Category Archives: Roses

Flowers, Roses

5 Gifts That Will Drive Your Sweetie Pie Nuts at Valentine’s

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 When it comes to flowers for Valentine’s guys can become clueless as to what to get. More often than not they go for the safe bet…Red Roses.
nervousman
Just the other day I had a young customer come in to buy his girlfriend flowers for Valentine’s Day. He wanted to really impress her. I showed him a few arrangements and he kept saying “No that’s not impressive enough”. He REALLY wanted to blow her away. So I let it all hang out and sold him a big bouquet of our amazing  Groovy Lovin’ Roses in which each petal is tye dyed along with another dozen red roses added to the arrangement.Now that’s a statement! His bill came to over $200! Wow!

Wanna be a hit Valentine’s and have you bumpkin’ swooning all over you? Here’s 5 can’t miss gifts from Knight’s Flowers:

  • Groovy Lovin’ Roses- The most talked about roses we carry and we only get them at Valentine’s. Each petal is dyed in a rainbow of colors to create the most psychedelic look you’ll ever see in flowers. When your honey bun sees these beauties he’ll be speechless.

Groovy Lovin' Roses

  • Pretty In Pink-Our number one selling Valentine arrangement. Girls just loooove pink. Yep, I know what your thinking…red means love, but pink also means love. This is the most fenimine of colors that coveys caring and nuturing. Induded in this arrangent are one of the gals favoite flowers-pink Stargazer Lilies. With a few red roses added, this stunning arrangement will have your loved one bowled over with joy.v13Pretty in Pink1
  • Valentine’s Jewels Bouquet-Each year we feature a new rose that not red for that descriminating customer that wants something different. This year we are featuring the lavender rose variety called ‘Purple Haze’, with it’s light lavender petals that have hot pink edges on the petals.Valentines-Jewels
  • Chocolates-Sure, we’re a flower shop. We petal flowers. Chocolates? We’ve come across the most mouthwatering  handmade truffles from our chocolatier Sweet Shop USA we’ve ever tasted. Much, much better than that stuff you get at the drug stores. Perfect by themselves or added to a flower arrangement.GOCHOC
  • Red Roses-The most fail safe flowers a guy can give a girl. Are there any gals that don’t like red roses? We carry not just any red rose. We carry the greatest red rose in the world. No, I’m not kidding. We are one of the few florists in the country that carry the beauty called ‘Corazon’ , which is spanish for heart. This rose opens fully into a gigantic garden rose look and best of all it lasts and lasts. For over 10 days! Dozen Red Roses

So there you have it. An insider’s guide for men that gets your the biggest, wettest kiss and bear hug of all time.

Oh, one more thing. If you gals are reading this pass this along to you other half. You know what I mean? Don’t go away disapointed this Valentine’s. Make sure your pootsy wootsy gets his flowers from Knights.

Knight's Flowers, Miscellaneous, Roses

The 4 Top Rose Color Trends for Valentine’s

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Back in the early 1950’s when Knight’s Flowers started in business in Lake City, just about the only rose color your true love got for Valentine’s was red. A florist might have a few white or pink roses back then, but 60 years later we have kaleidoscope of colors. At Knight’s we carry over ten different rose colors. Now there are over 120 different rose varieties to chose from, many which last over 10 days!

The 3 top selling colors for Valentine’s are:

Ravishing Reds

The new reds for roses range from shades of bright raspberry to majestic scarlet to velvety-dark red to orange-kissed hues. At Knight’s we use the heart stopping Corazon rose from Rio Roses, which is a bright red rose that opens fully, last for over 2 weeks and amazingly doesn’t droop. Check our our ‘Dozen Red Roses’ arrangement that is sure to impress your love one.
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Pretty Pink Roses

This year we have traditional bridal pinks or adopted siblings of hip hot pinks. Cousins on this family tree include peaches, apricots, corals and lavenders. Check out our ‘Valentine’s Jewels’ bouquet for a wide variety of pink color tones this Valentines.
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Wild Yellows

Whether crisp lemon, buttery hues, golden yellows or trendy two-tones, the variety of yellow roses cover a broad spectrum of color – and appeal. If you’ve never given flowers to a man before, introduce him to this family of colors. Yellow is the second most popular color cited by men. This year at Knight’s we have a wicked yellow rose that has red tinted edges on its petals called ‘Circus’. Check our ‘2 Dozen Circus’ roses arrangement that sure to brighten up any lovers day.
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Rainbow Roses

One of the hottest new trends in Valentines colors that past couple of years is a rose color called ‘rainbow roses’. Each petal on this rose is dyed a different color to create a spectacular show. If you want to just blow away you sweetie pie this valentines order this rose arrangement we call “Groovy Lovin’ Roses”.
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Roses are like fine wines, a delight to be savored and cultivated. Like an expanding wine cellar, Knight’s Flowers coolers are now stocked with more choices worth learning about. After all, variety is the spice of life.
Flowers, Knight's Flowers, Roses

The World’s Greatest Dozen Red Rose Arrangement

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Over the years at Knights we’ve striven to carry the world’s finest roses. With red roses, we feel it’s very important that we sell only the best, since it’s the most popular color among consumers. During the last 20 years we’ve only sold 3 red rose varieties in our shop-Kardinal, Charlotte and Forever Young.

Our red roses go through rigorous testing before they are ever sold to our customers. We look for vase life, head size, aperture and beauty, plus how well it stacks up against other roses in its category. Sometimes these tests can take months before we add a new rose to our collection.

For the past 10 years we’ve used Forever Young as our premium long stem red rose. We were one of the first florists in the United States to carry this rose. It has truly held its own against every red rose that has come out during this time. It has a phenomenal vase life, doesn’t droop and has a beautiful bloom. Rarely ever did we get a complaint when we sent these out to our customers. There have been a slew of new red rose varieties that have be introduced since we started carrying Forever Young, and we’ve tested many of them, but in our opinion, Forever Young always came out on top.

A Star Is Born

These past few months we have been testing a new red rose that has blown away everybody here at Knights. It has consistently passed every test we’ve thrown at it. ‘Amazing’ is the only way we can describe it. It’s grown for us by the world’s most discriminating rose grower- Rio Roses. We introduced this new red rose Valentine’s Day this year and since then we’ve not had 1 single complaint. Astounding!

The name of this mindblowing rose? It’s called ‘Corazon” . It’s Spanish for heart. If this rose doesn’t stimulate your heart, nothing will. Without a doubt it’s the most breathtaking red rose we’ve ever introduced in the 57 years Knights Flowers has been in business.

What makes Corazon so spectacular?

  • Vase Life-It lasts for up to ten days. We’ve even had some customers that have said it has lasted for them 3 weeks!
  • Doesn’t Droop-The vast majority of roses droop after a certain length of time. It’s normal. Not Corazon. No need for Viagra for this baby.
  • Huge Bloom Size-Corazon has one of the largest bloom size of any red rose on the market. 2.5″ bloom size and a gigantic 5″ across when full open.
  • Opens Fully-Unlike our previous red rose star Forever Young, Corazon opens fully. Nothing worst than a rose that never opens.
  • Beauty-Opens to a classic circular rose shape with a timeless true red color. Petals are firm, almost velvety and leaves are a dark rich green.

We’ve taken these awe-inspiring Corazon roses and created what we call ‘The World’s Greatest Dozen Red Rose’ arrangement. 12 of the most fabulous red roses you’ve ever feasted your eyes on. Arranged in a garden style glass vase with a mixture a classic greens, accented with vibrant waxflower blossoms and ribbon. Sure to set your love one’s heart aflutter.

The World's Greatest Dozen Red Roses Arrangement

Roses

Roses for Relay

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Two years ago in June my Dad died of bladder cancer.  It happened all at once. It wasn’t one of those long drawn out battles that some people experience. Doctors diagnosed him with cancer, gave him 6 months to live and he lived 3 1/2 more weeks.  He lived to be 84. Some people get cancer early,  some later in life. Some folks don’t smoke, don’t drink and they do all the right things to avoid cancer and still get it. Cancer is an equal opportunity killer.

Alarming Facts About Cancer!:

  • One in three people will contract cancer, and one in four will die from the disease.
  • Within five years, cancer will surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death, according to the American Hospital Association.
  • In 1994, 1.2 million new cancer cases were added to the more than eight million people in the U.S. who have already been diagnosed with cancer.
  • Since 1950, the overall cancer incidence has increased by 44 percent; the incidence of breast cancer and male colon cancer by about 60 percent; testis, prostate and kidney by 100 percent; and other cancers, such as malignant melanoma, multiple myeloma and some lymphomas, by over 100 percent.
  • Th e e stimated annual cost of cancer to the United States, excluding incalculable psychosocial costs, is $110 billion, approximately 2 percent of the GNP.
  • An estimated 80 million people have health insurance insufficient to cover the costs of a catastrophic illness such as cancer.
Relay Roses

For the past several years Knight’s Flowers have participated in the East Anderson County American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. We’ve run a promotion that has been very successful. We call them Relay Roses. Simply put, for only $75 you get a 1/2 dozen roses each month for a full year. We donate $20 of this for to the American Cancer Society.  This year’s dealine for ordering them is June 20, 2010.

We have gotten lots of folks that say this is one of the best promotions we’ve ever run. They originally intend to keep the roses for themselves, but many times end up giving them away to someone in need or for a friend who is having a special occasions.

You can also purchase Relay Roses as a gift for a friend  or relative. They are great birthday presents!

I can’t think of a better way to help support Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society, plus you get roses every month for a whole year. All for just $75!

Download a copy of the Roses for Relay: Flower renewal sale form-2010

Roses

The Most Amazing Roses I’ve Ever Seen

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Groovy Roses

In 30 years of working in flower shops from New York to San Francisco to Clinton I have never been as excited about such an unusual product as I’ve been with our ‘Groovy Roses’.

We got a sample in a few weeks back and set them out for display and customers have gone nuts over them! They can’t believe they are real.  Everybody wanted to buy some. I told they weren’t for sell, but we are looking to carry them in the future.

Well, folks we are going to have some for sell the second week of March for a trial run. Place your order now! They are sure to sell out. We have a very limited quantity.

We’ve tried dyed roses in the past and quite frankly they’ve sucked. Didn’t last very long, never opened, the leaves turned brown, yada, yada, yada. These beauties lasted for over a week! Fantastic for dyed roses. Opened up beautifully and no brown leaves.

How did they do that? The question that everybody asks about with ‘Groovy Roses’ is how they got the petals different colors. The roses are placed in special water. Different substances are dissolved in this water. The rose branch absorbs this water as part of a natural process. This is what changes the color of the petals. What makes ‘Groovy Roses’ unique is that the inventor has managed to color a few petals, for example, yellow, whilst at the same time other petals color differently, for example, blue, orange or lilac. It even proved possible to achieve a range of different colorings in the flower, which as it were fan around one another. This resulted in these unique, colorful and cheerful roses.

Below is a video the how they dye these roses. Unfortunately, it’s in Dutch, but the visuals still impress.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ojwmhm229U]

History of Groovy Roses This unusual dyeing process to achieve a rainbow of colors in a rose was originally developed in Holland. They are called in Holland ‘Happy Roses’. Some people refer to them as ‘Rainbow Roses.” At Knight’s we decided to brand them ‘Groovy Roses’. At Knight’s we are the first florist in the area to carry these incredible roses.

Price Some florists around the country are charging as much as $224 for 1 dozen of these roses! Geez! At Knight’s we’ve been able to work with our supplier and get a very reasonable price on these roses. Instead of $224 a dozen we are offering them at only $69.95 a dozen. An unbelievable price for such outstanding rose. We are also offering a number of price points to make it affordable to just about anybody. Starting as low as$12.50 you can have a 1 ‘Groovy Rose’ arranged in a vase.

Hurry and order your ‘Groovy Roses’ todayWe only have them for a limited time. Get your groove on. It’s Groovy Baby

Flowers, Knight's Flowers, Roses

What Everybody Ought to Know About Valentine’s

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Hey guys and gals, how’s your love life? Is it active, boring, worthless or just wimpy. Do you kiss you spouse or fiancé or lover or girlfriend/boyfriend daily? Once a day. Twice a day. Several times a day. Once a week. Never!? How often do you send flowers to your love one? Weekly. Monthly. Only on birthdays and anniversaries? Or maybe just when you’ve screwed up. Man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve unlocked the keys to the doghouse with our famous roses.

Now there is one time of the year you just can’t be wimpy or screw up. That’s Valentine’s Day. You’ve got to remember to send your true love a big bouquet of flowers, cause I ain’t got enough keys to get you outa that doghouse. No siree! No amount of kissin’ and huggin’ will make up for not sending your sweetheart flowers on Valentine’s Day.

At Knight’s we are here to make that day very, very special. Our designers have been working tirelessly to come up with arrangements that will blow you away. They are sexier (the flowers) than socks on a rooster. We have arrangements with roses in an assortment of colors. We’ve created bouquets of roses and stunning pink oriental lilies. Tulip bouquets are becoming very popular and we have a gorgeous arrangement of 10 sexy red tulips in a vase. Of course, we’ll have our wonderful assortment of chocolates, plush animals and balloons.

A tradition here at Knight’s is our rose feature at Valentine’s. It’s always a non-red rose feature. Did you know that 80% women prefer roses in colors other than red? Because we want to make sure your sweetie pie is happy, huggy and kissy we’ve gone all out to come up with a truly unique rose arrangement this Valentine’s

The rose we are featuring this year is call ‘Fame’. It’s a new rose that just became available this past year. It was born in Holland in 2007. One of its unique characteristics is its unusual color. It’s a silvery, mauvish pink. Light pink roses suggest a sense of fun, happiness and whimsy. It opens up fully and will last well over a week. When we first saw this rose a couple months ago here at Knight’s all our designers screamed “This is it! This is our rose for Valentine’s!” Immediately we made contact with Rio Roses, the world’s most discriminating rose grower. We bought all we could get our hands on. Because this rose is so new there is not a lot of supply out there. You will not find this rose anywhere else but Knight’s Flowers. Place your order early, supplies are very limited.

So now there you have it. Now you know what to get for Valentine’s. Put your faith in Knight’s Flowers to give your flame a Valentine’s they will always remember with roses that they will cherish for days and days.

Check out our complete lineup for Valentines at knightsflowers.com.

Flowers, Knight's Flowers, Roses

Just a Single rose

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So often in the flower business when we think of roses we think in terms of 1 dozen roses. Here at Knight’s we are famous for our 2 dozen rose specials. We sometimes loose sight of the fact that just a single rose can convey a wonderful heartfelt feeling and have just as much impact as 1 or 2 dozen roses.

Several times a month we have a customer from Norris by the name of Carl that comes in and gets just a single rose to give a friend in the apartment complex he lives in for being such a nice person. This week he came by to get a single pink rose and wanted to share a card he got from a friend he gave a rose to. Below is the message on that card:

Carl,

I love flowers and I think a flower was one of God’s most phenomenal creations.

Thank you so much for the beautiful rose. In this day and age, it seems like people giving flowers was a thing of the past. It is really nice to know people still give them.

Also thanks for the smiley face.

Thank You,
Marilyn

I tell our employees here at Knight’s a customer that buys just 1 rose is just as good a customer as someone who buys 1 or 2 dozen roses. For several years we had a customer that would come by every week and buy a single yellow rose to put on his wife’s grave. When he past away his family remembered their father’s devotion to his wife memory and knew he came by Knight’s to get the roses. They wanted to make sure they got his casket spray of roses from Knight’s. A single rose ended up turning into a big order. Just a single rose can say it all.

Roses

Garden Roses

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Over the years we’ve tried garden roses from California and Holland and have always been disappointed. They don’t ship well and have a very short vase life. In fact, we were lucky if they arrived fit to use. The stems were always very weak and tended to have that droopy look. Unless you used them within a day or two they ended up not usable. We would never send these out in a vase arrangement. They might work for a wedding or a party were a weeks vase life was not that important. They cost a fortune and considering the amount of dumpage it just didn’t pay to buy these roses.

All that has changed. A German rose breeder Rosen Tantau has developed a line of garden roses that have greatly improve vase life and they’ve breeded a rose with much stronger stems. These roses are now being grown in Columbia by Alexdandra Roses.

If your a bride craving for that ‘garden look’ that’s featured in so many bridal magazine with big garden roses we have them at Knight’s. Just give us plenty of time to order them.

Mariatheresia:

This medium pink rose has a circular form that blooms out to a 3″ opening. It has a fairly fast arputure. All the roses bloomed out. It has little or no fragrance. It would work fine for weddings or party work. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyday arrangements because of it’s short vase life.

Rating (1 to for 4 stars)
Color: ***
Head Size **
Shape ***
Fragrance none
Vase Life * 3-4 days
Overall***

Pros: nice color, pretty form, all blooms fully opened
Cons: short vase life, average size head

Chippendale:

A salmon pink rose that fully opened into a spiral cup shape form. With a nice fragrance, these roses would be ideally suited for weddings and parties. Some of the roses we tested had some brown edges which is not unusual given the highly perishable nature of garden roses.

Rating (1 to four stars)
Color ****
Form ****
Fragrance ***
Head Size ***
Vase Life * 3-4 days
Overall ***1/2

Pros: spicy fragrance, uniform form, all flowers opened fully
Cons: short vase life

Waltzertraum:

The flower panel gave this stunning rose 4 stars. Waltzertraum is German for “Dream Waltz”. Walzertraum is a huge peony shaped hot pink garden roses that doesn’t have any discernable fragrance. Most of these roses opened about a 1/3 to 1/2 way. This would be a perfect substitute for peonies in weddings and probably a lot less expensive.

Rating (1 to four stars)
Color ****
Form ****
Fragrance: none
Head Size ****
Vase Life * 3-4 days
Overall ****
Pros: spicy fragrance, uniform form, all flowers opened fully
Cons: short vase life

Lovely Antique:

Here’s a garden rose that looks very similar to the hybrid tea called ‘Dolce Vita’. It’s a big bulbous white rose with hot pink edges. Nice rose to use in a wedding in which the overall color scheme was basically white, but you just wanted to add just a touch of pink.


Rating (1 to four stars)
Color ***
Form ***
Fragrance faint
Head Size ****
Vase Life * 3-4 days
Overall ***

Pros: large headsize,
Cons: short vase life, some roses never opened