Plant Peddler Floral’s Hanna Wollenzien works on a flower arrangement Wednesday in preparation for Vlentine’s Day Friday.
LOGAN – Logan’s Plant Peddler Floral, located at 1213 Main Street, like other area floral shops is a busy place this time of year. Stems and leaves are flying and vases are being stuffed with flowers and greenery. Over a half a dozen floral designers are crowded around vases arranging fresh colorful flowers into beautiful gifts for Friday’s big day.
Valentine’s Day is a lot like Black Friday for men. It gets crazy.
Mostly men trying to show some appreciation to the woman of their dreams.
“Valentine’s Day is the busiest holiday of the year for us because we have one day to deliver,” said Plant Peddler Floral owner Ed Winger. “The busiest month of the year is May because you have Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, both are floral days.”
Winger starts planning before the first of the year when estimates what flowers and greenery he will need for the holiday. The growers want to know in advance how much they need to provide. The week before, they start getting everything ready.
“This is a very stressful time of year,” he said. “We start planning and ordering in December; growers want to know in advance how much they need to grow.”
All of the hard goods, vases, ribbons and balloons are ordered way in advance. But after being in the business for over 30 years, Winger knows what the trends are.
“You can’t get the flowers too far in advance because the flowers are perishable. They have to be fresh,” he said. “I recruit former designers, which includes two of my daughters, to keep up with the demand.”
He also recruits delivery drivers to help get the flowers to their different locations. They deliver their goods from Cove to Avon.
When it comes to pricing, he said people should understand he pays the same wholesale price for roses as florists in Salt Lake do.
“What we sale for $80 here costs $150 to $200 in Salt Lake,” he said. “The growers raise the prices, I don’t.”
On Friday, Valentine’s Day, they expect the shop to be pretty busy, said one of Winger’s friends, Mike Neilson, who comes in to help on the busiest days: Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
“We get guys who forget to order, or procrastinate it, and come in at the last minute and we try to accommodate them as much as possible,” he said. “On the website, it says on holidays we like to have orders at least the day before.”
They will take orders the same day until about 2 p.m., but the earlier the better.
A financial website, Smartasset, said the floral industry commands close to $34.3 billion in yearly revenue. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day account for 25 percent of the market each, with $1.9 billion worth of cut flowers. The website said there are 84.5 million moms in the U.S. Sixty-nine percent will get flowers for Mother’s Day.