LOVEly DAY: Flowers always hot seller

By JAMES CLARK / Editor for the Southern Standard

Floral designer Becky Holland mists several arrangements yesterday at the Flower Basket in preparation for Valentine’s Day. The Main Street shop was flooded with orders and Holland said she would probably have to work till midnight to fill them all.

Peggy Koster never intended to be a floral designer. You could say she stumbled on the profession some 30 years ago.

“I just parked in front of a flower shop when I was going to get my kids some shoes,” said Koster. “When I came back to the car, the flower shop manager asked me if I wanted a job.”

Koster knew the manager from church and decided the flower business was worth a shot. It turned into her career.

“I always think if I parked somewhere else, I would have never gotten into this line of work,” said Koster, who was busy filling orders yesterday at The Flower Basket.

It was a brisk day of business — usually the busiest of the year. Store employees say only Mother’s Day comes close to rivaling Valentine’s Day in terms of flower orders.

“We’ve already been through around 400 roses,” said Becky Holland, who has been a floral designer for 23 years.

Holland and several other Flower Basket employees worked most of the night and picked up again first thing this morning. They say if everything goes well, they will have all their flower arrangements delivered by 5 p.m. today.

“I enjoy the reaction from people when they see what you’ve done and how nice everything looks,” said Holland. “That’s the best part about it.”

Valentine’s Fun Facts
Cupid
According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty.
Cupid was known to cause people to fall in love by shooting them with his magical arrows. But Cupid didn’t just cause others to fall in love – he himself fell deeply in love.

Chocolate
Chocolate manufacturers ship over $11 billion worth of sweets each year. Americans, on average, consume 25 pounds of chocolate a year according to the U.S. Census.

Flowers
There are around 25,000 florists nationwide with over 120,000 employees, according to the U.S. Census. Roses generate the highest receipts of any type of cut flower ($69 million) followed by lilies ($59 million).