Pay it forward with these beautiful bouquets - WTVD-TV

Stella Grey Blooms in Chicago's North Center neighborhood is selling Pay It Forward flowers.Owner Sally Hayes said the inspiration for the idea came from a fellow florist who lives in Miami."You send somebody flowers and you don't say who it's from," Hayes said. You write things like 'I hope these make your day' or ' I hope they brighten your day' and at the end, you just say 'Pay it forward.'"All of the bouquets are sanitized and hand-delivered."A lot of times I get a call of people asking who sent me this," Hayes said. "I say 'I can't tell', it's the whole process of it, it gets people reaching out to their friends and it sort of escalates from that."For more information about the Pay It Forward bouquets, visit Stella Grey Blooms' website. https://abc11.com/localish/pay-it-forward-with-these-beautiful-bouquets/6135376/

The second-best flower shop in Naperville, Ill., is struggling to survive. Along with the American Dream. - The Washington Post

Moe Zoyarifor The Washington Post In Naperville, Ill., Jenny Latham is struggling to pay the $3,800 monthly rent for her shop, Celidan Creations Florist. Her mom Karin Jacobs, who founded the store in 1992, passed away last month. Florists dream of spring, when shops burst in a colorful riot of blooms while ledgers pool in black ink. First Communions, Palm Sunday, Easter, proms, charity events, weddings, more weddings and the flowery grail of Mother’s Day.But spring has been brutal for Jenny Latham, owner of Celidan Creations Florist in Naperville, Ill.Flowers are a luxury dependent on the health of other businesses. Ordinarily, Celidan, founded in 1992 by Latham’s mother, Karin Jacobs, supplies churches, restaurants and corporate offices in the city of almost 150,000, west of Chicago. All were closed due to covid-19. Celidan’s front door locked, too. The shop remained open to phone and online orders and was permitted to make deliveries for what has become known in the industry as ring-and-run.Florists are there to celebrate life’s memorable moments. Celidan’s schedule had been loaded with the promise of bouquets, boutonnieres... https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/florist-ppp-small-business-naperville-illinois/2020/05/26/65cec788-9a09-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html

Flowers: Make a joyful arrangement - San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco florist Rebekah Northway of the Petaler (www.thepetalersf.com) creates arrangements that are joyfully of the garden, if that garden were vibrant and lively like an Eden should be. Getting her start in 2006 with big restaurant accounts like Range, Nopa, Zuni Cafe and Bar Tartine, the New Mexico native took cues from her clients’ similar culinary ethos. “They valued really fresh, local produce, and that really influenced my arrangements, which weren’t necessarily about design but rather about showcasing the beautiful material in a natural way,” Northway says. She likens her work to a wild garden or “rebellious ikebana,” a seemingly untamed modern-day spin on the ancient and ceremonial Japanese art of flower arranging. Professional influences notwithstanding, the root, so to speak, of her calling can be traced back to her family’s robust garden of flowers and ed... https://www.sfchronicle.com/culture/article/Flowers-Make-a-joyful-arrangement-15270753.php

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