As Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, local florists are gearing up for their busiest season of the year.
Monti King, owner of Flowers By The Bunch, shed some light on what the holiday looks like for florists.
“The rush really begins the week before Valentine’s Day … that’s when we start to really prepare the flowers,” King said.
Florists waste no time placing orders for Valentine’s flowers, doing so months in advance.
“We start the day after Christmas,” King said. “We have the order for flowers placed the week after Christmas.”
King explained how the shop employees know how much to order each year.
“For us, we look back and see the holiday’s sales for past years,” King said.
Even more specifically, the day of the week that Valentine’s Day falls on is crucial for florists when considering how many flowers and supplies to buy.
“You plan for a Saturday way differently than you plan for a Monday,” King said.
Even though florists sell flowers, goods like vases, balloons and teddy bears are also important selling points for florists during this time of year.
Lynette McDougald, a Mississippi State University faculty member and manager of the University Florist, gave some insight about how different the season will look because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What most consumers don’t know,” McDougald said, “is that the shortage started over a year ago as fresh flower farms closed due to COVID.” 
“Many South American farms, and that’s where 70% of our flowers come from, were decimated by COVID-19,” McDougald said.
Flowers are not the only supplies florists are having difficulty obtaining. The floral supplies, or the “hard goods,” frequently have supply shortages.
The University Florist has had to make some adjustments concerning their supplies for this Valentine’s Day. 
“I drove to New Orleans to a wholesale I keep an active account with just to get vases for this holiday,” McDougald said.
The challenges do not lie only with the floral supplies, though. Ordering and receiving fresh flowers for a holiday comes with its own set of obstacles.
“Flowers are out there, but Federal Express— that is the major carrier of fresh flowers— does not guarantee priority delivery. Flower shops pay for ‘Priority Overnight’ despite the chance the flowers will not be received in that timeframe,” McDougald said.
McDougald said there are shipment delays about 75% of the time. The delays not only affect the florists’ ability to sell on time, but they also damage the flowers in harsh conditions.
“We have to be weathermen too,” McDougald said.
McDougald said she has had to schedule work shifts differently because of the pandemic. However, for Valentine’s Day, she said more people are working.  
“We have reduced shifts to keep less people together in close proximity, but next week and through Valentine’s Day, we will be wide open,” McDougald said.
Mimi McDowell, a junior horticulture major at MSU, is a student worker at University Florist.
For Valentine’s Day, McDowell said workers begin preparing for the rush weeks in advance so that the workload is not so overwhelming.
“We are not usually open on the weekends,” McDowell said, “but this weekend, we will be open to prepare for Valentine’s on Monday.”
McDowell said the student workers collaborate, which she enjoys.
As the busiest day of the year approaches, local florists say they are prepared for the Valentine’s  Day rush.