Support Your Favorite Small Business

This November 24th is Small Business Saturday®, a day to celebrate and support the local small businesses that boost the economy and invigorate neighborhoods across the country.

Stein Your Florist Co. is proud to take part in Small Business Saturday, and we’re encouraging everyone to Shop Small® here on November 24th.

Plus, we’re having a special Small Business Saturday offer! Come in on November 24th and save 10% on all gift items and 20% on all plants! And you can save 10% on your online purchases at www.SteinYourFlorist.com when you use promo code SBS10.

 

 

Most importantly, get out there, Shop Small, and let’s make this November 24th the biggest day of the year for small business.
To learn more, visit www.ShopSmall.com.

365 Days of Floral Education - Days 16-20

As part of our 125^th Anniversary celebration at Stein Your Florist Co. we are sharing a year of floral education, November 1, 2012 thru October 31, 2013. Each day we will post something new on our Facebook page to share our knowledge of our favorite things, flowers and plants and we'll be updating our blog every 5 days or so. No need for pencils and notebooks, just sharing some simple lessons in floristry.

Reviving Roses

Day 16 – If your roses begin to wilt, you may be able to revive them. Trim off about an inch from the bottom of its stem and then submerge the entire rose under water in a sink or bathtub. Allow the stem to absorb water for about 20-60 minutes before returning them to their vase.

Opening Roses

Day 17 - Roses last longer in a cool area, but if you want their blooms to open quickly, temporarily place them in a warmer spot (Note: not hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit). This is great for when you want them looking their most beautiful, perhaps for an evening dinner party ;)







Beware Toxic Flowers and Plants

Day 18 – Households with pets can pose a bit of a challenge when selecting which flowers and plants to keep around. Some pets may be tempted to munch on a few leaves, and while many plants will cause nothing more severe than mild digestive upset should they be ingested by pets, some can cause more serious health issues. Toxic to both cats and dogs are Tulips, Azalea, Bird of Paradise, Aloe, Begonias, Baby's Breath, and Amaryllis. Members of the Lilium genus, including Easter and stargazer lilies, can cause serious kidney problems if ingested by cats. Keep these things in mind when selecting your flora to keep your fauna happy :)








Poinsettia Care

Day 19 - Even though we associate poinsettias with the mid-winter holidays, they're actually a tropical plant and need to be kept away from drafts and cold. Too chilly temperatures can cause their colorful leaves (called bracts) to drop. Keep their soil moist and allow it to dry out only slightly in between waterings. Encourage new blooms by pinching off spent blossoms and adding plant fertilizer when it's actively growing new buds or leaves. Poinsettias can also be cut from the plant and used as cut flowers. When you cut a stem, a milky-white sap flows from the cut end. Place the stem in water immediately to allow it to hydrate before mixing it with other flowers.

Pet Friendly Flowers and Plants

Day 20 - What is a pet friendly bouquet? It is a bouquet consisting of plants and flowers that are not considered to be toxic to pets (primarily cats and dogs). Flowers such as roses, African daisies, and orchids and plants such as bromeliads, African violets and Christmas cactus are non-toxic (although any ingested plant material might occasionally cause mild, self-limited vomiting) and would be suitable as to have in households with pets.

365 Days of Floral Education - Days 6-10

As part of our 125^th Anniversary celebration at Stein Your Florist Co. we are sharing a year of floral education, November 1, 2012 thru October 31, 2013. Each day we will post something new on our Facebook page to share our knowledge of our favorite things, flowers and plants and we'll be updating our blog every 5 days or so. No need for pencils and notebooks, just sharing some simple lessons in floristry.

Flowers to Avoid with Allergies

Day 6 - There are a wide range of flowers that work well with people living with allergies, but there are also just as many flowers and plants these individuals should avoid. WebMD reports flowers with the most pollen production like chamomile, chrysanthemums, daisies, goldenrod and ordinary sunflowers are among the worst.

Spider Plants for Air Purification

Day 7 – Spider plants, named for their flowy, long branches that resemble the legs of spiders (not because spiders like them), are wonderful for cleaning the air in a home or office space. These plants work to eliminate benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and xylene - the latter of which is a solvent used in rubber and leather. They are hearty (you can go away on vacation and still return to a healthy plant) and do not require a lot of sunlight to thrive, so they are great for indoor spaces with limited light.



English Ivy for Air Purification

Day 8 - English ivy, is another great plant to keep around for its air purifying qualities. It works to reduce airborne fecal-matter particles, which is especially helpful for homes with pets (those that have accidents or use litter boxes); however, its leaves are also toxic to pets, so be sure to keep it where your pet cannot reach it. English ivy has also been shown to filter out formaldehyde found in some household cleaning products.







Chrysanthemum

Day 9 - Chrysanthemums are a flower shop staple and November’s birth flower. They come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and petal formations. Their blossoms may even look exotic and in unusual colors with single or multiple blooms per stem. It’s important to remove the foliage of chrysanthemums if it begins to droop or yellow. The foliage often deteriorates more quickly than the flowers themselves. Recutting the stems often will also increase the uptake of water and increase vase life. Most chrysanthemums will last 7 to 12 days on average.

Amaryllis

Day 10 - Amaryllis are beautiful cut flowers, but they require some extra TLC to thrive and look their best. They may arrive with some of their blooms closed, but with proper care, they will open into large flowers. Their stems are hollow and need to stay filled with water at all times, so when you refresh the water and re-cut the stems, turn them upside down and fill them with water, plugging the bottom of each stem with a cotton ball or your finger until it is back in the vase. Their stems can be brittle and may bend or break when you refresh them, so be extra careful when handling them. As new blooms open, carefully pinch off older, wilting blooms.

365 Days of Floral Education - Days 1-5

Parts of a Flower

As part of our 125^th Anniversary celebration at Stein Your Florist Co. we are sharing a year of floral education, November 1, 2012 thru October 31, 2013. Each day we will post something new on our Facebook page to share our knowledge of our favorite things, flowers and plants and we'll be updating our blog every 5 days or so. No need for pencils and notebooks, just sharing some simple lessons in floristry.

 Day 1 - For our first day of floral education we thought we’d start with the basics, the parts of a flower. While we are primarily concerned with floral aesthetics here at the flower shops, the petals, sepal and stem, it is nice to review and remember the important role flowers play in nature. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, they give rise to fruit and seeds, and many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.



Cut Flowers on an Angle

Day 2 - You may have noticed that we cut our flower stems on an angle, but have you ever wondered why? Cut flowers are still living, which means that they are still drinking the water in which you put them. By cutting flowers perpendicular to the stem, it allows the stems to set directly on the bottom of the vase, impeding the ability for water absorption. An angled cut not only allows better access to the life-giving water, but also gives more surface area to the stems, allowing them to take in more water than a straight cut.






Sansevieria

Day 3 - Sansevieria, also called snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue, is remarkable in its ability to convert large amounts of carbon dioxide into oxygen (which we need to breathe), as well as in its effectiveness at removing certain indoor pollutants from the air. Studied extensively by NASA scientist B.C. Wolverton and environmental scientist Kamal Meattle, sansevieria is shown to filter out benzene, a chemical linked to Sick Building Syndrome. Sansevieria is most effective at producing oxygen at night, making it a perfect plant to keep in the bedroom.







Gypsophila

Day 4 - Gypsophila, commonly known as baby's-breath, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Europe, Asia and north Africa. Many species are found on calcium-rich soils, including gypsum, hence the name of the genus. Its botanical name means "lover of chalk", which is accurate in describing the type of soil in which this plant grows. We use thousands of bunches of "Gyp" at Steins every year.

Flowers for Allergy Sufferers

Day 5 - Flowers can be one of the most common allergy triggers around, though certain blooms have less or even no effect and these are the ones allergy sufferers should look for, so if you suffer from allergies it is not impossible for you to enjoy beautiful blooms. WebMD reports there are actually quite a variety of flowers out there that allergy sufferers can live in harmony with. Begonia, cactus, clematis, columbine, crocus, daffodil and geranium are some of the most allergy-friendly plants and flowers. Hosta, hydrangea, iris, lily, periwinkle, rose, tulip, zinnia and more are also known for being good choices.

Day of the Dead

We love Halloween around the flower shop. Some of our crew is dressed up today, we have a wolf, a baby and even some creative Day of the Dead makeup. So we got to thinking… why end the celebration with Halloween when we can enjoy Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead?


Day of the Dead, celebrated on November 1^stand 2^nd, is primarily a Mexican holiday that focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember lost loved ones.  

Traditionally those celebrating visit the graves of family members that have died to tidy them up and build altars honoring the deceased using decorative sugar skulls, marigolds and other flowers. They also leave the favorite foods and beverages of the departed as gifts.

 

Offerings for the souls of the dead.

The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them.

 

Elegant Skulls for Day of the Dead

While this may seem like a sad occasion, Dia de los Muertos usually takes on a jovial tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed. La Calavera Catrina, “The Elegant Skull”, is the most iconic image of Day of the Dead celebrations. Sugar skulls are elaborately decorated as offerings and senoritas paint their faces to portray elegant Catrinas as part of the celebration. Orange Mexican marigolds, sometimes referred to as Flor de Muerto or “Flower of the Dead”, are the traditional flower used to honor the dead.

 

All of the beautiful flowers and imagery of Day of the Dead are not totally foreign to us, we have done more than a few themed weddings for the occasion. So we took our inspiration from our Day of the Dead experience, Mexican traditions, and our love of flowers and headed to one of the local cemeteries to create an altar and shoot a few photos.

 

Jessi Rose, our floral design apprentice and resident dress up doll, was painted like a Catrina and given a beautiful bouquet of marigolds, roses, zinnias, asters, mums and calla lilies. We designed flowers for her hair in blooms to match with accents of blue hydrangea.

 

Our offerings included a bowl of fruit, a bottle of tequila (a popular offering for Dia de los Muertos celebrations) and skulls hand painted by our designers in iconic Mexican styling.

 

We brought along more flowers as well, a bouquet of gladiolus, another popular flower for the occasion, and another bouquet to match our model’s with more lovely marigolds and lots of yellow Jerry’s balls. These bouquets were left at the cemetery as offerings to Jessi Rose’s grandparents who are at rest there.

 

We hope everyone enjoys today’s haunting Halloween celebrations and that you embrace the fun, tradition, and remembrance of Dia de los Muertos!

 

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy hit us hard! We lost power at our Burlington, NJ location until late Tuesday, roads were a mess, our iconic neon sign at our Philadelphia location was damaged, and our NJ sign blew down… again. Some of our employees are still without power.

But we didn’t let it stop us from having fun! We tried to make deliveries to our customers… It was more than a little breezy!

 

We hope everyone weathered to storm ok .  Stay safe!

The Humanization of Flowers




Statice

A few days ago we found a bag of googly eyes here at the shop.  You know, the little white plastic disks with the smaller black disk trapped under clear lens that jiggles and shakes when they move about.


Carnations

 

 

Sunflower

 

No idea why we have them… we’re not making a bunch of pipe cleaner animals or anything here!

So we started sticking them on all kinds of silly things, our water cooler, a lamp, and then flowers… that’s when things got ridiculous.

Antherium

 

 

 

Before we knew it we had eyebombed our own store. From roses to liatris, almost every flower in the shop had been humanized.

 

Hydrangea

 

We set up our video camera and about 45 minutes of silly unscripted floral puppetry ensued.





Pom Pon

We always thought our crew was a bit wacky, but now we know for sure!

 




Heliconia

 

 

 

 

Some of our "performance" was slightly reminiscent of the talking flowers of Alice in Wonderland (without the lovely singing), but most was just absurd.



Calla Lilies

 

 

 

 

  

Iris

We’d like to say that no flowers were harmed in the making of this film, but that would be a lie. Our laughing orange lily didn’t make it (we didn't even get a picture of the poor guy)…

 

while twirling he lost 3 of his 6 petals, but he shall be forever immortalized in the archives of You Tube.



Rainbow Rose

 

 

And to think this was all part of a day’s work ;-P




Mum

 

 

Check out our video and let us know what you think!

Fuji Mum

Protea

Lisianthus



Liatris

 

Our New Favorite Thing... It's a Dress Form, Dummies

We’ve been changing our window displays at our Burlington, NJ location, Steins at Sunset Florist, pretty regularly recently. Before we’d only redesign them for the major holidays, but one of our recent purchases has inspired a lot of window flipping lately. It’s a simple dress form.

The ladies at Steins at Sunset Florist love fashion… and what girl doesn’t enjoy playing dress up? So we style our coworker Jessi Rose from time to time to showcase our latest floral creations, usually playing the role of bride, in old prom dresses, colorful makeup and the like. She was even our live model at The Philadelphia Great Bridal Expo back in January 2012. She was the perfect stoic statue atop a pedestal, displaying our beautiful bridal creations; more than a few expo guests touched her arm to see if she was real, followed by a quick and embarrassed “I’m sorry.”

Unfortunately, being a human girl, Jessi Rose can’t stand in our store windows 24/7, so our dress form is one of our new favorite things! We get to play dress up and make fun themed displays at the same time.

Before we dove into an all-out themed vignette, we dressed our dummy in flowers and sewing notions. One of our employees took the dress form home before it even made it to the flower shop and decked it in fabric swatches, vintage buttons and pins, a tape measure, spools of thread and fresh yellow tulips. There was really no reason behind it… we just love playing dress up! This began our dress form love affair.

Prom season was our first display. A puffy pink princess dress with bold floral accents and long streamers of ribbon. We added the turquoise accents to the Jessica McClintock dress ourselves, sewing corset-style lacing at the back for extra drama.

 

For the display we pulled in elements of a teenage girl’s bedroom getting ready for her prom date, so we included a mirror with her prom tickets and flower order receipt tucked into the frame, her clutch bouquet on a side table and a pair of high heels kicked over to the side.

Next was graduation season. One of our employees is a graduate of Drexel University, so we had a pretty decent cap, gown and stole. We added an overly dramatic set of tassels (‘cause we love honors) and finished our display with text books, globes, and flowers (of course). You can see more about this display in our post Congratulations Class of 2012.

Then there was Independence Day (we blogged about it in Hooray forthe USA). We added a red, white and blue sash and a big bow to the back of a simple white sun dress (so Sailor Moon *smirk*). A couple of red necklaces, a patriotic corsage and a pocket full of flags and our dummy was ready to party! Our live model Jessi Rose even dressed herself to match the mannequin for the holiday, it was adorable.

Our current display has a tropical theme for the Summer. With a sparkly seashell top, a colorful lei, and hippy hula skirt our dress form is ready for a luau. We finished our vignette with pretty Polynesian accents, colorful tropical flowers and happy tin fish. More than a few customers have commented on our exotic Summer theme, they really seem to like it and we’re happy to bring a bit of the tropics to Burlington, NJ.

We haven’t planned our next window display yet… but we can hardly wait to play dress up again!