Edible bouquets: Giving that special person a taste of your feelings

When flowers don't seem quite right for the occasion, givers can opt for a growing number of bouquets that are both beautiful and edible.

Companies offering decorated sugar cookies or colorful candy arrangements have been around a while, but a new local option is a fruit bouquet.

Mary Rodgers has a hard time explaining her Kirkland business, Edible Arrangements, which opened last October. Tell folks she creates fruit bouquets and people picture fruit baskets. Say no, she cuts fruit to look like flowers on sticks, and people imagine candied apples jutting out on wooden Popsicle sticks.

So try this: Visualize daisylike slices of pineapple with cantaloupe centers, punctuated with bright red strawberries and straight rows of purple grapes. Crinkle-cut melon slices serve as decorative leaves. They're all fastened on skewers, tightly wedged into a head of iceberg lettuce hidden by ruffles of kale.

"It's fun but healthy," Rodgers said, noting the bouquets are popular for hostess gifts, weddings and get-well wishes to hospitals, as well as special occasions such as Valentine's or Mother's Day.

The fruit arrangements, which come in different sizes and themed baskets, range from $32 for a bouquet of chocolate-dipped strawberries to $200 for a banquet-size party arrangement.

Food bouquets from other companies also have a range of prices. For iced cookie bouquets, expect to pay $30 to $100, depending on the number of cookies. Candy arrangements featuring solid chocolate roses, hard candy or candy bars cost $11 to $80.

Most companies add a $10 delivery charge, plus tax.

When Rudey Orthodontics received a bouquet from Edible Arrangements at Christmas, it was such a hit the staff has since used them as thank-you gifts for referrals and centerpieces at its annual luncheon. "It's different and it always makes a big statement when it arrives in the office," said Elaine Hanson, marketing director for Rudey, based in Renton and Burien.

Erin Laccinole, director of catering at Woodinville's Willows Lodge, offers corporate groups the option of greeting guests with Edible Arrangements instead of traditional fruit baskets. She also ordered them when hosting a baby shower and baptism party. "That fruit tastes so good," she said.

As a professional, she was impressed by the presentation. "People are intrigued by it," she said, noting the bouquets always garner stares. "I challenge anybody to try to do it on their own."

Germophobes might be turned off by the fact people stick their hands in to pull out the close-fitting fruit. Sometimes the skewers don't come out easily, necessitating some tugging. The bouquets aren't for very young children because of the pointy sticks (they also shouldn't be carried on laps in the car, as they'd be dangerous in an accident.)

The 7-year-old, Connecticut-based Edible Arrangements competes with the older but smaller Incredibly Edible Delites' Fruit Flowers, which doesn't have any local stores. It boasts more than 260 franchises nationwide with another 62 slated to open soon, according to the company's Web site. The only other Washington store is in Spokane.

Some cookie or candy bouquets can be mailed but because fruit is so perishable, Edible Arrangements doesn't ship. Instead, it works with franchises around the country for local delivery. Rodgers delivers around Seattle and the Eastside in a refrigerated van.

Since the tropical fruits don't turn brown, the arrangements are natural without preservatives. They're created fresh every day by 11 a.m. for afternoon delivery. For a large order, Rodgers needs a few days' notice, but single arrangements ordered in the morning can often be delivered later that day.

Rodgers, who ran a home-based business making wedding cakes for 10 years, wanted to open a franchise now that her children are almost grown (her daughter is in college and her son in high school). Her husband, Jim, a firefighter, helps out during the day.

Finding out-of-season strawberries is one of her biggest challenges. "They're the showcase," she said. "They're the first thing you see." She tastes all the fruit, sometimes rejecting half a box of strawberries, despite a $50-a-flat price tag.

Rodgers didn't sleep for two days at Valentine's Day because the store was so busy. She and her staff dipped more than 1,500 strawberries with double-handed twirling. Even when she was cranking out nearly 200 arrangements, "I'd still stand back and think, 'Isn't that pretty?' "

Stephanie Dunnewind: 206-464-2091 or sdunnewind@seattletimes.com