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For most people, flowers are all someone could ever ask for on Valentine’s Day. Millions of individuals purchase flowers on and around Valentine’s Day for their loved ones, but do we ever really think of all the hard work put into getting everything ready for this holiday? By recognizing this work, people may appreciate getting flowers more. Valentine’s Day flowers are beautiful and it is great to notice who is behind all their beauty and who puts hours upon hours to make everything just right for Valentine’s. 

This holiday takes a lot of preparation for florists. They must ensure they have ordered enough flowers, have the right transportation and so much more. Isabelle McCann worked at Thistles Flower Market in Pella, Iowa, for three years and worked three Valentine’s Days.  

“We typically have to order the flowers a day or two in advance, but for Valentine’s Day, we have to order them a little more in advance because we have to order so many,” McCann said. 

Valentine’s Day gets busy and the florists need to make sure that they have enough flowers to guarantee they will not run out. The preparation does not stop there; they must figure out the transportation to get these flowers where they need to go.  

McCann explained that Thistles has a delivery van, but in 2024, they had to get two rental cars to deliver all the flowers because there were so many orders. With all hands on deck, it helps less stress accrue when the job is done promptly.  

“It’s just really about preparing; getting the flowers you need, getting the transportation you need and just mentally preparing,” McCann said.  

With all the random walk-ins that show up, they need to be mentally prepared and ready to put together plenty more flowers than they already have. 

Two sisters, Erica and Jazmin Flores, have their own floral businesses and had a lot of preparing to do for this Valentine’s season. Erica makes ribbon flowers and Jazmin deals with real flowers. They both post on Instagram before Valentine’s Day to promote their business and make sure to pre-order all the supplies they need. They order extra supplies just in case they get any last-minute orders. Erica makes most of her ribbons three weeks in advance to be prepared for the upcoming holiday.   

The stress that occurs during Valentine’s Day for florists can be overwhelming, but the sisters have ways of coping with it.  

“I ordered a little book to write down my orders, and then I keep that one paper together with their order and I just go on based on those papers,” Jazmin said.  

Everyone deals with stress in situations differently. These are just a couple of ways florists might cope with it.     

“I really don’t have a way to deal with the stress, I just take it,” Erica said.

Florists must keep up with the trends and know what is going to be popular each year. They do this by considering all the ages of the individuals purchasing florals and what they will want. They think about what was popular the year prior and go off that. Of course, we love a good classic red rose, but so many other flower types are becoming popular as well. 

“A lot of the older crowd mostly would do the red rose, just the classic, so we like to have a lot of those arrangements already made up; but in the recent years roses have become less trendy, and more people will reach for more wildflowers,” McCann said.  

It is quite common for people to just stay on the traditional side for Valentine’s Day, but people do choose to go a different way and florists need to be ready for that.   

As customers, we do not see the hard side of getting everything prepared for this day.  By recognizing this, we could make the day much easier for the workers at these shops. Without all their hard work, there would be no flowers on Valentine’s Day.  

“Order your flowers in advance because obviously, we can prepare as much as we can but at the end of the day, getting a lot of walk-in orders can be very overwhelming, especially, when we have so many things happening already,” McCann said. 

Ordering ahead could make the day much smoother and easier for the florists just trying to make others happy. Remember to respect florists for what they do. Make sure to thank florists a little extra on Valentine’s Day and any other day for the hard work they put in to make people happy.