Archive for October, 2008

Looking for that holiday party ‘pick-me-up’? Finding fun and seasonally appropriate wedding flowers a challenge? Consider combination packages from The Grower’s Box!

Even if you aren’t looking specifically for wedding flowers, our wedding-in-a-box packages are all-inclusive. These bountiful packages come with enough wholesale flowers to decorate a wedding, event, or holiday party. You’ll find we offer wedding-in-a-box packages in many different sizes and with many options of flowers to choose from.

Looking for evergreens? Check out our enormous selection of Christmas Greens! If you don’t want to limit yourself to one particular variety of Christmas Green, check out our mixed box specials! Add a box of Pine Cones for added decor! Boughs of Christmas Greens and Pine Cones make for easy, seasonally appropriate, and cost effective decorations for both weddings and events.

Keep in mind this holiday season as you plan for weddings, events, or parties, that decorations don’t have to cost a fortune. Shop The Grower’s Box for a huge selection of wedding flowers and many varieties of wholesale flowers.

If you would like more tips and suggestions as to popular holiday decor, give us a call! Our sales team would be more than happy to offer some suggestions for decorating on a budget!

This year many of our customers ordered Hydrangea as their wedding flowers, or as supplemental flowers to their bouquets and arrangements of wedding flowers.

Hydrangea are GORGEOUS flowers and make for absolutely STUNNING arrangements. In order to get the most out of your Hydrangea, you will want to follow the care tips below:

* Hydrangea are very water-dependent flowers. If the Hydrangea is taken out of water, it will show fatigue and signs of dehydration very quickly.

* When shipped from the farms, Hydrangea are prepped with a little water packet on the bottom of the stem. Upon arrival, you will want to remove this packet, cut the stem of the Hydrangea about 1/2 inch up from the bottom UNDER WATER. Some farmers would explain it that the flower is essentially holding its breath in shipping. When you cut the stem, you want that first big breath to be of water… not air.

* After you have cut the stem, place it immediately in water. You will want to change the water and re-cut the stem every other day so that the flower has a clean uptake for fresh water.

As always, if you have any questions about caring for your wedding flowers, please do not hesitate to contact one of our customer service representatives at 1-888-297-3000.

With the holiday season fast approaching, many brides are exploring their options for wedding flowers. Here at The Grower’s Box you will find that most of our wedding flowers are available all year round! This is great news for brides as it means that your options are almost limitless when it comes to selecting your wedding flowers!

Although there are no set rules for wedding colors during the winter and holiday seasons, many brides opt to choose wedding flowers in classic jewel tones that are enhanced by nature at this time of year. Rich and vibrant red, green, gold, silver, ice blue, and deep purple are a few colors that are popular for the upcoming season. There is truly a ‘Winter Wonderland’ of flower options to be found.

As you explore options for the upcoming season’s holiday wedding flowers, consider the addition of Christmas greens, wreaths, and pine cones as viable, fun, affordable, and seasonally appropriate options!

Fresh Christmas greens added to wedding flowers create subtle holiday magic. The fragrance is inviting and boughs can be used in large and small quantities to add charm to vase arrangements, bouquets, and altar and aisle decorations.

Wreaths are a cost effective way to incorporate the holiday season into wedding decor. We offer a number of Christmas wreaths including beautiful pre-designed wreaths with hand-tied bows. We also have several ‘Designer’s Wreaths’ which are great options for brides. These wreaths come with pine cones and can be left natural or enhanced with your choice of decorations to match your wedding flowers.

Pine cones dropped in a ‘fish bowl’ make for festive centerpieces. Pine cones also look great scattered across tables or used to line an aisle. We have even seen pine cones used with rose petals to line an aisle… and the result was beautiful!

Rose petals in red, dark red, cream and white are truly magical decorations. Simply scatter them across any aisle, table or walkway for added elegance. Whether you opt to go with fresh rose petals or freeze dried rose petals, these added charms will not disappoint.

Another viable option would be the addition of Christmas trees in varying sizes to your decorations. Christmas trees can be left as they are or decorated with white lights to add warmth. Christmas trees make any space more inviting and with simple decorations can really enhance holiday wedding flowers. Consider adding decor to the Christmas trees that coincide with your wedding flowers for instant appeal.

The options are limitless when it comes to your holiday wedding flowers! We are excited for the upcoming holiday season and would love to help you as you plan for your holiday wedding flowers.

If you have any questions about holiday wedding flowers, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-888-297-3000!

The Grower’s Box specializes in the shipping and procurement of premium fresh cut flowers. The majority of these wedding flowers and wholesale flowers are shipped directly to your door in an early blooming stage so as to ensure a safe transit and extremely long-lasting flowers!

Oriental Lilies and Asiatic Lilies are perfect examples of flowers shipped in closed blooms. From time to time (often depending on the weather) these flowers are harvested with very tight blooms which may require additional time to open. Below are some special care tips that can be followed to encourage these blooms to open. These steps are only to be followed if the blooms are not opening after a day or two in water. DO NOT follow these steps if your flowers are opening on their own.

** ONLY FOLLOW THESE STEPS IF YOUR BLOOMS HAVE NOT BEGUN TO OPEN AFTER A DAY OR TWO IN WATER**

Under most circumstances we strongly recommend our customers store flowers in cooler temperatures (we recommend temperatures less than 65 degrees). Cooler temperatures will help the flowers to open slower and last longer.

Warmer temperatures encourage flowers to open faster. Please keep in mind that once flowers are open, there is no reversing the process… they will remain open. ‘Steaming’ Oriental and Asiatic Lilies is a way to encourage these blooms to open by exposing them to warmer temperatures. The steam not only provides a warm atmosphere for these flowers, but also moisture which prevents the flowers from drying out as they are exposed to warmer temperatures.

‘Steaming’ Oriental and Asiatic Lilies:

- Cut the stems about 1 inch up from the bottom and place the flowers in clean water.

- Set the container with the flowers on the bathroom counter (where they will not get wet).

- Close the bathroom door.

- Turn on the shower using only hot water.

- Once the room is sufficiently ’steamed up’, turn off the shower, leave the flowers in the ’steamed up’ bathroom, and shut the door.

- After about 30 minutes, return to the bathroom and steam it up again.

- Repeat this process until the blooms have begun to open.

- Once the flowers have begun to open, set the flowers in a warmer environment (such as on the kitchen counter or dining room table). Again, the warmer temperatures will help these flowers to continue to open.

If you have any questions about caring for your wedding flowers or wholesale flowers, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service department at 1-888-297-3000.

In our daily perusing of the internet, we came across an article titled ‘How to Save Money at Your Wedding’ from the Citizen Times. The article offered many great tips and suggestions for trimming costs as you plan for your big day. To read the full article, please click here.

The following are excerpts from the article:

- ‘Set a budget and stick to it.’

- ‘Schedule the wedding on a Friday or Sunday.’

- ‘Ask wedding vendors you’re dealing with for discounts.’

- ‘If there is another wedding at your location that weekend, ask the couple if they’d share costs for the ceremony flowers. Or use your ceremony flowers at the reception.’

- ‘Use disposable dinnerware instead of china and glass.’

- ‘Have a mid-afternoon wedding and serve cake and punch or champagne, instead of having a meal.’

- ‘Check resale shops for gowns and tuxes that have never been worn, or with minimal wear.’

- ‘Borrow items like the cake knife or toast goblets, the ring bearer pillow or flower girl basket, if you’re interested in having these traditional components.’

- ‘Instead of spending money on individual favors for guests, make a donation to your favorite charity and place a nicely written note on each table telling them ‘In your honor, a donation has been made to…’

- ‘Make use of talented friends who might be musicians, photographers, chefs, or dress designers.’

The Grower’s Box specializes wedding flowers. We know and understand the needs of budget conscious and DIY (do-it-yourself) brides and strive to offer packages of wedding flowers that exceed our customers’ expectations without breaking their budgets!