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Valentine's big business for florists
ASHLAND, Feb 14, 2012 (The Daily Independent - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
On the day before Valentine's Day, five floral designers stood at tables in the back of Fields Flowers cutting the stems of roses, carnations and other flowers to the right height while the persistant soundtrack of a ringing telephone played in the background.
Rob Fields said Feb. 14 will be even more hectic for the little shop on 15th Street, with an estimated more than 500 flower arrangements going out on the holiday. Fields manages the family-owned business.
"All four of these telephone lines will be lit up form 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock," he said, pointing to the telephone on his desk nestled between the tables where arrangements are being placed into vases. "We will eventually just have to stop because we don't have enough product, time or drivers."
Fields Flowers has ordered in about 4,000 roses just for Valentine's Day along with about $20,000 in other flowers for arrangements, Fields said.
Red roses are by far the most popular items, he said. Flowers were delivered last week and they were treated with preservatives and stored at temperatures close to freezing to help keep them fresh.
In preparation for Valentine's Day, Country Garden Florist and Gifts ordered a couple thousand roses, and Rick Davidson said the shop can get more if needed. They were conservative in ordering because the flowers can't be returned, though more can be ordered. Davidson's wife runs the shop.
Workers spend about two days de-thorning roses and sorting them by color, he said. On Monday, arrangements were still being put together and orders were coming in steadily.
Floral designers work in a temperature-controlled room creating flower arrangements for customers, Davidson said.
"We custom-build our arrangements," Davidson said.
Flower arrangements are organized on tables by their destination. There are two tables for deliveries going to Ashland as well as separate tables for deliveries going to areas including rural Boyd County, Catlettsburg, Grayson and Flatwoods.
That way, all the deliveries arrive close to the same time, either before or after lunch, Davidson said.
Fields Flowers brought in four extra floral designers to handle the influx of business and has 10 extra drivers ready to do delivery on the day, Fields said.
He said his employees are averaging 20 hours of overtime.
"Everyone here has been running on overtime," Fields said.
Valentine's Day is big business, but that doesn't alway mean giant profits for florists, he said.
"It's a very large day, but it also comes with a lot of added expenses," Fields said.
Those added expenses mean big stakes. If snow prevented deliveries from going out on Valentine's Day it would be a big loss.
Kristi Lara, one of the designers at Fields Flowers who comes in during busy times of the year, said she'd seen just such a situation while working at a florist shop in Cleveland a few years ago. A blizzard hit the city burying her car in snow and stranding her at the shop.
"It just halted Valentine's Day," she said.
This Valentine's Day will be busier than if the day were to fall on the weekend, Fields said. That's because people often have more free time to take off and go on a date with their valentine to celebrate instead of buying flowers to commemorate the occasion.
"The weekend seemed calmer," he said.
KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.
___ (c)2012 The Daily Independent (Ashland, Ky.) Visit The Daily Independent
(Ashland, Ky.) at www.dailyindependent.com Distributed by MCT Information
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