... and happy to know that the next one is 364 days away. I've been celebrating Valentine's Day in the floral industry for more years than I care to confess. The first one, to the best of my memory, was when I started working in a retail floral shop in Albany. It was a family owned business. I'd been hired to do really simple basic stuff, then got a lot of on the job training over the time I was there.
The thing I most clearly remember is standing in one place, putting dozens of red roses in vases for twenty four hours. LIterally. Work all day, take a break to go find somethign to eat, come back and work all night. Go home for a refreshing shower but don't lay down, find food. Get back to work.
Where you will see buckets and buckets of roses, dozens of vases, tons of fern and fluffy stuff (gypsophilia, commonly known as 'babies breath', the tiny white flowers that are the filler in the rose arrangement). Producing dozens of arrangements of red roses, to be delivered all over town by a small army of drivers recruited for the day: family, friends, friends of friends, in-laws, out-laws, anyone with a valid license.
I am thinking the price, 'way back when, was about $45. I heard some disembodied voice on the radio today commenting that the average price of a dozen, delivered over the most recent holiday/event was $140. All I can say to that is: 'You should have gone to Publix.' We sold all we had ordered for the occasion, even though we are expected to look into the crystal ball and predict how much we will need well back around Labor Day in September.
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