Bogota, NJ Florists

Bogota Flower Shop News

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

Flower District is next as Manhattan's 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 purchas... http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180814/REAL_ESTATE/180819968/flower-district-is-next-as-manhattans-old-markets-vanish

Morristown service for 'Muzz' Lindsley, revered coach and florist, June 8 - Morristown Green

For many years we sat together on the bench at Bayley enjoying each other’s plotting how to squeeze out one more win. Never a cross word or an I-told-you-so.”Lindsley’s family can trace its New Jersey presence to 1667, when the first Lindsley arrived in Newark from Connecticut.Tara Schaberg, assistant archivist at the Morristown & Township Library, found documentation of Muzz Lindsley’s great-grandfather, who was killed in the Civil War.Records show the first post of the Grand Army in Morristown was renamed the “Ira J. Lindsley Post. No. 18” in honor of Captain Lindsley, who fell in the battle of Chancellorsville, on May 3, 1863.Muzz Lindsey is survived by his wife of 55 years, Beverly (Morrison), and his children Leann, Marianna D’Elia (Michael) and Kristen Galdieri (Frank). He also is survived by grandchildren Nicholas, Megan, Jack, Paige, Andrew and Tatum; his brother Herb Lindsley and his wife Eileen, and nephew Herb Jr.; and many great nieces and nephews. https://morristowngreen.com/2018/06/08/morristown-service-for-muzz-lindsley-revered-coach-and-florist-june-8/

Police in Yardley 'petal it forward' - News - Bucks County Courier Times

Mike and Logan Burke, of Newtown, thanked the police and floral workers. "It’s pretty neat," Mike said.Drivers Alissa Young, of Washington Crossing, and Patricia Durante, of Sussex, New Jersey, didn’t mind being stopped by the police officers bearing roses.Helping Golden and Gorka with distributing the flowers were Officer Nicholas Cacace and police intern Ryley Potts as well as flower shop employee Sharon Centofanti and volunteer Donna Brastad, both of Yardley. Brastad had been pictured in a national ad for the event a couple of years ago.Also helping was Yardley Police Chief Joseph Kelly. "Any time we can meet with people in a non-enforcement role, we seize those opportunities to establish trust and build relationships with the people who live and work here," he said."It’s beautiful," said Jim McDonald, a co-owner of the borough’s popular "Vault" restaurant, as he carried off two roses. ... https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/20191024/police-in-yardley-rsquopetal-it-forwardrsquo

F.C. Florist Sends Bouquets to Congresswomen Targeted by Trump - Falls Church News Press

Born in the Soviet Union-controlled Uzbekistan, Rabinovich and her family traversed through multiple countries before finally getting clearance to come to the U.S. She would grow up in the New Jersey/New York area, earning her citizenship by the time she was 16 and would later go on to get her degree in visual merchandising and interior design. AdvertisementsHer first job was working in a flower shop, an occupation that was always seen as a fallback for Rabinovich whenever she was in between gigs. She later realized she enjoyed working in flower shops more than any other job and started her own business out of her apartment in Arlington. Rabinovich wound up purchasing Galleria Florist in July 2015 when searching for a production space to operate out of, and last December she became an owner of Nosegay Flowers in Washington, D.C. — a former employer of hers.She re-emphasized that the flowers were merely a show of goodwill, but did add a general message to all Americans that, “The U.S. is a melting pot. It stands for inclusivity, not exclusivity. That’s what’s going to keep us going; diversity and the knowledge our immigrants bring to the country.”Share this:Comments comments... https://fcnp.com/2019/07/31/f-c-florist-sends-bouquets-to-congresswomen-targeted-by-trump/

Sunflower selfie craze is center of Springfield festival - Burlington County Times

Johnson's Locust Hall Farm's Sunflower September Festival next week. A new end-of-summer sunflower experience has officially kicked off in the region.Thousands of people from across New Jersey are converging on area family farms, frolicking in fields of blooming sunflowers, snapping Instagram selfies and other photos and clipping a few blooming flowers to take home.Johnson’s Locust Hall Farm in Springfield picked up on the sunflower craze last year and is now expanding its Sunflower September Festival, which begins Sept. 7 and will offer a “photo trail” and “pick-your-own” experience throughout the month.“The sunflower craze is here again and in a big way,” said Allie Johnson, the farm’s events coordinator.She said the farm has always lined its 1,500-foot driveway with blooms, but “it wasn’t until two years ago that we noticed our customers calling and stopping in to see our sunflowers. So that very next season we thought why not turn our little driveway patch into a five-acre field and really put on a show.”Johnson's Locust Hall Farm is located at 2691 Monmouth Road. Call 609-353-9000 or visit www.johnsonslocusthallfarm.com/visit-us/. ... https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190902/sunflower-selfie-craze-is-center-of-springfield-festival