Altoona, PA Florists

Altoona Flower Shop News

Coronavirus hits flower farms at the worst possible time - Chicago Tribune

Cousins Matt Ott, 17, left and Luke Ott, 16, pull the flowers off the hanging plants so the plants won't die March 24, 2020, at Cleveland Ott & Son, a wholesale nursery in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, that sells its flowers and plants to smaller garden centers in the region, most of which are closed. (Steven M. Falk/AP)... https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-coronavirus-flowers-bouquet-20200407-h7t4shavzffllmiiy6gsmwno3a-story.html

A devoted florist gives each 9/11 victim a white birthday rose - The Gazette

I write this,” said Jennifer Glick in an email to the memorial. Her brother Jeremy was among those who rushed the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. “With all the insecurity and chaos that we face right now, knowing that our loved ones are remembered gives me great comfort.”Kerry Irvine, an artist, used to visit the memorial often to think about her sister, Kristy Irvine-Ryan, a 30 year-old equities trader who had been married for just three months when she died. But in March, she told The Washington Post, “It was all chained off, and one of my first thoughts was, ‘Oh, God, her birthday,’ which was May 22nd.” Then she got a photo of her sister’s name decorated with a white rose. “To know they’re taking care of all of them, and giving them the respect they deserve,” she said, “it takes the load off the families a little bit.”The memorial grounds reopened July 4. The museum will begin allowing visitors inside again this weekend - first, family members only on Friday and then the public on Saturday, with drastically limited capacity.Collarone didn’t come up with the idea for the birthday flowers; that was a volunteer in the museum. But he’s the one who’s made it happen all these years, carefully selecting roses - he wants them to be a perfect white - from the city’s flower market and cleaning them and nursing them at his shop Floratech, in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. “I’m not looking for the cheapest roses,” he says. “I look for the best.”When the pandemic forced New York to shut down, halting inbound flights bearing hard-to-get white roses from global suppliers in the Netherlands and South America, Collarone knew instantly “that I had to take care of it,” he says. “I went into an immediate rescue mode for the 9/11 memorial.”Whereas roses had been coming in on 10 flights a day, there was now one flight a week from Europe. He worked connections (“My Holland guys helped me out.”), paid large markups as freight pricessoared, and sent drivers to the airport to pick up loads of roses directly from the source, circumventing wholesalers, because, he says, the city’s flower market, then and now, “is operating on life support.”His own shop, which used to supply flowers for Madison Square Garden and high-end hotels like the Mandarin Oriental, has hit dire straits. “We’re lucky if we make enough money to keep our electricity on,” Collarone says. He’s had to close all three of his retail flower shops, and lay off all of his employees, some of whom had been working with him for 20 to 30 years.Still, he wouldn’t dream of stopping the birthday-rose ritual, or asking for payment.He “grew up poor,” he says, in the firemen-and-cops enclave of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and worked in a flower shop before becoming an insurance salesman.It was a chance meeting with Andy Warhol at the legendary Limelight nightclub, he says, that got him to turn back toward his love of flowers. Warhol commissioned him to decorate his parties, Collarone says, because the art icon was amused by the idea of this big guy with a Brooklyn accent who rode his Harley around town and knew everything about roses and hydrangeas.His shop is near the World Trade Center,... https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/a-devoted-florist-gives-each-911-victim-a-white-birthday-rose-20200911

These Valentine's Day Gifts Will Be At Your Doorstep In No Time, Even If You Started Shopping Last Minute - Yahoo Lifestyle

Uncommon Goods. Here's one example of a delightful little gift — a wine-shaped container filled with tasty truffles. Check out all of the small businesses and makers like this Pennsylvania-based baker, Neil Edley.Uncommon Goods Bottle-of-Wine Chocolate Truffles Box, $, available at Uncommon GoodsCheryl's CookiesThese are decorated and frosted with delicious buttercream icing. (Pssst, there's even an assortment of gluten-free options for our friends with food allergies.)Cheryl's Cookies Cheryl's Long Stemmed Buttercream Frosted Cookie Flower, $, available at Cheryl's CookiesPartake FoodsIndulge in this coveted black-owned brand that offers delicious cookies in every variety — you can even find vegan and gluten-free options here. Chocolate chips, cookie butter, and carrot cake flavors are abundantly available to ship right to your door. Partake Soft Baked Cookie Butter Cookies, $, available at Partake FoodsDavid's CookiesGive the people what they want; an entire tin of chocolate chunk cookies. No nuts, no teeny tiny chocolate chips, just the good stuff from this reliable, top-selling cookie lover's brand — that also happens to ship out delicious cheesecakes to pies, too. David's Cookies Fresh Baked Decadent Jumbo Cookies, $, available at David's CookiesDoughees By M.Dough.WMargo Wolfe’s Miami-based M.Dough.W features brownies, Oreos, caramel, rainbow cookies — you name it and they've stuffed it inside a gooey, fully-cooked, and ready-to-eat cookie dough.Doughees by M Dough W Build A Box (12), $, available at Doughees by M Dough WCarlo's BakeryFrom chocolate fudge cake and rainbow slices to ooey-gooey butter cookies and cannoli kits, you can find it all at Carlo's Bakery. Trust him — he was on Cake Boss. Carlo's Bakery Cannoli Kit - 12 Pack, $, available at GoldbellyMagnolia BakeryAsk almost any New Yorker, and we bet they will say that Magnolia Bakery sells some of the world's best-tasting cupcakes to banana pudding...like, ever. Available in a deliverable variety of flavors with seasonal frostings, this shop's sweets are prime Valentine's gifting material.Magnolia Bakery World Famous Banana Pudding - Party Sized, $, available at Magnolia BakeryBake Me A WishIn addition to brownies, you can send cheesecakes, cupcakes, giant cakes, traditional cakes, baskets, towers, and pies. Plus, 5% off all purchases goes to Bake Me A Wish's Small Business Empowerment Fund.Bake Me A Wish Gourmet Brownie Sampler, $, available at Bake Me A WishWicked Good CupcakesAs seen on Shark Tank, the family-owned team at Wicked Good Cupcakes offers up a fun way to serve and eat, cupcake-in-a-jar. They even have your gluten-free bases covered with a giftable GF package for two, four, and six.Wicked Good Cupcakes Cupcake Jar Custom Pack (12), $, available at Wicked Good CupcakesSugarfinaHome of the OG and ever-popular rosé gummy bears, Sugarfina boasts an equally tasty lineup of specialty treats — from sugar lips to peach bellini hearts, dark chocolate-covered scotch cordials, chocolate vodka shots, and much more — that can be shipped nationwide. Sugarfina XOXO 8 Piece Candy Bento Box, $, available at SugarfinaHarry & DavidAs stated in the brand's Insta profile, the folks over at Harry & David take gift-giving and entertaining pretty seriously. So much so that they offer what seems like hundreds of pre-wrapped items at a moment's notice, which comes in handy for some especially in last-minuting gifting dilemmas.Harry & David Valentine's Day Truffles in Keepsake Box, $, available at Harry & DavidRuss & DaughtersLocated in New York's historic Lower East Side for over 100 years, Russ & Daughters is an institution beloved for its appetizing bagel spread, a good schmear, and babka. The sweet yeasted cake is perfect for breakfast — or anytime.Baked By MelissaBaked By Melissa delivers cupcakes in innovative mini-form, so you can sample the best in seasonal flavor variety — from... https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/valentines-day-gifts-doorstep-no-141400857.html

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/