Feb 13, 2018 5 min read

Every Feb. 14, Larry Jones and his employees go blooming crazy in Washington Square Flower Shop.

“Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, we do 10 to 20 times a normal day’s work,” he said last week, without even a trace of a groan as the traditional day of romance drew near. Jones, owner of the Washington operation, has worked in the North College Street store for 26 of its 30 years of existence and is accustomed to this not-so-routine routine.

“We average 20 to 50 deliveries a day and do 300 on Valentine’s Day,” he said. “That is our most demanding day, and not only because of the volume. Our business is very time-sensitive. We try to get the deliveries out by 3 (p.m.). And if the weather is not cooperating, it gets a lot worse.”

In other words, putting the pedal to the metal is vital to getting petals on the mantle in a timely fashion. Doing so requires having six to eight delivery people serving a shop that, most of the time, has one full-time driver.

And as if his business weren’t frenetic enough on V-Day, there is the steady stream of pedestrian traffic inside the store … customers picking up, browsing, ordering.

Yet for Jones, and other floral shop owners in the region, it is a labor of love on a day devoted to love. All four florists interviewed for this story agreed Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are their busiest holidays, requiring weeks of ordering and preparing, lining up extra staff, answering dozens of phone calls, long hours and immeasurable blood, sweat and tears.

“It’s crazy, but we love it,” said Sandy Kotwica, owner of Lily’s Flower Boutique in Burgettstown.

“You have to really love what you do,” said Donna Williams, owner of Magic Moments in Carmichaels. “We start getting our bases lined up four days ahead. Trying to keep everything straight is the toughest part.

“It does get crazy and it does get stressful. We try to have fun.”

Cindy Miller, owner of Finleyville Flower Shop, said these two holidays have a nationwide reputation for being a dream/nightmare for florists.

“Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day run neck and neck as to which is the busiest,” she said. “I would say it depends on the year and weather.

“We’re busy ahead of time. We can make bows, work with anything that isn’t perishable, in advance. But those days aren’t as busy as the holiday itself.”

At many shops, the Christmas season is entrenched in third. Jones, who admits he skipped classes in high school to deliver on holidays for Washington Square, said, “We do 35 percent of our business for the year – at least – during February, May and December because of those three holidays.”

Although Cupid’s day of reign is a frantic time for a florist, there is a bit of a letup if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday. “If it’s on a weekend,” Kotwica said, “men usually take their significant other to dinner.”

She paused and, with a puckish grin, said a weekday Valentine’s Day gives the purchaser an added incentive.

“If a man is really smart,” Kotwica said, “he’ll send flowers to his wife or girlfriend at work so she gets lots of oohs and ahhs from other women.”

The consensus among these shop owners – and likely among the global population – is that men are pros at procrastination, and tend to put off orders till the 13th or 14th. And, on occasion, up to closing time.

“One time,” Kotwica said, “it was 6 o’clock and I was closed. There was a knock on the door. A man was there with his hands folded, pleading, ‘Please let me in.’ He wanted flowers.”

“I hate to say this,” Williams related with a mild chuckle, “but guys wait till the last minute and they seem to be willing to take anything. It’s not that the guys (who order ahead) love their wives more. They are just better prepared.”

Late requests haven’t been just a Valentine’s Day experience for her. “It is like that with funerals too,” Williams said. “Someone is dead for five days and I get a call the day of the funeral. Then they’re mad if you don’t have what they want.

“Once, I was making a flower arrangement for my home on Christmas Eve. Someone stopped, asking for a centerpiece, and I sold that arrangement to him.”

Valentine’s flower buyers frequently see red – the color a traditional symbol of love. So a bouquet of red roses remains a highly popular choice. Miller, however, said “of all days of the year, Valentine’s Day is probably the worst for red roses.”

“After Christmas, so many roses are imported from South America and the prices are hiked. So customers pay so much more for roses than any other time of the year. (Florists) don’t make as much on then because we have to pay more for the product, to growers and suppliers.

“We try to push other flowers that are nicer, better and more durable.”

Durability is a trait that has been on display this week in floral shops across the region. The 13th, in some ways, can be more demanding than the holiday that immediately follows.

Jones and his staff, for example, took a lot of orders and made a lot of their orders Tuesday. They arranged delivery orders on shelves by areas, to be picked up easily and transported efficiently by drivers.

Washington Square, roughly, serves residents and businesses within a 10- to 12-mile radius of the store, and there are about 300 deliveries. That takes time to sort out. The owner expected to be in the store until 10 or 11 p.m. – as usual – on Valentine’s eve.

At least everything smelled good.

“Valentine’s Day is our single busiest day,” Jones said. Now it’s here.