It’s Rough Being A Florist, Come Valentine’s Day

If you think of working in a florist shop as being a calm, serene experience, you’ve obviously never worked in one around Valentine’s Day.

Susan Jaccard-Baeyens, manger of , said that life can indeed become very difficult for those in her profession come the biggest floral holiday of the year.

Typically, Jaccard-Baeyens will find herself working upwards of 60 hours in the four days leading up to (and including) Valentine’s Day, an exhausting prospect for any profession, especially one where you’re mostly on your feet.

“Oh, geez...it’s rough,” she said. “But it’s hard to judge, because I’ll be off after Valentine’s Day, rather then my regular days off. But normally, I work 50, 55, 60 hours in those four days.”

Jaccard-Baeyens elaborated on the behind-the-scenes effort florists face every single Valentine’s Day week.

“The day before the holiday is the day we work the latest, because we have to have all the orders done for the drivers to deliver the next morning... Monday night, we’re usually here to 11 or 12 o’clock at night,” she said. “Because Valentine’s Day is on a Tuesday this year, which is a work day, a lot of people specify times for delivery based on their loved one’s work schedule, so meeting all those delivery times is our biggest challenge.”

Gearing up for the floral equivalent of the Super Bowl isn’t easy, according to Jaccard-Baeyens. Prep work actually starts much earlier than you’d expect.

“We started getting ready about the 15^th of January,” she said. “It entails ordering supplies...my boss goes and tries to get the best deal they can on roses...the best price, the best quality. And of course, red is the color everyone wants, so it’s in demand, so it’s a higher price, usually.”

On your average Valentine’s Day, Tim’s Florist goes through about 4,000 roses, and while they do sell a large quantity of other flowers, roses will always remain king.

“The specials advertised by the wire services are always big sellers,” she said. “We also sell a lot of cut vases and cut bouquets...a mixture of things. But Valentine’s Day is usually a good 80 percent roses.”

Despite greatly increased consumer demand come Valentine’s Day, Jaccard-Baeyens made it clear that Tim’s Florist does their best to keep their prices fair.

“A lot of people think that florists raise the prices just because it’s a holiday, but that’s not so,” she said. “Everything goes up on a holiday- greens, roses, everything. We try and keep our prices as low as possible...I can’t possibly charge what I should charge considering what the suppliers charge me, because I’d have no customers then.”

Aside from the occasional toil and trouble of a major holiday rush, Jaccard-Baeyens said that the job of a florist is a satisfying one in the sense that you making people happy every day.

“Being a florist is a feel-good kind of job,” she said. “Aside from a funeral, everything is really for a good occasion- a birthday, a baby shower, weddings, or Valentine’s Day. That's what working with flowers is.”