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Local Flower Shop News

HER | Local decorator helps get homes ready for holidays - Texarkana Gazette

Texarkana area for Christmas. Her team consists of daughter, Dee Dee Wells, daughter-in-law Sherry Campbell; Julia Carpenter, Melissa Silvey, Glenda Jeauno, and Gwen Estill.Most of Marie's clients return to her, year after year. "We have several people that hire us to take down the Christmas decor and store it (in their home) for them," she said. "We put it up on a schedule, and take it down on a schedule."A lot of clients have hunting lodges and vacation homes they have Marie decorate. "My favorite jobs are the lodges. We get to do a lot of natural decor in them," she said.For natural decor such as twigs, moss and dried flowers, Marie has a 35-year relationship with "The Nature Lady" in Mena, Arkansas. It is one of few suppliers she uses outside of the Dallas market.Marie Barfoot has lots of little friends around to brighten up the holidays. (PHOTO BY KATE STOW)Farmer's Bank in Texarkana is just one of the businesses Marie decorates this time of year. Others can be seen in Broken Bow, Idabel, Valiant and Hochatown."I've decorated several businesses in Southeast Oklahoma," Marie said, "including four banks, a phone company, some cell phone businesses and lodges at Beaver's Bend."But Oklahoma isn't as far as she is willing to go. "Every July I go to Dauphin Island, Alabama, where I have several clients. They get decor 'refreshers' each summer," she said. "When I go down there I also go deep-sea fishing for Red Snapper, so it's an annual vacation for me."When she isn't decorating for others, she and her husband Jerry reside on the Louisiana side of Caddo Lake where they enjoy entertaining. They are also very active at Trees Baptist Church. They have four children: Tony Campbell of Queen City, Dee Dee Wells and Misty Lutton of Atlanta, and Damon Donnell of Athens, Texas.Marie says she has never gotten too busy to take on more clients."I never turn anyone down," she said. "I just hire more people to do the work. We will do what it takes to make people happy." n... https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/her/story/2019/dec/03/her-local-decorator-helps-get-homes-ready-holidays/806564/

Day in the Life: Florist Amy Schmidt - Ledger Independent

Amy Schmidt, along with several members of her family, have been putting those baskets together for 10 years in her hometown.Schmidt's mother and father, Libby and Frank Estill and her aunt, Betty Duvall, often help out inside the shop and with deliveries. Janet Hunt also works at the shop to help Schmidt with the amount of orders coming in."People think you just sit around and do nothing when you work as a florist. But that isn't the case. Even I was surprised at how busy you stay when you run a shop like this. You're always putting together a bouquet, taking an order, giving an estimate or making sure you have enough supplies. And, flower work isn't all we do here."Schmidt said customers can also find other items for sale in her shop. She does screen printing for t-shirts, prints recipes on tea towels and other services. She also rents tuxes."It's hard to be just a florist shop anymore, especially in a small area," she said.According to Schmidt, there is no typical day at her shop. Some days, she may put together a few birthday or anniversary arrangements, but often times, she is putting together arrangements for funerals."Today, we're putting together a casket spray and bouquets for a funeral," she said. "If the funeral is in the early hours of the day, we have no choice but to arrange them the day before. If the funeral is in the afternoon,... http://www.maysville-online.com/lifestyles/day-in-the-life-florist-amy-schmidt/article_5e33561b-b7e3-5a63-be7f-df00dbd983a0.html

Muncie Origins: Normandy Flower Shop continues family florist tradition - Ball State Daily News

Judy Benken, owner of Normandy Flower Shop, can be found in this room taking orders, making flower arrangements and calling suppliers. As a third-generation florist, Benken isn’t new to the flower business. She said she grew up in her father’s flower shop because it was attached to their house, and “there wasn’t any getting away from it.”  “I probably started working when I was around 12 [doing simple little things],” Benken said. “When I started [delivering flowers] after school, I was 16.”After Benken moved from Muncie to Ohio with her husband, she said, she thought she had left the flower business behind her. However, once the holidays rolled around, Benken said, she found herself working for a flower shop in Ohio because she missed the “chaos and crazy” of the season.  Although Benken and her husband started their family in Ohio, they wanted their children to grow up in Muncie. In 1982, the Normandy Flower Shop, which was established in downtown Muncie in the 1940s, came up for sale. The Benkens decided to make the shop their own.“It was the [floral] business that I knew,” Benken said. “I wasn’t making much of a living working for other people. It was [my husband’s] idea to buy the flower shop. I just wanted to come home.”At the time she opened N... https://www.ballstatedaily.com/article/2020/02/daily-lifestyles-normandy-flower-shop

Column: Farmers Open fixture: San Diego Police officer Ganley bounces from flowers to fugitives to fairways - The San Diego Union-Tribune

U.S. Open.Before Debbie Ganley joined the San Diego Police Department, the Long Island native worked as a florist who brightened the homes of director Steven Spielberg, actor Chevy Chase and the former CEO of Warner Brothers in the ritzy enclave known as The Hamptons.Nothing, though, prepared her for unexpected moments quite like a domestic disturbance call.“The suspect’s weapon was a frozen fish,” said Ganley, laughing. “It’s like, ‘OK, how do you impound a fish?’ ” Advertisement That unique mix of commitment to the job and magnetic personality has made Ganley, the officer in charge at the Famers Insurance Open, a player favorite and the inaugural winner of the event’s Hometown Hero Award.The person who has guarded and guided Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, John Daly and so many more since 2002 has grown into more of a fixture than most who swing clubs each year at Torrey Pines.How does a florist end up with a badge and gun on the other side of the country? Start with her parents, both horticulturists, who operated a garden center. Her father also served as a volunteer fireman in East Hampton, N.Y. The worlds blurred, as she grew to admire finely manicured golf surfaces as much as the intoxicating camaraderie of a firehouse.When Ganley moved to... https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sports-columnists/story/2020-01-17/farmers-insurance-open-golf-san-diego-police-office-deborah-ganley-tiger-woods-phil-mickelson-john-daly

Keep Your Valentine Flowers Looking Their Best - TAPinto.net

Or add a few roses to your bouquet of other colorful flowers.  Once you make your selection, ask the florist to include a packet of floral preservative and wrap your flowers. This protects them from extreme temperatures and jostling during the ride home.Extend the life of your floral gift with a few key steps before placing the flowers in a vase.Remove the lower leaves, so just the leafless stems are sitting in the water. This minimizes bacterial growth that can shorten the vase life of cut flowers. Recut the stems and arrange your blossoms in a clean vase filled with fresh water and floral preservative. Cutting the stems on an angle increases the amount of exposed surface area to absorb water. Change the water, clean the vase if needed, recut the stems and add floral preservative every two to three days. Remove any flowers that have faded to keep your arrangement looking its best. Doing this can double the life of your cut flowers.Further extend the vase life of cut flowers by displaying them in a cool, draft-free location. Or move them to a cooler spot at night and back in a prominent spot during the day.Even if you do everything right, roses sometimes bend or droop at the neck and disappoint. This can happen if they have not received enough water at some point between harvest and your vase.Fortunately, there is a way to revive roses.  Remove the roses from the vase.  Recut the stems and submerge the whole rose – stem, leaves, flowers and all – in a sink or tub of warm water.  Leave the roses submerged for 30 minutes.Clean and refill the vase with fresh water and a bit of floral preservative.  Recut the stems on a slant, underwater if possible, and place the roses back in the vase.  You will have perky fresh roses to enjoy for a week or more.And pick up an additional bouquet for yourself. Fresh flowers are a great way to brighten your home and lift your spirits.Melinda Myers has written numerous books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/south-brunswick/sections/home-and-garden/articles/keep-your-valentine-flowers-looking-their-best-11

After 73 years, this could be Stagemeyer Flower Shop's last Valentine's Day rush - York Daily Record

Guess that's why they call it dragon teeth," she said.  Hinson has been a florist for nearly 50 years — a fitting occupation considering her maiden name was Rose. She began her career in high school at Doyle's Flower Shop in Bedford. It was around the same time she met her husband, Dan. "We were high school sweethearts, and it went from there," she said.  In 1976, the pair left their hometown and made haste toward York. "My brother was living in York at the time, and he convinced me there were a few more opportunities for work out here," Dan said.  Karen got a florist job at Stagemyer Flower Shop in December of that year. Dan picked up work at Miller's Auto Supply in West York. In June of 1977, they purchased the business from Charlotte and Claire Stough. Charlotte's father opened the flower shop in the first floor of their row home in 1947.  "I had no idea what I was getting into," Dan said.  At any given moment, Stagemyers has about 75 varieties of flora. Simple bouquets such as a dozen cuenca roses may take Karen about five minutes to design. Larger, more intricate arrangements could take upwards of 25 minutes. "It's a physical job, and it is a lost art, but it is an art," Karen said.  Come Valentine's Day, the store wi... https://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2020/02/06/stagemyers-flower-shop-york-could-final-valentines-rush/4655589002/

Castle Rock florist to design 'Parasite' Oscars party - The Columbian

This is our ballgame now,” Vorse said of Pollen, the Castle Rock florist shop he opened July 2017. “I’ve worked with a lot of very large event production companies, but this is all Pollen. That’s the difference.”Event design and production company Gina Wade Creative met Saturday to decide who would design the party, Vorse said. None of the designers in L.A. fit their vision, and the company knew Vorse from working together on several past projects.“They got out of their meeting last Saturday and immediately they said, ‘We have to fly Pollen in,’ which is pretty neat,” Vorse said. “It was more than flattering, to say the least.”He declined to discuss how much he’ll earn or what the design costs.Vorse started his “creative process” almost immediately by watching “Parasite” for inspiration. Set in Korea, the dark comedy thriller follows one rich family and one poor family as their lives get unusually entangled.Pollen’s Oscar party design “pulls different moments” and “works off what the environment within the film looked like,” Vorse said. For example, all of the containers used in the design will be concrete, he said. He will fill the structures with “dark and sultry” colored flowers such as Japanese sweet peas.“It will all be very industrial, and the florals will be lush and romantic, but deep, dark, moody colors,” Vorse said.The Oscars party will feature suspended pieces and more avant garde decor than the weddings he’s designed in Cowlitz County, he said. But “pieces of Pollen” will shine through.“All that lushness and all the beautiful blossoms … the way we construct things here will be part of it. We will just add the extra flair once we get there.”Vorse will buy most of his flowers and design product once he’s in California, he said. But he also plans to take “a little piece of Washington with us,” because locally grown flowers are “just the best,” he said. Plus, some of those species aren’t readily available in Los Angeles. The Columbian is becoming a rare example of a news organization with local, family... https://www.columbian.com/news/2020/feb/05/castle-rock-florist-to-design-parasite-oscars-party/

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