Relax. You have two more shopping days to buy flowers for Valentine's Day. Most florists will be open tomorrow to accommodate procrastinating romantics. Indeed, Bob Ewing at xTC Gleadon Flowers on Bel Air Road says his shop will be open 24 hours on Sunday. "It's a last-minute holiday," he says. "You know how men put things off."
Valentine's Day is the third-busiest holiday in the flower business after Christmas and Mother's Day. According to a spokesperson at FTD, the largest of six floral wire services nationwide, they alone are expecting flower sales of about $15.5 million in the United States and Canada this year.
Paul Raimondi, president of Raimondi's Florist, says the favorite bouquet to send your sweetheart Feb. 14 is still a dozen long-stemmed red roses. They'll cost $50 for premium red roses at any of Raimondi's nine locations and at most of the Baltimore area's approximately 265 other retail florists. A dozen middle-grade red roses (shorter stems, smaller heads) retail for $29-$32 at florists. (Area grocery stores such as Giant and SuperFresh carry roses ranging in price from $21.99 to $24.99 a dozen. They are slightly shorter-stemmed than those sold by florists, according to Andy Baltins at SuperFresh on York Road. And, of course, they're not delivered.)
This year's advance sales as of Friday afternoon were slightly better than last year's, according to some florists. But others, such as Mr. Raimondi, say this season's unusually harsh weather has hurt some florists on three fronts: sales, getting flowers from suppliers and delivery. "This is the worst Valentine's Day prepara tion we've had since the blizzard of ['83]," says Mr. Raimondi.
On the other hand, representatives of Flowers and Fancies in Stevenson and Roland Park Florist say they're doing well on advance telephone sales.
"We can't catch our breath," says Diane Carter of Roland Park Florists.
And location does not seem to be a determining factor for sales. Joann Janda says her downtown locations help her because they'll deliver so many orders to downtown offices on Monday. Yet sales at Mt. Vernon Florist in the Belvedere Hotel have been hurt both by canceled engagements in the hotel that bring walk-in business and by the closing of nearby businesses during yesterday's snowstorm.
Last month, many media reported that a freeze in Colombia, South America, could cause a shortage of roses for Valentine's Day. However, no one contacted for this article, including FTD, ,, has noticed a shortage. "I guess someone else took up the slack on the roses," says FTD spokeswoman Teresa Pearlstein.
