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Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts donates $1,000 to New Directions Career Center in Columbus

Photo: Celeste Gamble, development director, New Directions Career Center, and Andrew Royer, vice president of Ohio operations, Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts.

Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts has donated $1,000 to the non-profit New Directions Career Center in Columbus.
Family-owned Connells Maple Lee donates $10 to women’s charities for every purchase of its Admiration arrangement, which is available year-round.
New Directions, at 199 E. Rich St., is in its 40th year of providing career counseling, education and supportive services to help women transition from low-wage jobs or unemployment to affirming and satisfying career paths. New Directions offers career development programs, workshops and individualized services.
 

Dublin fifth-grader is this year’s kids club birthday card contest winner


Maya Ibrahim returned home one night this month bearing an abstract painting on canvas that she had created at a friend’s house.
“We’re waiting for that to dry, and we’ll hang it up,” said her mother, Deanna.
It’s not Maya’s only work of distinction this summer, however.
Maya, a fifth-grader at Riverside Elementary School in Dublin, is the winner of this year’s Connells Maple Lee birthday card contest.
Her design, featuring presents, stars, party hats and a hand-lettered “Happy Birthday!,” will adorn the electronic card that kids club members receive on their birthdays in the coming year. Her prize is a free flower delivery on her next birthday.
The kids club is free to ages 5 to 12. With parental permission, children may register for the kids club at any Connells Maple Lee store or online at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub. Membership benefits include a membership card, website activities, an e-mail newsletter, contests and in-store events.

Connells Maple Lee Kids Club celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with free event March 14


Mum’s the word at the March 14 Connells Maple Lee Kids Club event. Molly O’Mum, that is.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make their own St. Patrick’s Day mum character, complete with smiling face, shamrock ribbon and green top hat.
Slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling your nearest Connells Maple Lee store:

  • 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley, 614-237-8653;
  • 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City, 614-539-4000; and
  • 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell, 740-548-4082.

The other remaining 2020 kids club events are June 27, Aug. 15 and Nov. 7.

In January, it’s a tip-top time to tip-toe through the tulips


Tulips arrived in Western Europe in the late 1500s from their native Turkey, looking unlike anything else on the continent.
As an import, they “commanded the same exoticism that spices and Oriental rugs did,” according to Investopedia.com.
And by the first part of the 1600s, the rarest bulbs traded for as much as six times the average annual salary. This phenomenon came to be known as “tulip mania.”
The allure of tulips remains strong centuries later. Connells Maple Lee celebrates tulips every year at this time. Our annual tulip promotion runs through Jan. 31 with a combination of specials and everyday value.

10 stems for $8.99

For $8.99, you can pick up a 10-stem “grower’s bunch” that’s regularly priced at $14.99. Two bunches are $16.99.

Handful bouquets with free local delivery

The tulip promotion also includes free delivery on our hand-tied handful bouquets, available with 15 tulips ($25) or 25 tulips ($39.99) and accents of limonium.

$59.99 shipped anywhere in continental U.S.

There are places called Tulip in seven states, but you can send 15 boxed tulips anywhere in the continental United States for $59.99 as part of our direct-ship program.

New Vintage Tulips collection

Our new Vintage Tulips arrangements are available in four sizes and come with three (pink or purple vase), 10, 20 or 40 mixed color tulips (colors will vary). New this year, each arrangement features accents of dusty miller and wax flower for a more vintage/Victorian feel compared with the country look of previous years.
Emily Mallis, Connells Maple Lee’s marketing manager, noted that dusty miller “is soft and slightly fuzzy and is a lighter green with some silver tones or maybe a white dusting.” Wax flower, she said, “has a beautiful fragrance when cut or touched.”
The Vintage Tulips line ranges from $16.99 to $89.99 and can be picked up at our stores in Bexley, Grove City or Powell or delivered within our market area.
As a hardy, affordable symbol of perfect love, tulips also are a popular option for Valentine’s Day.
Perhaps you’ve heard the entertainer Tiny Tim, singing in a falsetto and strumming a ukulele, performing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.”
The lyrics include:
“Knee deep in flowers we’ll stray
We’ll keep the showers away
And if I kiss you in the garden
In the moonlight, will you pardon me?
And tip-toe through the tulips with me”

Connells Maple Lee Flowers saluting veterans with free red, white and blue bouquets Nov. 11


Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts will salute military veterans on Nov. 11 by giving them red, white and blue bouquets.
The offer is available in-store only at any of Connells Maple Lee’s three Columbus-area stores: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell.
Non-veterans may purchase the bouquet for $3.99.
“Royer’s is grateful to the brave men and women who have served our country so that we may continue to enjoy freedom,” said Tom Royer, CEO of Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts. “It’s our privilege to recognize our veterans in this small way.”

Connells Maple Lee Kids Club making patriotic arrangement at Veterans Day event on Nov. 2


The Connells Maple Lee Kids Club will salute Veterans Day with a free event on Nov. 2 in all Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts stores.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a patriotic arrangement that includes an American flag.
Participants also may decorate a coloring page for the annual Holidays for Heroes event, for which Connells Maple Lee works in conjunction with the American Red Cross to honor veterans and active military.
Children are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes to the Nov. 2 event.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling your nearest Connells Maple Lee store: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley, 614-237-8653; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City, 614-539-4000; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell, 740-548-4082.

Blacklick third-grader wins Connells Maple Lee Kids Club birthday card design contest


Abby Hollstrom of Licking Heights describes her son Logan, 8, as a “big drawer.”
“He’s constantly drawing and coloring,” she said of Logan, who is entering third grade. “Legos, lots of Legos. And reading, too. He’s very creative.”
That creativity no doubt contributed to Logan winning this year’s Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts Kids Club birthday card design contest.
Logan’s aquatic design will be featured on the electronic card that kids club members will receive on their birthdays in the coming year. His prize is a free flower delivery on his next birthday.
The kids club is free to ages 5 to 12. With parental permission, children may register for the kids club at any Connells Maple Lee store or at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub.
Membership benefits include a membership card, website activities, an e-mail newsletter, contests and in-store events.

‘Stems Hunger’ food drive collects 157 pounds for Columbus food pantry

Thanks to your generosity, our annual Connells Maple Lee Stems Hunger food drive collected 157 pounds of nonperishable items for the Neighborhood Services Inc. Food Pantry in Columbus.
Donors received a free carnation for each food item they contributed, up to six per visit.
This year’s event took place June 22-July 6.
In its eight-year history, the food drive has collected nearly 1,400 pounds of food for area food banks.

Connells Maple Lee Kids Club offers free back-to-school event Aug. 17


We’ll celebrate the start of a new school year with a free kids club event on Aug. 17.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to create an arrangement featuring lavender and yellow daisy pompons, tree fern, limonium, and a back-to-school stick-in in an orange diamond-cut vase.
Time slots are available at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Registration is required by calling your nearest Connells Maple Lee store: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley, 614-237-8653; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City, 614-539-4000; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell, 740-548-4082.

Connells Maple Lee introduces fresh gathered bouquets


Do it yourself doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.
A case in point: Connells Maple Lee’s new fresh gathered bouquets.
Available in 13 different options (with the promise of more to come), the bouquets sell for $19.99 or $29.99 including delivery. They arrive in a brown craft paper sleeve tied with raffia, giving the package a “rustic, farmers market feel,” said Cheryl Brill, our chief operating officer.
The small ($19.99) version of the Tuscan bouquet, for instance, comprises mini green hydrangea, alstroemeria, daisy poms, viking poms, carnations, mini carnations, caspia, and tree fern. The larger ($29.99) version adds two roses to the mix.
Increasingly, flower buyers like to purchase loose bouquets they can arrange themselves, often using favorite containers, Brill said.

Hands-on

Yet customers can take comfort in knowing that each fresh gathered bouquet is professionally designed with complementary colors and textures (caspia and tree fern, for instance) in mind and then hand-assembled in our stores.
This removes some of the guesswork for customers while allowing them to be hands-on at home.
Brill said she took one of the bouquets home, trimmed the stems to the appropriate length, and dropped the bouquet into a vase.
“I couldn’t be happier with how that turned out,” she said. “And if customers can do that at home, I would think they’d be very happy with that, too.”
Many customers like to purchase for themselves. Of course, as with any other Connells Maple Lee product, the fresh gathered bouquets can be sent to someone as a gift.
While fresh gathered bouquets currently are available only in Connells Maple Lee’s market area, Brill delivered this tidbit: soon customers will have the opportunity to ship them almost anywhere in the United States.