Preparing for Valentine's boom
By John Joyce
Published in News on February 12, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jackie Overbee dethorns and wires roses for arrangements at Pinewood Florist Thursday in preparation for Valentine's Day. With the holiday on Sunday, many customers are ordering flowers to be delivered today, but the threat of weather could limit the delivery times.
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Red roses are the most traditional and most popular Valentine's Day flower.
Regina Barrow stands still amid the chaos.
Swirling around her, a half a dozen ladies busy themselves dethorning and wiring long-stem roses and arranging other mixed cut flowers.
The phone rings incessantly.
Valentine's Day is three days out and the threat of snow Friday is cutting into Pinewood Florist's delivery window.
"We've had to put the brakes on that because I don't know what the weather is going to be," Barrow said. She typically has three vans running deliveries between 8 a.m. and well after dark, whenever the last doorbell rings.
Valentine's Day is the busiest day of the year in the florist industry.
Orders started coming in three weeks ago. Yet the phone calls continue to pour in and the chimes on the front door jingle every few minutes as customers trickle in to place or pick up orders.
In addition to Valentine's Day, there are the regular orders for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and funerals to fill. There isn't a still set of hands or feet in the place.
"We try not to take more than 100 deliveries per day because I know that is about the limit of what we can put out with the manpower that we've got," Barrow said.
"We do much more than that, probably 300 to 400 a day. Some days are more than others."
Despite encouraging her customers to get their orders in early to ensure they get out on time and delivered, Barrow knows there will be those who wait until the last minute.
Pinewood Florist is a family business. Barrow, who took over the shop from her mother 18 years ago, began cutting stems and stuffing flowers into vases as a little girl.
With all that experience, she said it is hard to pinpoint the most romantic gesture she's ever seen.
But every now and again, especially around this time of year, she gets a long distance call from a deployed service member looking to surprise a spouse.
"It is always nice to hear from our service guys overseas. We have a lot of guys that call -- we had one call today from Afghanistan -- and they'll call and arrange something," she said. "And that is always special, to have our military folks calling to remember their loved ones."