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CREATE BEAUTIFUL FLORAL TRIBUTES: 9 SYMPATHY FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS TO CONVEY LOVE AND SUPPORT

JUNE 20, 2023 RIO ROSES FLORAL MARKETING STRATEGIES

Sympathy flowers are a vital part of any floral business. They offer comfort to grieving individuals and families and provide a tangible expression of support during such a difficult time. Here are a few ways sympathy flowers are essential for your floral business:

• Customer Relationships: Providing sympathy flowers allows you to build and strengthen relationships with your customers. You can create a lasting impression and foster customer loyalty by offering compassionate and personalized service during difficult times.

• Marketing and Branding: People who see beautifully arranged flowers at funerals or memorial services may inquire about the source or recommend the florist to others in need. This word-of-mouth marketing can contribute to your visibility and reputation within your community.

• Revenue: Funerals and memorial services are occasions where the demand for floral arrangements is high, and the need is immediate. By offering a range of sympathy flowers and related services, you can cater to this specific market and generate income.

Three Vital Elements of a Sympathy Arrangement

• Flower Color: The most common color used in sympathy arrangements is white, representing purity, innocence, and sympathy. Yet, you are not limited to white; many people will want arrangements featuring their loved one’s favorite color, which can be vibrant, dark, or pale.

• Flower Type: Often, sympathy arrangements use flowers like white roses, carnations, daisies, and lilies, as these symbolize peace and serenity. However, try to get more information from the bereaved about their loved one to create an arrangement featuring their favorite flowers, as they will have more meaning.

• Message: It’s not only the card attached to the arrangement that can contain a message; the entire arrangement can convey a special meaning to the deceased’s loved ones. Unique containers, shapes, and styles can all add special significance to a sympathy arrangement.

9 Sympathy Flower Combinations

To give you an idea of what types of arrangements to offer your customers, here are nine different combinations of flowers and colors. Use them as they are or modify them to align with your brand and available flowers. These are ideas — and your creativity can make them even better!

A Spiritual Touch
Purple represents spirituality, making it the perfect addition to this white and cream wreath. Roses, lisianthus, and chrysanthemum poms are interspersed with purple lisianthus and lovely green foliage.

Peaceful Glory 
Peace is the message of this magnificent all-white casket spray. White roses, lisianthus, stock, and lilies spill over beautiful deep green foliage.

Love and Respect
Red roses at a funeral represent love, respect, and courage, making them ideal for this arrangement. Red carnations, white lisianthus, and green foliage complete the stunning design.

Celebration of Color
This bright and colorful casket spray features hot pink hydrangeas, light pink and purple lisianthus, pink oriental lilies, cream spray roses, and white hypericum.

Pastel Beauty 
Lavender, light pink, medium pink, and bi-color yellow and pink roses make a peaceful, soothing arrangement with a gorgeous pastel hue.

Peace and Prayers
This classic floral cross is made with white carnations and topped with white roses. It’s a special and memorable way to honor a lost loved one.

Eternal Love
Nothing represents love better than red roses in a heart shape. Adding white roses and white spray roses creates a symbol of everlasting love and peace.

Classic Beauty
Red roses, white gypsophila, and green foliage combine to make a gorgeous and classic urn wreath that can also surround a photograph or other treasured item.

Peace and Joy
Pompons signify peace, hope, and joy, making them an ideal choice for a sympathy arrangement like this beautiful all-white urn wreath.

We hope this has given you a few ideas for creating or updating your sympathy flower collection. By providing compassionate service and personalized arrangements, you can offer condolences to those who are grieving, build strong customer relationships, and foster loyalty.

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The Hidden Meaning Behind the Queens Funeral Flowers

Sometimes the smallest details say the most.

BY RACHEL SILVIA PUBLISHED: SEP 19, 2022

As a gun carriage procession took Queen Elizabeth II’s casket past thousands of mourners from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch in London, and ultimately on to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor this morning, one image remains that will likely survive the passage of time: an elegant, billowing floral arrangement filled with seasonal pink-and-burgundy blooms atop the coffin. Beyond the fittingly stunning array of flowers, which added quiet beauty to this historic moment, there’s more than meets the eye. Here’s the poignant meaning behind Her Majesty’s tributary botanics. 

WHAT FLOWERS WERE PLACED ON THE QUEEN’S CASKET ON SEPTEMBER 19?

The oak casket was draped with the Royal Standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown, the Sovereign’s Sceptre, and the Sovereign’s Orb. Beside the glittering crown jewels and regalia was an assemblage of gold, pink, and burgundy blooms that were carefully chosen by the new King Charles III. The arrangement contained rosemary, myrtle, English oak, dahlias, roses, autumnal hydrangeas, sedum, scabious, scented pelargoniums, and sweet peas. 

WHAT’S THE HISTORY BEHIND THE ARRANGEMENT?

The bespoke wreath features flowers that were plucked from the Queen’s royal residences—the gardens of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, and Highgrove House. A romantic nod to her Majesty’s late husband, the myrtle used in the bouquet was grown from the same myrtle the Queen carried in her wedding bouquet when she married Prince Philip in 1947.

“At the King’s request, the wreath contains foliage of Rosemary, English Oak and Myrtle (cut from a plant grown from Myrtle in the Queen’s wedding bouquet) and flowers, in shades of gold, pink and deep burgundy, with touches of white, cut from the gardens of Royal Residences,” a tweet from Buckingham Palace read.

In among the flowers was a handwritten card that read: “In loving and devoted memory, Charles R.” At King Charles III’s request, the wreath was sustainably made without floral foam.

WHAT DID THE FLOWERS SIGNIFY? 

Each flower held its own special meaning. The rosemary represents remembrance, the myrtle is an ancient symbol of a happy marriage, and the English oak symbolizes strength, a nod to the Queen’s constancy and steadfast duty. The sweet peas were a favorite of the queen’s and the flower of her birth month (see below).

WHAT ABOUT THE FLORALS INSIDE WESTMINSTER?

Inside Westminster Abbey, the floral displays were a more subtle white and green—though subtle only in color. These huge arrangements contained asiatic lilies, gladioli, alstroemeria, eustoma, foliage of English oak, weeping birch, sprigs of myrtle, and lily of the valley, according to the Guardian.

WHAT ABOUT THE WREATH ON THE QUEEN’S CASKET ON SEPTEMBER 12?

As her coffin traveled along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh just days after the Queen’s passing, her coffin was adorned with a traditional white wreath. The circlet was made up of white flowers including sweet peas, dahlias, phlox, white heather, and pine fir, the royal family revealed. The Daily Mail reported that the wreath also contained spray roses, freesias, button chrysanthemums, dried heather, spray eryngium, foliage, rosemary, hebe, and pittosporum—all white or green.

The wreath’s blooms, plucked from the Queen’s beloved Balmoral garden, bore a striking resemblance to the white wreath that Queen Elizabeth II selected to sit upon the coffin of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021. His wreath featured white lilies, roses, freesia, wax flower, jasmine, and sweet peas—which the monarch endearingly picked out herself for his wreath, according to Hello! Magazine.

WHAT’S THE SYMBOLISM BEHIND THE FLOWERS FROM THAT FIRST WREATH?

Three of the flowers that were placed on both the Queen’s and Prince Philip’s coffins have particular significance. Sweet peas are the birth flower of April, the Queen’s real birthday. In the language of flowers, sweet peas signify departure and goodbyes. White roses are associated with loyalty. And freesias are symbolic of friendship and perseverance, a touching nod to their long-lasting marriage.

WHAT WAS QUEEN ELIZABETH’S FAVORITE FLOWER?

Seen in the Westminster floral displays, lily of the valley held pride of place in the Queen’s botanical affections. Elegant yet hardy, it is a woodland plant with dark green leaves and white bell-shaped flowers that are known for their sweet smell. It is famed for being relatively easy to grow. Lily of the valley symbolizes motherhood, purity, and good luck—but the sentimentality goes beyond textbook definitions for the Queen. She carried the flowers in her bouquet of orchids when she married the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, and they were featured six years later in her coronation bouquet. When her husband died in April 2021, they were again used to decorate the church in reference to their bridal bouquet. In addition to being a staple flower for key royal events (and a fixture in Kate Middleton’s wedding bouquet), lily of the valley is also a permanent feature of the floral displays at Buckingham Palace. It is fitting, then, that the white blooms were part of the Queen’s final farewell ceremony in London.

IS THERE A ROSE NAMED AFTER THE QUEEN?

Other potential floral flourishes that could make their appearance in the upcoming funeral are the Queen’s own namesake blooms (there’s more than one). The royal family has a long history of lending their names to specific botanicals—and the Queen, a lover of all things horticulturally minded, is no exception. The Dendrobium “Queen Elizabeth II” is a tropical orchid that was named after the Queen during her 1972 tour to Asia. The evergreen plant produces long arching flower stems that carry up to 20 long-lasting yellow flowers. The Camellia japonica “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II” is a peony-type rose with salmon pink flowers that blossoms for just two weeks in the spring. With showy blooms that can grow to 12 centimeters, these glossy evergreens hailed from the United States in 1953. Introduced just this year are the Rosa Queen Elizabeth, a sweetly scented pink hybrid tea rose from Harkness Roses to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and the Elizabeth (Ausmajesty), a tall silver-pink rose bred by the Royal Horticultural Society in honor of what would have been Prince Philip’s 100th birthday. Our favorite detail? The namesake bloom has a strong, sweet fragrance with hints of lemon sherbet and Old Rose.

RACHEL SILVA ASSISTANT DIGITAL EDITOR

Rachel Silva, the Assistant Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, covers design, architecture, trends, and anything to do with haute couture. She has previously written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, and Citywire.

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5 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR SYMPATHY FLORAL BUSINESS

JUNE 14, 2022 RIO ROSES SYMPATHY

As florists, we all share a similar purpose and passion: to bring love, joy, and happiness through the power of flowers. And that’s particularly true when it comes to sympathy flowers. Flowers can both comfort and express emotions that people can’t easily state during these times of grief. That’s why sympathy flowers are an essential part of your floral business. However, you need to ensure you have the right things in place to build a sympathy business that will sustain you for years to come. Here are five ways to do just that:

1. Make Yourself Available

We listed this as the first point because you won’t be able to build a strong sympathy floral business without it. While you can plan most events in advance and work with event planners, that’s not the case for funerals or memorial services. Therefore, you need to be available at a moment’s notice and able to create the beautiful arrangements that people need. At the very least, it means being available during regular business hours, so you’re not turning away potential business. Not only is this unprofessional, but word will spread, which could damage your overall reputation.

2. Ensure You Can Easily Obtain Flowers

Sympathy flowers are so important to families, and they often will want to customize their arrangements. So, having a variety of flowers available is vital to building your sympathy business. You may lose a potential sale if you only have a particular type of flower available — or whatever you have left over from weddings and other events. Therefore, ensure you have a strong relationship with your local wholesaler so you can obtain the flowers you need, when you need them, to create arrangements that will pay proper tribute to a departed loved one.

3. Develop Relationships with Funeral Directors 

In addition to having a solid relationship with your floral wholesaler, it’s crucial to develop good relationships with your local funeral directors. Since the sympathy business is competitive, the florist who communicates promptly, works well with the funeral director, and exceeds expectations for the bereaved is the florist who will get more business. Funeral directors have a lot to deal with, and if you can take some of the strain off them, they will appreciate you and want to work with you regularly.

4. Promote Your Sympathy Floral Services

Just like you promote your wedding, event, and holiday services, promote your sympathy flowers. And it’s not enough to just have a “sympathy arrangements” page on your website. Instead, think of all the ways you can provide value to those looking for sympathy flowers, and promote this broadly on social media. For instance, you can write a blog post giving tips on how to select sympathy flowers, put it up on your website, then link to it on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest posts. You may be surprised to find out how much business you can get by making it known that you specialize in sympathy flowers.

5. Design Unique Sympathy Arrangements

Now that you have your availability, inventory, marketing, and promotion taken care of, it’s time to talk about the arrangements themselves. Here’s where you can really shine, by coming up with unique designs and ideas for sympathy florals. This is particularly important because the sympathy business has changed over the past few years.

• Modern visitations and services are becoming more popular instead of the traditional church service and burial.
• As more people choose cremation over a traditional casket and burial, their loved ones are looking for arrangements designed to highlight an urn.
• Plus, it’s becoming more popular to use the floral arrangements as tribute pieces, featuring props to highlight elements of a loved one’s life.

In the past, creating these unique and custom arrangements would have been challenging to say the least. But now, products exist to solve these challenges. One such product is called Serenity, a modular cage system containing either two or three foam bricks and a solid plastic bottom. This system is designed so you can use a variety of flowers and foliage of all different sizes, which can make for a striking display.

You can also use frame stands, round risers, and rectangle risers to make many different arrangements. The round riser, for example, is the perfect size to hold a cremation urn with flowers arranged around it. The frame stands can hold floral photo frames, books, bibles, and signage. And the rectangle riser may be the ideal way to show off a craft, hobby, or special remembrance of the deceased.

With these tools and your creativity, you can provide a service that sympathy customers genuinely desire. And this can go a long way to building a sympathy floral business.

We hope these tips can help you build a strong sympathy business. And if you have any other tips to share with your fellow florists, please let us know!

A New Year – A New Hope?

Small businesses have struggled during the pandemic, but pivoting or rearranging a business model doesn’t mean automatic success. What lessons have you learned? What makes you hopeful for 2021? Let me know — and we can share your story!

— Brenda Rees, Biz Buzz Editor

Contact me at brenda@TheEastsiderLA.com Florists take on a new pandemic role

“It’s a bittersweet time for us,” admits Gustavo Robles, owner of Psychopompos Floral in Silver Lake. He’s talking about about the recent uptick in creating condolence arrangements as well as gifts for birthdays and other milestones to recipients who can’t be physically seen because of the pandemic.

Like many other small floral shops, Robles’ business has been fueled by people wanting to send cheer, to express sympathy and to convey a good old fashion “Just Thinking of You” message to loved ones who are shut in.

Overall, however, the pandemic took a heavy toll on the florist business last year.

According to a recent report by IBIS World , “the pandemic is expected to generate the florist industry’s largest single-year revenue contraction in recent history” due in part to social distancing guidelines that is hampering revenue from wedding services and funeral homes.

Overall, the industry in the United States has a combined yearly revenue of over $5 billion which is spread across around 15,000 retail flower shops. It’s a highly fragmented industry; the 50 biggest floral companies (FTD, Teleflora, etc.) only make up 10 percent of the revenue – people often turn to the convenience of supermarket chain stores, the biggest competitor to small mom and pop shops.

Customer interaction and personalized attention may give shops like Robles’ the sensitive edge.

“Talking to a florist it can be emotional for many people,” says Robles about responding to family members and friends who may have lost a loved one or who haven’t seen their loved one face-to-face in months. “I say, ‘Tell me about this person, what are they like? What do they enjoy?’ I tell them ‘We’ll get through this!’ and we often end up laughing.”

Robles often suggests customers include one living plant – often a succulent or an herb – so recipients will have a living plant as a memory of the gift. On the average, people spend about $100 on his custom artful arrangements. Customer sympathy

“Sending a floral arrangement is reaching out to someone in a special way, it’s like receiving a very personal letter,” says Art Bacilio, co-owner of My Blooming Business in Eagle Rock.When the pandemic initially shut down the business, Bacilio had a lot of orders to fill – birthday and anniversary wishes. He worried that customers would just cancel. “”We have a lot of beautiful customers who understood and were sympathetic,” he says.Bacilio runs the shop with his mother, Zoila, who started the business 12 years ago designing handcrafted arrangements – mostly for weddings – from her Sunland garage. The shop has gained a steady following since it moved to this storefront nine years […]

Source: Business at Eagle Rock and Silver Lake flower shops continue to bloom amid pandemic

Henry Edwards – known as Mini Man – had spent over half his life living in the open air near Kilgetty roundabout.

Firstly making his home in an old Mini car, and then moving to a makeshift roadside den, Henry, 66, was a familiar figure propelling his battered pushbike around local roads.

He was found dead at his home at the end of November after not being seen for several days.

https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/18907128.community-pays-tribute-kilgettys-mini-man-lived-outdoors-half-life/

Henry shunned all offers of help and human contact and residents of the area respected his wishes for his solitary life.

His funeral took place at St Issell’s Church, Saundersfoot, where he was buried in the grave of his sister who died as a child.

Representatives of both the traveller community and local areas paid their respects en route and at the graveside.

A floral tribute was created on behalf of Kilgetty and Begelly residents by Flowers by Shelley and is being acclaimed as a ‘fitting’ and ‘beautiful’ expression of sympathy

Florist Shelley Webb, 43, of New Hedges decided to depict Henry’s bike laden with carrier bags and a bottle of orange pop, on a meadow of flowers.

She said: “I didn’t know if Henry had any family, and although I never knew him, I felt it would be awful if there were no flowers on his coffin. “So I made the tribute from all the community, and I wanted to make something that was him, which is why I included the pop and the carrier bags. “I just felt it was a nice gesture, and it’s lovely that people have been so grateful. It only cost me my time, and that was the least I could do.”

Source: The Mini Man’s bike is crafted by florist Shelley for the funeral of Kilgetty open-air dweller Henry

DuBOIS — Brady Street Florist Owner Jennifer Jackson, who has been creating flower arrangements in DuBois for just about any occasion for nearly 35 years, says despite the hardships of 2020, it has been a “blessing in disguise.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolving word of social media and online sales, Jackson said she has had to “rethink” her business.

This year, Jackson said she has had less staff, doing lots of things herself. Fortunately, she had a “very good year.” The flower business boomed this year, bringing brightness to people who were feeling the effects of 2020.

“I’ve had so many flower deliveries this year, going to people who were depressed,” she said. “People needed flowers more than ever.”

There have been so many deliveries and curbside pickups, Jackson said, that she realized she can transition her storefront to more of an online business and encourage more to take advantage of the pre-ordering process.

“Right now, we’re selling a lot of flowers to nursing homes,” she said. “In the past two weeks, the number of people we’ve delivered to who have COVID or are quarantining has been phenomenal.”

However, there has been the misconception that Jackson will be closing her storefront all together, which isn’t fact, she says. She will still be carrying some sympathy items for walk ins.

“This is an evolving process,” she said. “I have to make changes for my business — I’m cutting back what I carry and how I sell it.” Examples would be décor, silks and gift items.

“I want to stress to people that I’m still here — this is a developing ‘new normal’ for me,” she said.

COVID-19 has forced business owners to change the way they do things, and with the uncertainty of the future and next year, Jackson is following the trend.

Much of the items Brady Street Florist will no longer be carrying are currently 50 percent off, and what is left next year will most likely be transitioned to being sold online.

Jackson, who had COVID and had to shutdown in November, said there is also the misconception that she is still sick at this time, which is untrue.

The pandemic has been an unexpected blessing, allowing Jackson to enjoy her life more and “reinvent herself,” she says, remembering why she got involved with the flower business in the first place.“I enjoyed doing my business on my own terms this year,” she said. “Flowers are what I’m knowledgeable about and what I enjoy.”Jackson has been using her large Facebook following to post and sell items, and is working on revamping www.bradystreetflorist.com . Brady Street Florist Owner Jennifer Jackson stands in front of her downtown shop earlier this year.

Source: Brady Street Florist transitioning with the times

I visited London’s New Covent Garden Market, and it was a stunning sight.

The market has been around for hundreds of years and still supplies flowers and produce to local businesses.

Since the flower market opens at 4 a.m., I arrived and left before the sun was up.

If you’ve ever seen “My Fair Lady,” you’re likely familiar with London’s world-famous New Covent Garden Market, the place Audrey Hepburn’s character buys the “flahers” she sells on the street every morning.

The market is like something out of a dream, with flowers spilling out of every corner, vendors loudly bargaining, and roses making everything smell magnificent. But unlike many magical places in films, this flower retailer is very real.

Formally established in 1670, the market’s presence has been felt at British weddings , birthdays, and funerals for hundreds of years. The market moved from Covent Garden to Battersea in 1974 due to lack of space, but its flowers, fruits, and vegetables are still shipped all over the country.

Best of all, it’s open to the public and filled with Instagrammable flower walls and stunning floral props.

Read on to see what the market is like as soon as it opens. The flower market is open from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday to Saturday, so I knew I was in for an early start

New Covent Garden Market I was keen to have the most authentic experience possible, so I set my alarm for long before the sunrise.

The flowers are shipped into the UK overnight, so the early bird gets the worm. The sooner you arrive, the more choices you’ll have. The market is easy to find if you watch for the delivery trucks

New Covent Garden Market Located on a main road next to Battersea’s power station and close to the Thames, the market was marked by an endless flow of delivery trucks coming in and out of it.

It was still dark when I arrived, so the neon sign was a welcome pointer that I was in the right place. I chose to visit on a Monday, since that’s when British flowers are sold. The outside of the New Covent Garden Market is unsurprisingly industrial-looking

New Covent Garden Market Flowers being unloaded, ready to take inside. This isn’t a commercial florist that needs to attract customers by looking pretty” it’s a working market that’s already famous worldwide and a popular site for traders. It’s also where many London restaurants source their flowers and produce and where local florists buy their stems and greenery to turn into thoughtful arrangements. However, the stacks of Christmas trees and flower displays outside of the pedestrian entrance made it clear where I was New Covent Garden Market There were seasonal flower displays showing off the market’s wares. After admiring the displays, I walked through the door and into the market proper. The first thing that hit me was the temperature New Covent Garden…

Source: I visited London’s world-famous flower market, and it’s an Instagrammer’s dream

As New Yorkers passed away from COVID, Libby saw that no one was properly grieving their deaths, and knew that this would have future mental health implications for the survivors. That’s when she decided to take matters into her own hands — literally — and be the change she wanted to see in the city. “We saw all of these people dying and there were no visual representations of them. I thought, ‘If no one else is going to do something, I’m going to make something.’”

A florist in her early 20s, Libby, a native of Maine and now a Greenwich Village resident, used her botanical expertise to launch the Floral Heart Project, which she did anonymously at the start. After she placed her first heart — into the East River at Brooklyn Bridge Park — and saw the outpouring of responses, she knew she was not alone in her mission. After a serendipitous meeting with an executive from 1-800-FLOWERS, her initiative grew, and now, at her beautifully crafted creations displayed throughout the city, gatherers are known to weep or pray after they realize the intent behind them. “I wanted something that would be really easy to understand and hearts, for me, were obvious signs of love, support and hope for the community,” she said.

How did the idea for the Floral Heart Project come about? I read that you were always interested in art, but also suffered a brain injury.

Last August, I suffered a traumatic brain injury while kite-surfing. I fell 12 feet and hit my head on a sand dune at Plumb Beach near the Rockaways. That was physically really crippling and resulted in an extreme amount of headaches and sensitivity to light, which led me back to art. I started painting four to six hours every day as a means of coping with the headaches, because when I would paint, I would have fewer headaches, which was a godsend. And I had been a florist in my early 20s, so knew a lot about flowers and how to work with them, and they’re really a traditional sympathy gift.

What can you tell us about grief from your research?

My master’s degree is in international security and I studied genocide and incidents of mass trauma. And I knew that the pandemic is a mass trauma incident that would deeply impact our community and I spent a lot of time reading and researching and I was worried about America …You think about 9/11 and school shootings, there are photos, flowers, notes, beautiful funerals. I knew […]

Source: Allowing Grief to Blossom

A brick was thrown through the store’s front window on Monday, Oct. 26, police said. (Google Maps photo) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Ralph Cuomo was reeling from the death of his father last week when he learned a brick was thrown through the window of his Grasmere floral shop — making him the latest victim of a spree of burglaries across Staten Island.

After locking up the store on Monday, Oct. 26, only hours after his father died earlier that morning, Cuomo, 47, owner of A Bouquet of Love floral shop, said he was grabbing a bite to eat after a long day with friends and family when he was alerted of the damage.

“One of my friends left — he was driving and going home that way,” Cuomo told the Advance/SILive.com. “He was pulling to the light in front of the store at the intersection. He looked at the store and noticed all the glass and debris in front of the store.”

Cuomo’s friend called him, and police arrived to the scene later that night.

When he made it to the shop, he said he saw the brick used to smash into the business and discovered money was taken from the store’s register. The burglars, according to Cuomo, were savvy enough to know how to open the register without it being plugged in, and were able to get away with several hundred dollars.

Between the stolen cash and the damage, Cuomo said the burglary cost him between $600 and $700.

While he said the loss was not severe, “the aggravation” of having to board up the store and hire someone to fix the glass was compounded by the difficulties he was already facing.

“It’s bad enough with business and everything and my father passing that morning, and having to deal with getting ready for the wake," said Cuomo. “I just had extra to deal with.”

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 31, at least nine Staten Island businesses were burglarized. Five of those burglaries are believed to be part of a pattern, and the NYPD released a photo of a masked man wanted for questioning in connection to those incidents.

However, the Bouquet of Love burglary is not yet considered to be a part of an ongoing pattern, an official from the NYPD’s press office said. No arrests have been made in the incident, according to police.

Cuomo said he hopes the perpetrator of the burglary is found by police, but despite suffering loss and being left to repair his shop, he said he knew things could have been worse.

“At the end of the day, there’s much worse things in life that can happen other than your window being broken,” Cuomo said. “Just thank god nobody was hurt.”

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

Source: After loss of his father, Grasmere florist becomes burglary victim

Stephanie Harris of florist business The Rose Garden in Great Dunmow. Picture: THE ROSE GARDEN Staff at The Rose Garden Florist in Great Dunmow have been celebrating several pieces of good news.

The Rose Garden in Great Dunmow’s window for Remembrance Sunday. Picture: THE ROSE GARDEN The family owned business was awarded third place in the British Floristry Association Awards, an organisation which has 8,000 member florists, for Florist Website of the Year 2020.

There were 21 nominations in the category and 10 finalists from across the UK.

The Rose Garden was also shortlisted for the Retail Florist Shop of the Year 2020 category, and got into the final 10 from a list of 41. This year’s awards were held online.

The Rose Garden has also been included in the prestigious Good Florist Guide, described as the gold standard of floristry. It is a merit-based guide where each florist has to undergo a rigorous evaluation process. Stephanie Harris of florist business The Rose Garden in Great Dunmow. Picture: THE ROSE GARDEN Owner Stephanie Harris and staff are also celebrating their fifth year in business by leaving packs of bulbs around their delivery areas for the next few weeks.

“It’s fabulous,” Stephanie said of her successes in the British Floristry Association Awards and the Good Florist Guide.

“I’m absolutely over the moon. It’s a huge accolade for our staff and the town. We’ve worked really hard for it.”

Stephanie said she doesn’t know where the time has gone over the last five years. A Remembrance day window at The Rose Garden florist in Dunmow. Picture: ROSE GARDEN On Wednesday they stayed open until 8pm before lockdown and offered private shopping appointments.

From today onwards, while their door is shut, Stephanie stressed they are still at work, and are offering contactless deliveries or click and collect. They are available on the telephone, or through the website. The QR code on the shop front door also links to the website.

“Everything we have is on the website,” she said.

“We do bouquets, Christmas decorations, gift plants, funeral flowers.”

They offer Zoom consultations and telephone consultations for funeral flowers, to give a more personal touch.

Stephanie said they were busy during the first lockdown and were grateful for the support from people who had chosen to #ShopLocal.She added: “The community has supported us all the way through. They could not have been more lovely with all the shops.“Each and every one who comes in describes how much they want to support us – we are very grateful.”See the website www.therosegardenflorists.co.uk or telephone 01371 872882. You may also want to watch:

Source: Shop Local: Florist’s industry success as she celebrates fifth year in business