Bogota, NJ Florists

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You can’t say ‘I love you’ without logistics - FreightWaves

Cargo planes are typically loaded in the evening, when it’s cooler. At a high-altitude airport like Bogota, cargo carriers tend to operate at night so that their fully loaded aircraft can achieve better performance at takeoff, according to a briefing paper by the Florida Department of Transportation.The top all-cargo carriers for flowers in Miami are LATAM Airlines, Avianca, Atlas Air, Centurion, UPS, FedEx, DHL, British Airways and Ethiopian.UPS added 64 flights to handle the surge in volume, UPS Airlines spokesman Jim Mayer said. LATAM Cargo said in a news release Thursday that flower traffic from Latin America increased 45% to 12,600 tons for the 2020 Valentine’s Day season and that it took 210 flights with its fleet of Boeing 767-300 freighters to move it all. Ninety percent of the flowers were for U.S. consumption, with 7% bound for the Netherlands. Flowers were also flown to New York, China, Australia, Spain and Chile.Image: U.S. Customs and Border Protection In 2019, LATAM Cargo required 140 flights to transport flowers in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. The additional flights were partly due to a permanent expansion of cargo operations in Colombia and Ecuador last year, with increased frequency and capacity throughout the year. For the Valentine’s Day season, LATAM added 96 extra frequencies, more than doubling its normal operation for a four-week period.UPS planes are outfitted with expensive temperature control systems, which chill both decks between 34 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit, Mayer said. Flying at night also helps keep products chilled.At the Miami gateway, flowers are outside the climate-controlled environment for less than 15 minutes before going into a cooler to sit for several hours until inspected. If CBP finds any blooms infested with insects, USDA specialists are summoned to confirm the pest’s identify and determine whether the flowers need fumigation — which is offered by a couple of companies on airport grounds.Airline staff break down the pallets, then sort, stack and shrink wrap them onto wood pallets.Once the flowers have been cleared, local wholesale vendors take the flowers from the airport in a refrigerated truck to a consolidated facility — such as a flower market — where other local flower distributors can purchase them. The flowers are packed into boxes or developed into bouquets and then sold to mass marketers and retail chains.The AFIF’s Boldt said most of the product handled by her members leaves Miami on a refrigerated truck to markets across the country. That’s a boon for truckers who struggle to find backhaul cargo from Florida. About 35 trucking lines in Miami specialize in flower transport throughout North America, according to the Florida DOT. The refrigerated trailers are also equipped with air-ride suspension, ethylene gas and temperature sensors to ensure flowers are preserved.figure class="wp-block-gallery alignright col... https://www.freightwaves.com/news/you-cant-say-i-love-you-without-logistics

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

TR: "Most of the production of flowers in the U.S. is gone. It's a little known fact. When you have a growing region where they really have no heating costs, like in Bogota (Colombia), and they have a year-round consistent light level because they're at the Equator, their days of sunlight are the same year-round and it's not too hot, not too cold. It's a perfect environment to grow flowers. You can't compete because they can grow a lot better product than you can, and on top of that, the cost to grow flowers there versus here is a lot less. 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

Capital - Why are flowers so expensive? - BBC News

Roses flown from Bogota to Miami are hit with a 15-cent (£0.12) importer’s fee to clear customs and inspection. Domestic refrigerated shipping can vary, but that’s another eight cents (£0.06) per rose.It also depends on what kind of flower you’re shipping – Drummond says 300 carnations can fit into the same box as 150 roses, so the transport price per stem is halved. Transit time from field to florist can be up to a week (though it can wildly vary depending on where the flowers are coming from), and the blooms must be carefully handled every step of the way.Hans Larsen is a cut flower grower in the US state of Wisconsin and has run a flower farm with his wife since 1975. His biggest challenge? “Time. There is never enough time,” he says. “Between seeding, planting, harvesting, marketing, selling and accounting this job is basically five full-time jobs rolled into one low-paying job.”He points to the fickle nature of what’s in fashion as an additional challenge: “Flower popularity is a lot like fashion as colour, shapes, textures change almost on the whim. Keeping up on social media and growing forums is must to understand it all. Dahlias are extremely popular at the moment as it photographs so well, and they have so many colours and shapes.”Finally, it’s time to order that bouquet – but again this can ratchet up the price tag, because florists who are often highly trained will work their magic to deliver a professional, personalised display that will keep the customer coming back.Stewart has a tip – don’t set out what you want in the bouquet but give the florist room to excel, and you’ll end up with better value for money. “It’s a far better thing to say, ‘You know, I want to get some flowers for my mum. She loves Italy, she goes to Tuscany all the time – I want something that looks like it came out of the Italian countryside,” she says.Origin storiesGiven the challenges, logistical demands and skill levels needed across the supply chain, it’s no wonder flowers cost as m... http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190507-why-are-flowers-so-expensive

New York’s flower district is next as Manhattan’s old markets vanish - Albuquerque Journal

Colombia. After its stem has been snipped, it’s put in post-harvest hydration solution and boxed in a refrigerated room. From there, the bundle is transferred to a cooled plane in Bogota and flown to Miami. After passing through customs, the package is received by truck drivers, who shuttle it up the East Coast to New York. From start to finish, the process takes three days.A customer carries roses in Manhattan’s flower district in New York on March 24, 2016. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)The New York flower district dates back to the late 19th century, when immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Greece, identified an untapped market: providing flowers for department stores, funerals, and even nearby steamships. “The flower market is a shadow of its former self,” says Steven Rosenberg, a third-generation owner of Superior Florist, which was opened by his grandfather in 1930 and then run... https://www.abqjournal.com/1210598/new-yorks-flower-district-is-next-as-manhattans-old-markets-vanish.html

Flower District is next as Manhattans old markets vanish

Colombia. After its stem has been snipped, it’s put in post-harvest hydration solution and boxed in a refrigerated room. From there, the bundle is transferred to a cooled plane in Bogota and flown to Miami. After passing through customs, the package is received by truck drivers, who shuttle it up the East Coast to New York. From start to finish, the process takes three days.The New York flower district dates back to the late 19th century, when immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Greece, identified an untapped market: providing flowers for department stores, funerals, and even nearby steamships. “The flower market is a shadow of its former self,” says Steven Rosenberg, a third-generation owner of Superior Florist, which was opened by his grandfather in 1930 and then run by his father Sam. “It’s still colorful to walk through, but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be.”Rosenberg’s grandfather Louie arrived from Poland in the early 1920s. Living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, he eventually got a job in the Chelsea fur district—that is, until he realized he was allergic to fur. Louie crossed the street and sought out a job as a flower runner; he learned Greek to get a leg up in his new profession, supplementing his fluent Yiddish and clunky English.In 1930, Louie Rosenberg opened his own wholesale shop and began competing with Greek, German, and Irish immigrants to sell fresh-cut flowers. to retailers. This was a time when elegantly dressed men haggled with growers from Long Island. Decades before the jet age, New Yorkers had to make due with hydrangeas and gladiolus from Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.Many immigrants work in the flower district these days, though now they largely hail from Mexico. Frankie Mendez, a salesperson at Caribbean Cuts, has made a career out of selling to clients from Christian Louboutin and Barney’s exotic bamboos or purple dancing ladies for catalog and window displays. Mendez was only 12 when he moved to New York from Mexico City. By the time he was 14, he was unloading boxes of flowers in the predawn gloom. Like the elder Rosenberg, he spoke little English, but worked hard to succeed in a physically strenuous environment.“Everyone here starts from the bottom,” he says.Now 30, Mendez is a naturalized citizen who has spent more than half his life working on West 28th Street. “I’ve learned so much here,” he says, pausing to tend to a fashionably dressed customer purchasing tropical plants for a photo shoot. “New York is the only one for me,” Mendez says. “If the market moves away, I’ll stay here and continue working with flowers.”The U.S. flower industry has shifted radically over the past two decades. Page, who has worked in the flower district since 1984, says the industry has always been volatile, ebbing and flowing with the economy. Flowers, after all, are a short-lived luxury that sell well only when people have money to burn./... https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180814/REAL_ESTATE/180819968/flower-district-is-next-as-manhattan-s-old-markets-vanish

Sales aren't blooming: Florists adjust during pandemic - Delaware State News - Delaware State News

I just wanted to get open and salvage the flowers we do have.”Ms. Bobola said she had to shut down the florist because wholesalers where Bobola Farms receives flowers from in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were closed. Bobola Farms will begin selling some produce in the upcoming weeks; first up are strawberries, which have started to bloom.Bobola Farms has been open since the late 1990s and Ms. Bobola said she never experienced anything like this. She hopes Mother’s Day can help bring back some normalcy but reminded that everything is limited.“It’s the longest we’ve ever been closed,” Ms. Bobola said. “You’ve got to get started somewhere, so we’re just going to do the best we can. I hope people will be patient. We’ll do everything we can to be as close to normal but there will be substitutions. I hope people understand this isn’t easy but we’ll work with them.”Florists are following all protocols recommend by the Centers for Disease Control to help limit the spread of COVID-19. This includes wiping down all vases, wearing gloves while handling flowers and disinfecting the store every night.It also includes contact-free delivery, where the driver will call the customer when the flowers are on the steps of their home.Mrs. Fries said Jen-Mor had to lay off part of its staff when the pandemic first began. She added it has been able to slowly bring back some of the staff.The loss of workers has made the busy weeks even more stressful.“It’s been exhausting,” Mrs. Fries said. “The few of us that are here are doing the work of more people. There’s only so much we can do with this staff so our inventory is smaller than usual.”... https://delawarestatenews.net/coronavirus/sales-arent-blooming-florists-adjust-during-pandemic/

Audrey Cleary Bailey, 76, advocated for military families - Port City Daily

These last few years she had loving support from family, friends, companions and neighbors who made it possible for her to stay in her home.Mrs. Bailey was born Aug. 31, 1944, in Paterson, New Jersey, daughter of the late Edward Aubrey Cleary and Evelyn Grande Cleary.Mrs. Bailey was a proud U.S. Navy spouse, reporter for WDSU T.V. in New Orleans, worked for Admiral Rickover in his last days and she was an advocate on Capitol Hill, sometimes political, but always with the aim of improving the lives of military families. Mrs. Bailey had been active in support for military families as a young wife and mother, as only a Navy wife can be, while the ship was away at sea for six or more months at a time. As her husband rose in rank, her responsibilities to the military family grew until she was able to affect change at the national level.She was an early advocate for the Vietnam era Prisoners of War (POW) and those missing in action, wearing a bracelet with a POW’s name on it for years until his return to the United States. She was a working mother in the days when it was a rarity. She was active in the Rotary Club in Winston-Salem as well as a volunteer in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit.Her overriding passion in her life was her husband. He was her hero. After Capt. Bailey had finally retired, he was afflicted with Alzheimer... https://portcitydaily.com/obits/2020/11/30/audrey-cleary-bailey-76-advocated-for-military-families/

New Hampshire florists see demand bloom despite event cancellations - New Hampshire Business Review

Flowers are natural mood elevators, a fact that behavioral research from Rutgers University in New Jersey confirms. The study measured participants’ reactions to gifts of flowers against gifts of candles or fruit baskets, and only flowers elicited authentic smiles. This is all the more notable in time of coronavirus because these types of grins show up in the crow’s feet or laugh lines area of the face and are discernible behind a mask.More people are also seeking blossoms native to the area, said researcher Kaitlyn Orde at the University of New Hampshire’s Sideman Lab.The number of farms producing field-grown cut flowers in New Hampshire climbed from 64 to 101 farms, an increase of about 60%, in the decade from 2007 to 2017, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).“Cut flowers are an increasingly important specialty crop in the state,” said Orde, “and [the spike] illustrates that consumer demand is strong for regionally-grown flowers.”Despite the lack of special events, Bob Cote of wholesaler Baystate Farm Direct Flowers in Bedford says business has been brisk. However, the continued postponement of large gatherings for funerals and nuptials is not hardy news for florists powering through less than ideal conditions. “Weddings are our bread and butter for the summer,” Cote said.Floral shops, like other retailers, are adjusting their operations to address customers’ hesitancy to browse in their aisles. In addition to offering delivery and curbside pickup, Hewson encourages people to visit her open-air greenhouse where she transferred many of her ancillary gift items. She also posted that same inventory on a revamped website.“We’re still using that [the greenhouse and the website] for people who don’t feel comfortable coming into the store,” she said. “Being inventive is what got us through.”Catalysts for compassion‘We have been crazy, crazy, crazy’ busy, says Shirley Wrenn of Shirley’s Flowers and Sweets in Nashua, who recently added a third vehicle to keep up with demand for flowers. (Photo by Sheryl Rich-Kern)Community well-wishers also helped merchants withstand the pandemic’s aftermath. One customer started what Hewson calls a “flower chain.”In April, Maryanne Jackson of North Conway purchased 20 table-sized bouquets of friezes, roses and greenery from Hewson with a note wishing people “joy and color,” asking them to support small businesses and consider paying forward the gift. Many of the recipient... https://www.nhbr.com/new-hampshire-florists-see-demand-bloom-despite-event-cancelations/

Philly florists bring beauty back to voting with public installations across the region - The Philadelphia Inquirer

So to highlight the beauty of voting and nip the negativity in the bud, they’ve teamed up with 15 other florists across the Philadelphia region, New York, and New Jersey for United by Blooms, a nonpartisan outdoor floral installation event from Oct. 14-16 aimed at promoting voting. “By incorporating it with flowers, we bring back a positive connotation to the actual process of voting,” Lam said. #right-rail .newsletter-card,.newsletter-card.hidden-desktop{display:none} Inquirer Morning Newsletter Get the news you need to start your day United by Blooms is the brainchild of farmer-florist Kate Carpenter, co-owner of EMA (East Mount Airy) Blooms. Participating florists and growers, who donated their time and flowers to the project, were asked to provide a positive public experience while raising awareness about voting. Designers were encouraged to put their installations near mailboxes or ballot drop boxes (but not on them), to highlight voting by mail and the necessity of the U.S. Postal Service, which has faced its share of heavy criticism this year, too. “It’s an opportunity to thank the postal workers, who are essential workers, and to get the community engaged about participating in our democracy,” said Carpenter, 35. “Plus, it gives growers and designers the chance to take their talents to the streets of Philadelphia and give people something to enjoy right now.” Carpenter’s design, which she created with her business partner, Courtney Jewell, was inspired, in part, by the rainbows that people placed in their windows for children’s scavenger hunts during the height of quarantine. Several rainbow-colored chalk paths lead to the installation at Green Street and Carpenter Lane in Mount Airy, where flowers crawl up a stop sign and flow out from underneath the mailbox nearby. A QR code at the site takes visitors to a map with the locations of the other installations. “Noth... https://www.inquirer.com/news/united-by-blooms-art-flowers-philadelphia-voting-20201015.html