21Feb
Floral Design Skills – Do They Really Matter?
I’m now back on US soil…feels good after floating and sailing for the past 10 days. In a recent post, I wrote about cruise ship flowers and expressed my disappointment with the lack of professional expertise and design skills of the hired floral personnel on the ship. It really does a disservice to the floral profession and customers when non-trained individuals are employed as designers when it is quite apparent they lack the necessary skills to deliver quality products and creative designs. Floral design skills do matter! Continue reading »
16Feb
Cruise Ship Flowers – Disappointment yet so much Opportunity
Wow, I’m currently on an 8 day cruise in the Western Caribbean. My 12 year old daughter and I left on Saturday February 13th. We started in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and arrived yesterday in Cozumel, Mexico. The weather actually wasn’t so cooperative for the first two days (Sunday and Monday). However, today the weather has been gorgeous with a lot of sunshine and warmth. Just what the doctor ordered to chase away those winter blues. I was also expecting some amazing looking cruise ship flowers. Continue reading »
12Feb
Purchasing Perfect Flowers for your Valentine – Advice from a Florist
The one day of the year where you anxiously await that call from your sweetheart that they received the most gorgeous flower bouquet or arrangement is rapidly approaching. This year Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday. This poses some unique challenges for florists since it is not a typical delivery day, and it is going to likely be the busiest day of the year for the florist. Follow the 10 tips below to help make the day go smoothly for everyone involved. Remember you can order special Valentines Day flowers from the links on this page (in left margin, just above this post, or at the top menu option). Continue reading »
17Jan
Valentines Day Planning – Not For the Faint of Heart!
Valentines day planning – hmmm, now that is probably a dirty word phrase at this time of the year for florists. This is one day of the year that florists learn to love even though they probably hate it, and it is just around the corner. February 14th will be here in just a few weeks.
Most florists are impacted in a major way each year by this one day. The reason there is a love-hate relationship with this day is because it is literally THE most profitable day of the year for florists, even though it is perhaps the most challenging day to deal with from a planning, operations, and customer service perspective. Valentines Day business typically represents about 1/3 of a florists annual revenues. This is the reason that Valentines day planning must begin much sooner than mid-January, and hopefully begins immediately after last years Valentines Day. The biggest task is to minimize expenses while maximizing revenues. Continue reading »
14Jan
Amaryllis Pollination – Hand Pollination Made Simple
Recently I posted a brief status update on the fabulous blooming amaryllis bulbs here in my home and that I would follow up with some training on amaryllis pollination. I first planted them back in mid- November and they began to bloom during Christmas week in December. These gorgeous blooms have brought much joy and pleasure to my home for almost a month now and believe it or not I still have one more bulb that is getting ready to bloom. I’m very curious to find out what color the blooms will be, because I neglected to note the color on each container when I planted them…oops! <smiles> I’m hoping for white this time as I’ve had bright red, pink, and pink/white.
In this segment, I will teach you how to hand pollinate the amaryllis blossoms so that you can get some great seeds to grow new amaryllis bulbs. Amaryllis pollination techniques is extremely simple and yields great results. Keep in mind that it takes anywhere from 3 to 5 years to grow a suitable amaryllis bulb from seed, however it will produce magnificent blooms for many years when taken care of properly. Continue reading »
07Jan
Amaryllis Bulb Growing – status update
Happy New Year 2010! I hope you had a most enjoyable Christmas season with family and friends. I had an opportunity to spend quality time with my kids, visited my mom and helped her with some things she needed help with, then caught up with some long lost friends from high school that I haven’t seen in close to 30 years. It was a great trip and I’m glad to be back home here where I can focus on helping all of you to develop your florist skills further in 2010!
To get the year started – take a look at the pictures below that provide you with an update on the status of how well my amaryllis bulbs have done this year. I hope yours grew just as well. When I arrived back from my holiday travels, I walked into my house full of some gorgeous blooming amaryllis bulbs. These flowers are so beautiful and are the perfect plant to grow during the shorter days of winter to bring some happiness and color into your home. Before you know it, spring will be arriving and in the meantime you get to enjoy the colorful blossoms of the amaryllis bulb. Click the "continue reading" link to see some amazing pictures of my bright red amaryllis blossoms. Continue reading »
24Dec
Merry Christmas – Happy Holidays and BIG changes coming in 2010!
Merry Christmas to all of my students, their family and friends! I’m taking some good quality time to spend with my children and will be visiting upstate New York to see mom and the rest of my family. I will also reconnect with some long lost high school friends.
With the upcoming new year quickly approaching, I also wanted to let you know that there will be many good changes coming to the Royal Bouquet Florist website. Most importantly there will be many new courses offered – both to the casual "at-home" floral enthusiast who wants to learn how to create gorgeous floral arrangements simply along with specific courses for the "work-at-home" flower lover who can learn how to parlay their creative skills into a money making venture by offering their floral design services to others.
There will be special emphasis on video courses that are filmed in a casual manner in my home! This is so that I can show everyone out there how to "do what the florists do" but doing it at home! Everyone can learn how to design amazing looking floral arrangements right in the comfort of their own home. I especially enjoy showing people how to transform a pretty looking wrapped bouquet from the local store into a FANTABULOUS looking flower arrangement.
Definitely look for some very exciting new courses and videos in 2010. My focus will be on video demonstrations showing exact step-by-step "how to’s".
Peace & much love to all.
23Dec
Christmas Flower Arrangement – Do It Yourself Video’s & SAVE
While reading through the Sunday paper recently and browsing the sale circular advertisements I came across a very nice full color fold out advertisement from a local florist. It included pictures of beautiful holiday flower arrangements and gift baskets which customers can order in time for the upcoming Christmas holiday. One arrangement in particular caught my attention because it was very similar to one that I’ve created. You can access the video that I produced which will teach you in step by step fashion how to create a similarly looking bubble bowl arrangement to the picture above. Just click the "Buy Now" button above to gain access to this incredible training. In less than 30 minutes I will have shown you exactly what to do to create a beautiful arrangement. Christmas flower arrangements are always so pretty and add to the excitement in the air around this special holiday time period. Bubble bowl flower arrangements are quite popular and make perfect table adornments.
Continue reading »
01Dec
Holiday Plants and Flowers – EZ To Grow Amaryllis Plant
It is a common site around the holidays to see the gorgeous blooms from Amaryllis plants. They make a beautiful addition to your home or office and look especially nice when grouped together. At holiday time, amaryllis plants are available from multiple sources. The best places to get high quality amaryllis plants is from a local florist or garden center. Larger chain stores will typically carry the amaryllis plants too, however quality can be sacrificed for lower prices.
In addition to stores having already planted amaryllis bulbs, many will also carry amaryllis planting kits. These kits are boxes that contain everything needed to plant the bulb yourself at home. Learn how to plant and grow an amaryllis bulb in the short video created by Royal Bouquet Florist. Just click the picture or choose Video Training above. Continue reading »
16Nov
Order Flowers – Buy Flowers Online To Send Anywhere
There are multiple options available for consumers or businesses to order flowers including ordering them through this website at the link at the top of this page titled "Order Flowers Online". You can also order flowers directly or indirectly from the applicable flower sources. Depending upon whether you are ordering floral arrangements or ordering flowers in bulk will determine which suppliers to choose from. In either case, there are numerous choices for ordering flowers from suppliers. Continue reading »
10Nov
Horizontal Flower Design – A Perfect Style Choice – Tips to Create
There are several different styles of classic and contemporary floral designs. They each typically follow a geometric form. One geometric form that is used for floral designs is the rectangle. The horizontal flower design typically follows the rectangle form. It will look fantastic on a rectangular or oval table or platform, although it will look good displayed on other shapes too.
Continue reading »
08Nov
Flower Arranging – Intro to Floral Design 101 – FREE Course
Learning the art of proper flower arranging involves instruction from experienced floral designers. This can be obtained from professional florists that provide a mentorship program, by reading books authored by professional floral designers, watching video training courses by experienced floral designers, or by attending any of the many choices of floral schools offering educational opportunities.
Introduction to Floral Design 101 is a complementary course provided through this site. There is no cost to take this course and it is provided to beginner’s as a way to learn the basic concepts of floral design. You will be given immediate access to the course by requesting it here:
Continue reading »
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