The 2018 Connells Maple Lee Kids Club season kicks off Jan. 20 with a sweetheart of an offer: a free Valentine’s Day-themed event.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a special arrangement in a heart teacup and will receive a balloon.
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.
This is the first of five kids clubs events planned for 2018.
Bouquets for Books collects 166 children’s titles for Bexley and Delaware County libraries
Thank you to everyone who contributed new children’s books to “Bouquets for Books.”
Connells Maple Lee’s annual book drive collected 166 titles for Bexley Public Library and Delaware County District Library.
Bouquets for Books ran Oct. 28-Nov. 11.
Anyone who donated a new children’s book was eligible to receive a free bouquet.
Connells Maple Lee collecting cards and coloring pages Nov. 11-Dec. 4 for ‘Holidays for Heroes’
Connells Maple Lee Flowers will collect cards and coloring pages for military veterans in each of its stores Nov. 11-Dec. 4 as part of the American Red Cross’ “Holidays for Heroes” program.
Collected cards and coloring pages will be handed over to the Red Cross, whose volunteers will organize them for delivery. Destinations include military installations, VFWs, American Legions, VA hospitals and retirement homes in 45 counties in the Ohio Buckeye Region.
Cards may be dropped off at any one of Connells Maple Lee’s three area stores: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell.
Coloring pages are available at the stores or can be downloaded here:
Christmas Tree
Santa
Ornament
Reindeer
Dreidel
Preparing cards
The Red Cross offers these guidelines for preparing cards:
- Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member” as cards addressed to specific individuals cannot be delivered through this program.
- Include messages of support and thanks.
- Sign your name to them.
- Don’t include letters or other personal information (photos, addresses).
- Refrain from choosing cards with glitter.
The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
A Guy’s Guide to Flower Buying
There’s a gender gap when it comes to buying flowers: Women buy 65 percent of fresh flowers, according to the Society of American Florists, while men buy 35 percent.
To the extent that men might be intimidated or uncomfortable buying flowers, we’d like to make the experience a more enjoyable one for them.
To do this, we tapped the expertise of our own Cheryl Brill, who shared these insights based her more than 20 years of experience in the flower business.
Roses are red – and lots of other colors
Too often, men think only of roses for their significant others, and then only in red. Cheryl encourages male customers to be more adventurous, whether it’s with other colors of roses, other flower varieties, or other looks such as a textured garden appearance.
Don’t stop at Valentine’s Day
Maybe the tendency to focus on red roses has a lot to do with Valentine’s Day which, let’s face it, is ruled by red roses. But the year has only just begun when Valentine’s Day rolls around, so why not mix it up for the 364 days that don’t fall on Feb. 14?
What’s more, 63 percent of flower purchases are for the buyer, compared with 37 percent as gifts. And 86 percent of purchases are for non-calendar occasions, 50 percent of which fall into the “no special occasion” category. The bottom line is that people like to receive flowers any day of the year.
Bouquets don’t have to break the bank
Flower prices tend to rise around Valentine’s Day, in concert with a spike in demand for what is the floral industry’s equivalent of football’s Super Bowl. If that’s the only time of year that you purchase flowers, you can get a warped sense of how much they cost on a day-to-day basis.
Cheryl described how a $7.99 rose bunch made a positive impression on one male customer, who realized that he could afford to be a more frequent flower buyer.
Get the right vase
If she likes to arrange flowers, Cheryl said, then get her a vase that lends itself to arranging and one that fits the décor of the room where it will be used. Does she tend to put flowers on the kitchen counter or on the coffee table?
You don’t have to DIY
In this age of do-it-yourself, there’s a tendency to think that we must go it alone with everything. Rest assured, your trained florist is eager to help. It starts with the right container; she noted that it doesn’t have to be a plain, clear vase. Either bring one in, or your florist can help you select one.
Think about what you want to say
Before you visit or call your florist, Cheryl advised, think about the words you want to send along with the flowers. She said florists are a bit like bartenders: they’ve seen and heard everything, so don’t be embarrassed. Speak from the heart because the sentiment is just as important as the flowers that it goes with.
Valentine’s Day is an oasis amid the darkness of winter, Cheryl said, but it’s nice to see male customers the rest of the year, too.
Connells Maple Lee’s children’s book drive returns Oct. 28-Nov. 11 to benefit public libraries
Connells Maple Lee’s annual children’s book drive returns Oct. 28-Nov. 11 to benefit Bexley Public Library and Delaware County District Library.
For each new book, donors will receive a free bouquet, up to three per family per visit. Used books will not be accepted.
For more information, including library wish lists, visit cmlflowers.com/bouquetsforbooks.
Kids club event Nov. 11 celebrates Veterans Day
The Connells Maple Lee Kids Club will celebrate Veterans Day with a free event Nov. 11.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a special Veterans Day arrangement that includes an American flag.
Participants also will receive a balloon.
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.
Highlights from our fall catalog
Every year, we introduce a fall catalog that contains approximately 20 percent new products. We asked Geoff Royer, a member of our product development team, to describe how some of the new arrangements came about. Here’s what he told us:
3617
One of the tasks of the product development team was to come up with more arrangements that are specific to birthdays. This arrangement does just that with the birthday bear that’s attached to the vase.
This is the fourth in our lineup of Big Hugs vases. We also have redesigned the baby boy and baby girl versions of that style.
3618 and 3619
We realized in the spring that we could do better on the pricing of the mini callas than we had before so we opted to develop a few arrangements with them.
3631 and 3633
This collection of arrangements is a new style for us, each one in a nine-inch glass bowl that we’d never carried before. We used them in some new lifestyle shots we are using to enhance our brochure and websites.
3644 (photo)
This addition features several flowers that are new to us, namely the Memphis daisy pom, charmellia alstromeria, and Nobbio cherry carnation.
We had featured Memphis at previous holidays. We loved the color and the lateral lengths on the daisy but no one grew it year-round until now.
Charmellia is a new product in the floral world. It lasts incredibly long and, as it opens, it changes from dark pink to a lighter pink.
The colors and variegation of the Nobbio cherry petals are like nothing we’d ever seen. This carnation is from a farm called Geoflora, which is associated with South American carnation breeder S.B. Talee.
Talee developed the Nobbio series in response to a Japanese market that wanted something beyond the standard red, white and pink combination with a longer stem length. We can take the sizes the Japanese markets don’t want at a good price.
Refresh: Connells Maple Lee launches new website
Temperatures go from warm to cool, green leaves turn gold, red, orange.
And just as fall is the season of change in the natural world, it can be in the digital realm, too.
At Connells Maple Lee, this fall coincides with the launch of our new website. It’s still at cmlflowers.com, of course, but it has a fresh, crisp new look and functionality that should make the shopping experience even more fulfilling. (This look also is evident in our e-blasts and printed fall catalog.)
Among the improvements, both functionally and aesthetically:
- The website now features “responsive” design, which means that it adjusts to the size of the browser in which it is viewed. We realize that customers shop online from different-sized screens, from desktop to laptop, tablet to smart phone.
- Additional filters help shoppers more readily find what they’re looking for. For instance, instead of just searching by price across all products, it’s now possible to narrow that search by categories. Soon you’ll be able to filter by flower and color, too.
- Arrangements are shown bigger and scale according to screen size.
- Text is set against transparent colors, allowing more of the background flower images to shine through.
- If the curvy page designs have a familiar feel, it’s because they are macro-views of actual flower shapes. The size, color and placement of the shapes are not determined by templates but rather are unique to each layout. This allows the layouts to remain fresh and change with the seasons.
What do you think of our new website? We’d like to hear from you. Please share your comments below, or let us know the next time you visit one of our stores.
Connells Maple Lee donates $580 to Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer REse FOR BREAST CANCER RESEARCH
Connells Maple Lee has donated $580 to the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James).
For each sale of its “Power of Pink” arrangement, Connells Maple Lee donates $10 to breast cancer organizations, including $2,370 to the Stefanie Spielman Fund since 2015.
The Stefanie Spielman Fund supports breast cancer research, including genetics, as well as technology needs for research, patient care, medical education and training on breast cancer at the OSUCCC – James.
The Power of Pink arrangement, redesigned annually, is available year-round.
Photo: Andrew Royer, regional manager, Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts, and Erika Beasley, assistant director, community partners program at the OSUCCC-James.
Planting the seeds for a successful school year
New shirts, new shoes. Backpacks and notebooks. No doubt, one or more of those items was on your shopping list if you’re a parent preparing a child for the first day of school.
Don’t forget a little something for your child’s teacher and classroom.
A plant is a great option, not only for aesthetic reasons but certain ones help to improve indoor air quality. What’s more, the presence of plants has been shown to boost productivity and reduce stress, which can enhance a learning environment.
With the help of Connells Maple Lee’s Cheryl Brill and other resources, we compiled a list of plants that will help sow the seeds for a great new school year.
Cheryl’s list started with Chinese evergreens (aka aglaonemas), peace lilies, philodendrons and spider plants, each of which is great for cleaning the air, she said. What’s more, they’re easy to take care of and don’t require a lot of bright light.
As their name suggests, spider plants have tendrils or plantlets that grow out from the mother plant.
“That would be kind of fun for a grade-school situation,” Cheryl said.
For more on plants and air quality, click here.
Classroom conversation
Meanwhile, air plants aren’t that effective at cleaning the air, Cheryl said, but they are intriguing because they grow without soil. Also known as tillandsia, air plants are a type of bromeliad and relative of the pineapple.
Air plant leaves have scales, called trichomes, that absorb water and nutrients from the air.
“We just dunk them in a bucket of water every week or so,” Cheryl said, suggesting how easy it is to care for air plants.
The air plant’s unique characteristics alone make for a great classroom conversation. What’s more, they’re available at Connells Maple Lee in quirky “thinkers” containers.
Thinkers is what we want students to be, after all. Another plant option that can captivate a classroom is a terrarium, which only needs to be watered weekly. Cheryl described them as “neat to look at” and as providing “a little tranquil spot.”
Heaven knows, a bustling school can use a tranquil spot or two.