Flower shops across Iowa are preparing for a long day ahead. Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year in the flower business. Kaelyn Vanous works at a Cedar Rapids florist and says it takes a group effort to make all the bouquets look beautiful. Vanous says “It’s a lot of work but when you get the guys that come in here and really appreciate what you’re doing and really appreciate how long you’ve been staying, it’s worth it.”
The shop plans to sell more than fifteen-thousand roses today. Mary McInroy says they treat each flower with care, because they know their customers will want the best. McInroy says “It’s a special kind of excitement when they come in but you are tired. We’re on our feet all day for long hours and we’re tired, but, it’s a good tired.”
While McInroy has been through the Valentine’s Day seasons of previous years, it’ll be the first experience with all of those flowers for other workers like Julia Puckett. Puckett says “I had no idea how many choices there are, how many different colors of roses there are. I’ve heard rumors about Valentine’s Day that we have a line of customers that snakes around the entire store.” Employees take so many orders, they won’t fit in the floral shop, so they rented a refrigerated semi-truck to keep everything cool.
McInroy says they expect to make about 250 deliveries today alone. The only day that’s traditionally bigger than Valentine’s Day for florists is Mother’s Day.
