Bogota, NJ Florists

Bogota Flower Shop News

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

NJ Florist Gets Back to Business with Flower Delivery and Classes as New Jersey Reopens. - TAPinto.net

TAPintoTV’s original series, HomeGrown, spoke with Anna Coy, Florist and Owner of Blooms in Hand, about life during the COVID-19 lockdown and how her business has rebounded now that New Jersey has started reopening.Blooms in Hand is a full-service floral studio in Verona. While they are primarily a subscription service, delivering bouquets weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, they also host classes, workshops and service special events and weddings. “I’ve always had an interest in gardening and floral work,” said Coy, who worked with a florist in Philadelphia for over a decade learning the business, before she moved to New Jersey and starting her own business here. Sign Up for Passaic Valley NewsletterOur newsletter delivers the local news that you can trust.You have successfully signed up for the TAPinto Passaic Valley Newsletter.The COVID-19 outbreak and the closures it brought were difficult times. “I had a breakdown. I definitely did some sobbing,” Coy said. Her calendar for the spring had been loaded with events. “To have all of that gone in an instant was really kind of hard.” Once New Jersey began its Restart and Recovery Program, Coy waited until it was safe and deliveries c... https://www.tapinto.net/towns/passaic-valley/categories/news/articles/nj-florist-gets-back-to-business-with-flower-delivery-and-classes-as-new-jersey-reopens-2d1f0de0-5499-44cd-be3a-5c2e4914ac24

Flower shop among many businesses fighting to blossom - The Riverdale Press

Dennis finds more customers want deliveries, rather than stopping by themselves to pick up orders. That has sent Columbia delivery drivers throughout New York City, as well as New Jersey, Westchester County and Connecticut. Those are some tall orders, especially since social distancing requirements limits the number of workers allowed in the small shop. “We cannot have many people working in the store, so it has been busier for us,” Dennis said. “Most of the time it has just been my sister, myself and one worker. I have even been taking deliveries out myself.”Sales have dipped, but so have supplies in some cases. In late March, as many were trying to adjust to the “new normal,”  Columbia struggled to stock its flower inventory, both in quantity and variety. For example, one thing missing from the store’s offerings has been tulips. Fortunately, most flowers purchased from South America are still available, Dennis said. Pricing hasn’t changed much, but delivery costs have increased since the shop is going without its regular delivery staff.Flowers also are a crucial part of large events like weddings and baby showers. Yet, all events are now canceled or postponed. It’s unclear when they’ll return, but at least one customer found a creative way to repurpose her ordered flowers into a kind gesture.The woman had put together a sizable order for a baby shower, but ended up hospitalized with the virus that causes COVID-19. Fortunately, she recovered, Dennis said. She was so thankful for her recovery, in fact, she sent the flowers intended for her shower instead to the nurses who took care of her.Unfortunately, many small businesses aren’t having the same luck as Columbia, as the coronavirus shutdown languishes on. While many storefronts are shut because they’re deemed “non-essential,” those that can stay open operate at a reduced capacity. The big question is whether many of the now-shuttered businesses will be able to reopen once New York City is allowed to open its doors again. Some businesses — even essential ones — are choosing to stay closed with hopes of being around long-term, said Christopher Rizzo, a board member of the Riverdale Main Streets Association.“Some of these small businesses have such small profit margins to begin with,” Rizzo said. “So staying open when your revenues are cut in half does not make sense for a lot of businesses. They are choosing to stay closed so that they can stay open in the future.” Dennis says she’s thankful Columbia Florist can stay open in some capacity. She receives many calls from customers thanking her for the flower deliveries, especially to funerals, where a lot of people aren’t present. Says Dennis: “Having a flower there makes a big difference.” ... https://riverdalepress.com/stories/flower-shop-among-many-businesses-fighting-to-blossom,71820

Black-Owned Philly-Area Wedding Planners, Florists and Decor Pros to Know - Philadelphia magazine

Black Lives Matter protest? Carla Friday, the founder of Details Made Simple, is working with the couple on moving their big celebration to 2021. While the studio is based in Westfield, New Jersey, Philly is a key market for Friday and her team. She has four local coordinators serving the city and surrounding areas. (So there is not typically an extra charge for a wedding around here.) Details Made Simple does exactly that: The firm offers only day-of coordination (not full planning). It works with couples planning the wedding on their own and who are looking for help pulling off the Big Day. “It’s all we do; it’s our thing,” she quips. Packages include the V.I.B. (Very Important Bride), Peace of Mind, Destination Wedding, and Venue Scouting & Procurement. (There are Little Extras, like rehearsal practice, DIY project assistance or tuxedo return, offered a la carte, too.)Elegant Events Planning & Design Owner and lead event planner Donielle Warren has a story that sounds like a wedding dream come true: She started as an intern with Elegant Events’s former owner. She later purchased the firm and has been running the show ever since. Located in Northeast Philly and Newark, Delaware, the brand’s reach extends through the region (plus far-off destinations). The packages are broken down from Silver (day of) to Platinum (full service); the team also can outfit your soiree with floral design, invitations and related paper goods. Interested? All you have to do is text via the website.Enchanted Allure Events The East Brunswick-based boutique wedding planning and design firm focuses on creating a stress-free experience for couples throughout the Philly region and New Jersey (as well as New York). Founder and principal planner Melissa Brooks and her team are driven by creative and modern designs, but ultimately dream up a day (and related celebrations) that is unique to you and your love. Custom packages range from à la carte options to full-service planning and design; engagements, day-after brunches and unions of all sizes (elopements, micro-weddings or large bashes) are among the events they skillfully guide. Even virtual consultations via Zoom or teleconference are on offer. Event Loft/... https://www.phillymag.com/philadelphia-wedding/2020/06/09/black-owned-philly-area-wedding-vendors/

A floral designer is beautifying the streets of New York with elaborate displays for health care workers - CNN

Monday and wrapped flowers in various shades of pink around a lamp post that stood outside the hospital. People admired it as they walked by, but even more appreciated it on Miller's Instagram. "New Jersey hospital worker here and I appreciate your commitment to making the city a more beautiful place," one person commented on Miller's post, which has over 17,000 likes. Like the rest of their flower flashes, Miller and his team didn't ask for permission so they were told by hospital security to take it down just 30 minutes after finishing their masterpiece. But the team quickly pivoted their plan to convert the flowers into bud vases and loose flowers to give out to the nurses, doctors and other health care workers passing by. "So many people cried," Miller said. "I'm always amazed at the reaction people get when they get flowers. It's like the last thing on their mind right now. No one is going to buy themselves flowers so for them to just appear is kind of like a unicorn walking down the street." div class="el__embedded el__embedded--ful... https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/24/us/new-york-flower-flash-displays-lewis-miller-coronavirus-trnd/index.html