Container Gardening Basics Part 1

THINK BIG! When it comes to growing plants in pots, the larger the container, the better. Starting plants in larger containers will result in healthier root systems, less watering, and will produce more flowers and healthier foliage. If you plan to use window boxes, keep in mind that they are relatively shallow depths will cause your plants to dry out faster than they would in a deeper container. One way to get around this potential problem is to fill your window boxes with plants that use less water, such as Geraniums, Ivies, Grasses, and Osteospermum. For the best results make sure to use plants that need similar needs and habits. Be careful to not overcrowd the plants. this will cause problems when the plants start to fill out. For further tips on watering and fertilization stay tuned.............

Beautiful Parrot Tulips are in!!

Stunning. Yes. Parrot tulips are a much larger variety of the standard tulip you are used to seeing in the grocery stores. They have a heavy petal, which is slighly ruffled, with multiple shades of pigment. Very showy for any occasion!

We have them on special this week for $2.00 stem! Send them to anyone to get rid of the rainy/winter blahs!

Waiting for spring to sprung...

Spring thinking has everyone motivated to start digging out the gardening tools and thinking of how to get that not so manicured lawn looking sharp again. We here are doing the same thing! Though the weather is still dreary and cool, it's a great time to start planning out garden layouts or perhaps the new addition of one of our fairy gardens from Gnomenculture!

We are in the process of turning the inside of our shop a gardening mecca with Fairy Gardens, potting benches and garden accents!

Check back for more announcements of when the fairy garden erects!

Tis the Season! Plant care for the cold and Poinsettias

Happy Holidays from everyone at Maple Grove Floral!!

I'd like to touch base with everyone about plant care and floral care for the

upcoming weeks.

Now that the weather is getting chilly, make sure all your plants are away from drafty windows and doors - anything that can cause them to get cold.

If you are transporting flowers or plants for the holidays, make sure to keep them covered! Newspaper is a great for insulation and a trash bag or plastic shopping bag will create a good windbreaker for the plant. Any time plants or flowers are exposed to freezing temperatures, they are prone to freezing and frost bite. You can recognize it easily enough. Plants and flowers will have a distinctive black or brown tip with a crunchy feel to it. Remove the damaged foliage or petals and monitor it. If the damage spreads to the entire plant or flower, you might want to remove the damaged portions.

Also want to talk about Poinsettias!

There is the myth that the beautiful poinsettia is toxic. This is false! Whether you are human or concerned about your animals ingesting the plant.

The poinsettia is part of the Euphorbia family (which includes some toxic plants), but the poinsettia is not a toxic plant at all. The Minnesota Poison Control System concurs : "The fact is that they (poinsettias) are not poisonous. Nor are they edible and it can be expected that, when eated in quantity, they may cause stomach upset with possible vomitting. This may happen when an overactive puppy devours an entire plant. In the case of a child who eats a single leaf, no ill effects would be expected."

Given the bitter taste of the plant, it is usually enough to deter humans and pets from continous ingestion of the plant. Experimental dosages of ingestion of the plant have been conducted. It is said that a 50 pound child would have to eat more than 1.25 lbs of poinsettia (about 500-600 leaves) to exceed the experiemental dosage. If your child or pet eats that much poinsettia.... You might want to consider watching them a little closer or keeping your out of control dog in a kennel or outside!

You can check out the entire article on www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/poinsettias.asp

for the rest of the story!

Stay warm this holiday season - oh, and Merry Christmas!!

Fun at the Fair!

Just a shout out for all the visitors we had at the Minnesota State Fair. Thanks for stopping by the Horticulture building! The weather was beautiful, the people were fantastic and the questions asked were great! It was awesome to see the Twin Cities community support for local florists and local growers. We hope that everyone learned a little something about finding a reliable florist for their flower needs and to be wary of internet sites and phone book listings that bring you to a call center.
As always, if you are ever in doubt of finding a florist, give us a call! We would be more than happy to assist you or point you in the correct direction.
Thanks again and have a safe and relaxing Labor Day Weekend!!

Prep for the State Fair & Local Florists

It's that time of the year! The Great Minnesota Get Together is here apon us (a little too fast for my liking!). Maple Grove Floral will be attending the fair this year in the Horticulture Building on August 30th, from 10am - 3pm. We'll be hanging out with the fair goers, answering questions about our store and flowers and more so, promoting Minnesota flower shops with the Minnesota State Florist Association. You can learn more about the association by going to : www.localmnflorist.com
Here is just a quick blerb from the MN State Florist Assoc;
"Not all "local" florists are local. Some out-of-state tele-marketing and online firms pose as local florists. These companies mislead consumers into feeling that they are ordering from a local florist, but without their knowledge, are being call forwarded to another state. These firms charge higher fees and take business away from legitimate local florists. These companies gather orders and send them to florists, keeping a percentage of the total amount the consumer spent."

To learn more about this, visit us at the fair or visit the website listed above. See ya at the fair!!

Long hours, but totally worth it!

After many long hours at the flower shop, the fruits of our labor paid off. We delivered the hot pink Barbie wedding without a hitch, thanks to our amazing floral crew (and the help of a 24' long refridgeroted truck!!).

The unloading process and definetly one of notice. Throughout the entire day, we had flash photography from a number of different people, from staff, to touring customers, to golfers just going to use the adjacent bathrooms! The reactions were fabulous.

With direction from the mother and the bride to have jaws hit the floor, we sure did accomplish that!

Here are just a few pictures that we have to share with you all! With all the photography happening, more pictures of our amazing set up with follow! It leads one to wonder, how did they do that??

All work, more work... and a little play too

Here are some candid shots from the flower shop during our wedding week. It wouldn't be fun without some of these behind the scenes snap shots!

Here are some of our fab employees welcoming our new fish and practicing their fish lips.

With all the hard work being invested into this week, we always need a little break. It helps keep up human!

Here are just a couple of the tropicals received for this week. I love the Ginger!!!

There are about 60 + orchids hiding under the table too. Needless to say, the shop smells delightful!

"What's going on in your flower shop??"

Most of our customers are coming in this week and are baffled at the upside-down look of the flower shop. The fresh flowers are outside of the cooler and it's starting to look like a tropical forest at the second register! What's going on here?

Well, for most that are wondering, we are undergoing some huge preparations for a wedding on August 15th. With excess of 500 Hot pink roses, 300 stems of pink orchids, 100s of tropical flowers, mounds of white hydrangea, 100s of gerbera dasies (the list could go on and on) the cooler space is to say the least... a little cramped. We want to assure all our customers that we still have flowers for sale, they are just a little scarce this week. Most of the floral arrangements for our wedding are on display at the registers, only because we don't have the cooler room for such

massive pieces!

But.....

"Do you sell fish too?" No, they are for the wedding also! They are gorgeous little buggers, the original we named Franklin the Second. Franklin has 11 cousins that are going to be conversation pieces at 12 guest tables for the wedding! They are definately conversation pieces at the shop already!

We are very proud and excited to be the florist for Kristina and Blake. Their wedding is absolutely gorgeous and they are such a fun couple! Congratulations!!!!

This is just a sample of one of the arrangements for this weekend. Not fully complete, as it is missing the cascading orchids. This is a very large bubble design that is placed on top of a 24" Martini Glass. Imagine the Watermelon-tini - YUM! Notice the size of my designer's hand to the left of the picture.... yea, it's that big.

"Around the World"

August 20th, 2009 at 5pm.

"Around the World" at Rice Lake Plaza.

Join us for a cultural experience without the need for a pass port!

Participating stores :
Maple Grove Floral - Holland (Trivia night & in store specials)

Frankie's Pizza - Italy (Tira Mi Su samples and coupons)

Stonecrop - USA (in store specials)

Chin Yung - China (10% off coupons)

Dairy Queen - Germany (2 for 1 blizzards)

Simonson's Salon

FRAMETASTIC
& More!!

Why not get flowers at the grocery store? Heres why...

As convenient as it is to pull up to Target or Cub to grab flowers while you shop for food, it may not always be the best solution for getting flowers. 
Yes, we know, "they are so much cheaper and flowers don't last that long anyway."  And yes, you get what you pay for - especially at the grocery store.  Most stores have multiple locations, so yes, they can keep the overhead cost down when purchasing flowers - they buy it in bulk.  But what they also don't mention is that they are a lower grade of flowers than what you buy in a floral shop. 
Have you also noticed where they keep the flowers in grocery stores?  By the produce, of course.  As we know, fruits emit a gas called ethylene.  Which is why we can put unripe fruit in a bag and it will speed up the process.  Having flowers so close to the produce, the same thing happens to them.  They absorb the gas and in turn limit the vase life of the flowers.  The flowers at the grocery store are also not refrigerated, which also substantially cuts the life of the flowers down as well.  It is no wonder you buy flowers at the store and they do not last more than 2 days!  They are exposed to ethylene and are in room temperatures. 
We say that if you are investing money into purchasing flowers, they should last!  Because of the care and handling in our flower shop, you can expect your flowers to last anywhere from 5 - 14 days - depending on how well you care for them. 
Remembering to keep the water clean and recutting the stems is the best thing you can do to enjoy your flowers for weeks!

Weekly Specials

This week, we are having a special on Alstromeria. Many colors coming in!
Also, this is the week you need to redeem your coupon from Maple Grove Days for your free Mini Sunflower!

Thank you again to everyone that stopped by for the sidewalk sale, it was a tremendous success! Keep you calendars clear for Customer Appreciation Day on July 25th!

We're on Facebook!

Find us on Facebook!
Get up to the minute updates on all events, promotions and sales via Facebook.
Soon we will Twitter!

Sidewalk Sale!

The sidewalk sale started yesterday with tremendous turn out of shoppers!!
Expect great deals on ALL GIFTWARE in the store!
Outside specials are 75% off, everything inside is 20% - 40% off and Christmas in July at 50% off.
Our hours will be Friday from 9 - 7pm
Saturday 9 - 4pm
Sunday 11 - 3pm (only for Sidewalk Sale weekend).

Whew! What a weekend! Also a bit about Customer Appreciation Day

It usually doesn't happen too often, but it is too hard to say 'no' to our brides!
We provided wedding flowers for 4 brides this weekend! Our staff was phenomenal as the floral arrangements!!
We put in some serious hours and everything turned out beautiful! We will be posting some pictures soon of the weddings - they were all so gorgeous!
So Congratulations to Christine, Emily, Renee and Crystal! We are happy to have made your dreams come true (at least in the floral department!)

I also wanted to mention that we are going to offer a HUGE thank you to all the community support over the past year! With the economy the way it is, we still have our regulars come in for flowers, as well as the growing number of new clientele. To everyone, THANK YOU! As a token of our appreciation we are going to be having a Customer Appreciation Day on Saturday July 25th, 2009. We will be having in store specials, door prizes, grilling, refreshments and more than I could possibly type! We wouldn't be able to make it without you, so thanks again!

Let us know how we're doing!

Please provide your feedback here!  We would love to hear your comments that you have about our services.  

Thank you!

~ The Staff at Falula's 

Thank you Wedding Chapel!

Sending out a thank you to the Wedding Chapel of Crystal, MN for inviting us to their Thursday night bridal chat.




It was fun to meet all of the ladies there, they do a great job with their brides and multi tasking with hosting the evening!

It was wonderful to see all the smiling, happy people!

Thanks again!

Helping the community with specials on flowers!

Flowers have a positive effect on moods, happiness, memory and productivity!
With the economy the way it is, we are trying our best to provide flowers to our community that are both of excellent quality and at a great deal.
We understand the economic slump, because it hits home to florists too!

Check out our deals for June :

To honor the rose as the flower of June, we are offering great deal on our arranged roses!

Dozen long stem roses are $69.95.

When you buy one dozen in a vase, you can get the second dozen half off! That's 24 roses for only $103.95!


Also, don't forget that we offer Wednesday night Happy Hour on our fresh cut flowers! Wednesday night from 4pm -7pm, you can buy fresh cut flowers at a 2 for 1 price. Home grown, import, tropical -- doesn't matter! Any loose flower you can purchase for buy one, get one free.
This only applies for loose flowers, not arranged items and are for cash and carry only (no delivery).

June is Fairy Garden Month!

June is a great month for getting your Fairy gardens started up right!

Stop in our floral boutique to get all your supplies for your fairy garden, as well as getting some great inspiration from our indoor Fairy Village!

We have 3 fairy houses to choose from, as well as an assortment of walk ways, bridges, furnishings and of course inhabitants!

All through the month of June, we are offering 15% off your entire Gnomenculture purchases.

Wedding Flowers from the January Show

Check us out at the next show! Our designs will be sure to amaze!