Attention all lily lovers---I got a box special on single bud Siberia Oriental Lilies. Get them while they last 10 for $20 wrapped. Gorgeous large, very fragrant blooms. One of the most simply elegant flowers available.
I am getting in another box special of Roses and passing the savings on to you!! Two dozen medium length (50cm) multi color roses arranged in a vase for $50, $30 for a two dozen wrap. That's $10 per dozen off the normal price for the vase and $5 off per dozen for wrap. Get them while they last!
Although we sell cut roses, we love for everyone to enjoy roses in their home landscapes as well. Do you have a favorite tea rose that you grew up with up north? Don't miss it grow your own! You can likely grow it here too which just a couple helpful hints. The key is to make sure they have been grafted onto Fortuniana rootstock. Ok so what does that mean? Many plants (citrus, apples, roses, etc) can be grafted. Grafting is the merging of two plants of the same species but that are different varieties or selections. Usually one is planted and then its stem cut off and another plant's branch is attached to that cut off branch (there are many actual ways to do grafting but this is the general concept). The two grow together making one super plant. Usually you use one with a history of strong roots and then the top of a plant that has pleasing flowers or fruit. This is the necessary for roses in Florida. Fortuniana rootstock thrives much better in our poor sandy soils and is more nematode resistant than the natural roots of hybrid tea roses. So choose any tea rose you love (I love Mr. Lincoln; a large red rose with amazing fragrance) and just make sure it is on Fortuniana root stock. South Brevard Nursery on Minton Rd. has many gorgeous roses, all grafted on Fortuniana root stock. One other note: black spot is a serious fungal problem for tea roses in Florida because our humidity. A mixture of milk and water (1 to 1 ratio) sprayed every three weeks works wonders at preventing and stopping black spot. There is a natural enzyme found in milk that acts as a growth regulator to that fungus. So with the right rootstock and control of black spot you have a great start at successfully growing beautiful roses! If that sounds too complicated then try a new hybrid of roses called Knockout. Knockout roses are the easiest to grow in Florida's climate. They come in a dark cherry pink (most common), light pink and white. They have a low petal count and have an old fashioned wild rose look. They don't seem to have trouble beachside with the salt. Dr Netter on 5th ave. has some gorgeous ones out front of his clinic. They are a little on the pricy side, but they are extremely hardy and have a good resistance to black spot. So celebrate the peak season of roses and plant a few roses now to enjoy all year!
Time for those 4th of July picnics! Don't forget your hostess gift when you go visit. A vase of dark blue delphinium, white daisies and freedom red roses are perfect for this weekend! Call early to reserve. We will be closed on July 3rd through the 5th to honor the holiday. Happy Birthday to the USA from Roses are Red.
I just got back from the Florida State Florist Association's annual convention. I learned a bunch of new techniques and ideas I can't wait to try out. We will have pictures posted from the event soon. We attend events like this one to keep our style fresh and up to date to make sure you have the most stylish gift to give or to keep for your self, or to show off at your own event!
I picked up the last of the French Garden Lilacs (common bush type) that the wholesaler will get in this year. We are able to get in a few other varieties that look a little different, but still smell amazing for a couple of more weeks. Get them while they last for $4-$5 per stem wrapped (each are 20-28" tall and have multiple flower heads). We are starting an email/phone list for lilac lovers to keep you updated next year on when we get our shipments in. Email us or call us to be added to that list.
Hey guys I got a great box special on jumbo white lilies so I am selling them 10 for $20 in a wrap. They are single bud per stem and open to be 6-8" across. They are very fragrant and gorgeous! Get them while they last!
Thank you everyone for such a good Mother's day. We are truly blessed to have such good customers. We ran out of flowers late Saturday afternoon, but we will reopen Monday morning at our normal time with fresh flowers from the wholesaler. Have a wonderful Mother's Day!!!
The most fragrant of all spring flowers: Lilacs
We got in our first lilacs of the season, take some home and enjoy spring all through the house!
I've got in some gorgeous sunny yellow lilies. What's her favorite spring flower?
Dozen Long Stem Red roses arranged in a vase for $25.00!!! Why so low? It's all about supply and demand. With easter being this week everyone wants pastels not red. The growers cut a great deal to sell their roses that are a color in less demand. Capitalize today with a surprise vase for your sweetheart!
Spring brings in flowers of every color. Tulips in every color but blue; dark and light blue, white, and yellow iris; fabulous hydrangea in white, green, pink, purple, and blue (all natural no dyed in my shop!); yellow and white daffodils. Bright pink peonies! Flowers are shipped from all over the world so that we have good selection year round, but there is nothing like getting our domestic flowers in spring! We purposely select Florida grown flowers first when available(I got the most gorgeous snaps in this week from Boca Raton), followed by anything grown in the U.S. (Gerberas, stock, lilies are from California; spring bulbs from North Carolina), and finally flowers grown outside the US. Want to help Florida's economy? Ask for a "Florida mixed bouquet" and get flowers only grown in the sunshine state.
Ever heard of Ikebana? It is Japanese flower arranging and it is really cool! There will be a demo (not given by me, but I'd like to attend) at St Paul's Methodist Church 1591 Highland ave. Melbourne March 24th at 1 pm. It is sponsored by Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter #216. Tickets are $10 and call 549-3522 for preorder or get your tickets at the door. There will light refreshments.
I gave a class on orchid care today to a lovely group of ladies in the Eau Gallie Garden Club. Overwatering seemed to be a common problem with everyone when it comes to orchids. Most orchids like to be watered no more than once a week, and sometimes only every other week. The exception is vandas which should never be potted and thus must have their exposed roots watered every other day or so. My favorite orchid type is Oncidium. They bloom in the summer and fall and are very easy to grow to rebloom. The flowers typically last about 3 weeks. Stay tuned for more on orchids in the coming weeks!
Want to save a little money and headache? Order directly from a local florist. Most people know one or several in their own towns, but it can be tough to choose a good florist out of town. Many online searches will bring up "local florists" that are nothing more than a call center that adds a big fee and forwards the order on to a real local florist. Here are a few tips to find the real florists. check to make sure they have a local phone number, not just a 1-800 number. When you do call make sure they say the name of the shop and not just "flower shop". Ask what looks good in the cooler now. See if there is actually a picture of their shop (some have a canned picture that you will see over and over again). Check and see if they have any reviews on google or yahoo. It's worth the effort to save a little money and to make sure that you get the perfect arrangement. If you are unsure of who to choose, Roses are Red can either refer you to a local florist directly or send your order out of town to a local florist through one of our line services. For a current list of false florists to avoid check out: http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page9.aspx
Long Stem Red Roses, pink, yellow, purple, orange and many more short stem roses. Royal purple phlox, campanula, and carnations. Star Gazer and white lilies. Pink, white, and blush orchids. Hot pink peonies. So many choices. Come in and smell the roses and pick the perfect flowers for your valentine!
So choosing the right delivery day can be tough. At a breakfast this morning we came up with a great schedule to make the Valentine's weekend special. Have flowers delivered to her at work on Friday, go to dinner on Saturday (so you can have a nice leisurely dinner since work always comes early on Monday morning) and go out for a romantic walk on the beach and have ice cream on Sunday (plus then you can watch the whole Nascar Race on Sunday afternoon). If the lady of your life doesn't work on Friday, then a Saturday or Sunday delivery can work very well. And of course picking up the flowers and delivering them yourself can also earn you those Valentine Brownie Points too!
One of the questions you will often hear us ask is "vase or wrap?" (I am including baskets with foam as vase arrangements for this discussion) If the arrangement is going to be delivered to an office it should almost always be a vase. If it is going to a home then a wrap could be an option. Is the person you are sending a person who loves crafts or diy projects? If so a wrap could be two presents for them: one the flowers and two the joy of creating. Sometimes with a big wrap the recipient can put flowers in every room of the house. If is for someone who is intimidated by diy projects, is extremely busy, is ill, or for sympathy I almost always recommend a vase arrangement. More coming soon!
For all of you wondering, we will be putting the hearts up out front of our shop soon. Everytime you see them start thinking of what kind of flowers you would like to order for Valentine's day (or what you think he might get you :). Of course red roses are very popular but there are lots of other great options to think about. If you do want roses consider multicolored ones. I usually get more compliments on the colored roses than the red ones because you don't see other colors as often. Does she love one particular flower? Lilies, daisies, tulips--get her a bouquet featuring that flower. What about her favorite color? A bouquet of all purple flowers could really wow her! Keep checking back to my blog and I'll have more helpful hints on how to pick your Valentine's gifts!
Friday on Fifth, January 15th at Nance park 6-9:00. We'll be there with roses and a few sample arrangements. There will be live music, food vendors, and some other interesting vendors. We hope to see you there!
Impress friends and family instantly (and distract them from the clutter you didn't have time to clean up) with fresh flowers and baskets of Christmas Greens to enliven your guests senses! Someone is staying overnight? Put a small welcome vase in their room. A few vases or baskets here and there throughout the house make a bigger statement than one large on on the dining room table. Come pick some fresh flowers and Christmas greens today!
It's that time for family visits, why not wow them with some beautiful fresh flowers? A rainbow of mums, sunflowers, lilies, candles, fall leaves, and more--so many choices, we'll help you pick to impress all! We can make a beautiful centerpiece for your own home that will complete your table. If you are one of those lucky ones who gets to skip the cooking, say thank you to your host with flowers to brighten their home. Give us a call, we'll help you pick the perfect arrangement!
We will be having an Open House on Thursday, November 12th from 6-9 pm at our shop. We will showcase many holiday designs--traditional and some very new trendy ideas. So come and get ideas for your holiday party or home decor, a cup of apple cider, and meet our designers. See you there!
Christi
It's time for fall and so some new fun flowers are around. Unique sunflowers--jumbo yellow with black center, cute minis, medium yellow with yellow center, and my favorite ones with red (some the whole flower is red). And they grow that way, not dyed! Celosia is a really fun flower that comes in a multitude of fall colors and the flower itself looks like velvet. I am not normally a huge fan of mum only arrangements, but with all the funky choices.....cremones, spiders, football, buttons, daisies, cushion, and more I can't resist. There are some new foliages out to add to arrangements. My favorite is Protea foliage. Stop by and see some of the new fall goodies any time!
So I occasionally get questions about direct shipped flowers (Proflowers and recently added FTD from their website) versus local florist. They both have their pluses and minuses. I have the unique position of working for Proflowers twice for their busy valentine’s season doing quality control work with a partnership through UF when I was a student. It was a great experience to see them from the inside. I am the first to admit that yes you do get much fresher product from Proflowers than you do from a florist. You cut off several days in delivery from the grower to you. However you have to weigh all of the pluses and minuses so I’ll clue you in so you can decide for yourself (for this discussion I am only using my experience with proflowers, not any other direct ship company).
Vase life:
Vase life is influenced by several factors mainly temperature, freshness, and hydration.
For the direct ship order the flowers go from grower to a central processing center, cut, hydrated, water tubed and fedexed to your house with total turn around time 2-4 days. The flowers are kept in cold until they reach the fedex center. You receive the flowers wrapped in plastic in a box which may or may not contain a vase. You then need to give the flowers a fresh cut, and arrange in a vase. They should last 7-10 days depending on the variety of flower. The most important thing about getting direct shipped flowers is to make sure that someone is there to receive the flowers so that they don’t sit on your doorstep and freeze in the winter or cook in the summer. If either of those happen you have no vase life!
From the florist you have a little longer turn around from farm to your house—anywhere from 3-7 days on average (note: some florists do order direct and don’t go through a broker or wholesaler so they are very fresh), but you have the flowers kept cold until they reach your door making up for some of the extra days in shipping. The flowers go from grower, to market, to wholesaler (start rehydration), to florist, to you. The florist arranges the flowers in a vase (or wraps them if you request it) and should deliver them in an airconditioned vehicle. Flowers in vases can be left outside in the shade depending on the flower (not recommended for roses or tulips) and temperature if you are not home, but you may need to top off the vase when you bring them in. Obviously it is better if they can be delivered when you are home or to a neighbor where they can be in ac. Vase life should be about 7 days for most flowers.
Cost:
Typically the price of flowers from the direct ship company will will be lower than a florist because there is pracically no labor involved and they are buying in bulk and working out of a warehouse (yep very low overhead). However, your shipping cost versus delivery charge usually makes up for that. Your shipping from the direct ship is usually about $20, your florist about $7-10 depending on your area. But sometimes a florist has specials that you can take advantage of (especially if you can pick them up and save even more!)
Selection:
Online with a direct ship company, you have a wide selection of types of flowers, but usually you can’t mix and match, you have to order their recipies, you can’t customize. Your local florist will likely have a smaller selection (unless of course your order a couple of days in advance), but depending on the florist may have some really unusual flowers that they can add in. Plus if you have time to stop by you can pick your own flowers to make your own personalized bouquet.
Convience:
Direct ship is easy click, click, click you’re done any time day or night, you can have it delivered tomorrow as long as you order by 10:00 or so. Your local florist it depends. Some do have 24 hour phone services or websites you can order off of (note the substitution policies—you may or may not get one that looks exactly like the picture), but I think that this is not their strength. I think you get better options from a florist when you call them during business hours and ask what they have that looks good, or what they have on special. So local florists may not be the most convenient if you want to order late at night for the next day. However if you need flowers today then you probably ought to call or drop by a local florist shop.
Other considerations:
Direct ship flowers usually do not have greens or fillers with them so depending on the look you want it may or may not meet your expectations. Also remember that you will be arranging them yourself—great for those of us who are creative, but bad for those who aren’t. Don’t ever send direct ship flowers to a funeral home for a funeral!! They will just be dropped in a vase, sometimes staff doesn’t even remove the grower’s plastic and rubberbands!
Your local florist is your arranger and can make the arrangement custom for your celebration—serious, classic, artsy, linear...lots of possibilities. And of course buying from local florist is supporting a local business.
Sorry this was so long, I hope this was informative. I really do think that both have their markets. Let me know some feedback, both good and bad experiences you have had with direct ship or local florists. I’d love to hear so that I can improve my service to my customers!