Business blooms: Florists rush to meet Valentine’s Day demand

Florist Beth White ordered more than 2,000 red roses to meet the demand she expected for the most popular flower she sells on her store’s busiest day of the year.

Jill Pickett

Floral designer Steve James sprays leaves Wednesday with a product that makes them shine at E'town Florist.

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Jill Pickett

Floral designer Alicia Reeves places flowers and grasses Wednesday as she makes an arrangement at E'town Florist.

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Jill Pickett

Floral designer Steve James arranges roses Wednesday at E'town Florist.

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Jill Pickett

Arrangements fill a table as floral designers at E'town Florist prepare for Valentine's Day.

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Florists were in a flurry Wednesday to meet with last-minute customers and make final arrangements before Valentine’s Day.

The holiday means doing in one day the amount of business she typically has in a month, said White, owner of E’town Florist on Westport Road in Elizabethtown.

“It’s tremendously busy because there’s a lot of love in the air,” she said.

The challenge is to deliver the same high-quality products as always while coping with an increased volume of orders, White said.

She helped take orders from customers, whose cars overflowed the store’s parking lot. Meanwhile, other employees bustled downstairs to work on arrangements to be ready for today. Flowers quickly took over every inch of shelf space available.

Area florists agreed they begin as early as possible to order and set up nonperishable items and arrangements they plan to use for today.

Gayla Blackwell, co-owner of Blossoms & Heirloom Florists on Highland Avenue in Vine Grove, said her store began placing cut flowers in arrangements Tuesday.

The volume of work and last-minute shoppers meant Blackwell expected she and other employees would work well into the evening.

Nearly all orders have to be delivered on the holiday, unlike florists’ next busiest holiday, Mother’s Day. Those orders tend to be a little more spread out over a week, Blackwell said.

Customers aren’t as flexible about Valentine’s Day deliveries because recipients and those around them can see someone loves them when they get flowers that day, she said.

Making all those deliveries means accepting help from family and friends and delivering from early in the morning until dark some years, Blackwell said.

“I have a whole lot of extra people to help, but sometimes it does not work out to be as many as I need,” she said.

Debbie Atcher, manager at Helen’s Flowers on North Wilson Avenue in Radcliff, said the store sometimes has to cut off deliveries for Valentine’s Day because the volume is more than employees can handle, even with extra help drafted for the day.

The store still was accepting orders Wednesday afternoon and planned to help customers today who want to make their purchases at the last possible minute.

Atcher said the happiness flowers bring to recipients during her 30 years in the flower business has made the constantly ringing phones, heavy traffic, late nights and endless deliveries that define Valentine’s Day worth the effort.

“Their smiles,” she said. “That says it all.”

Amber Coulter can be reached at (270) 505-1746 or acoulter@thenewsenterprise.com.