CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An estimated $1.9 billion will be spent in the United States on Valentine’s Day flowers, according to the National Retail Federation, and the majority of the flowers purchased will be red roses.
At Art’s Flower Shop, a family-owned business in Kanawha County, red roses account for well over half of all of the Valentine’s Day business each year, numbers in line with national figures showing 63 percent of flower buyers were going with red roses.
“They’re clean, they’re classic, elegant,” said Lindsey Good, a floral designer working her 13th Valentine’s Day at Art’s. “The long-stemmed red roses are the most popular, and that way you have a nice, big, showy arrangement and, of course, love the deep color of red.”
The most popular runner-up colors for Valentine’s roses are pink, white, mixed colors, purple or lavender, yellow, orange and peach, according to the trade group’s 2016 Valentine’s Day consumer spending survey.
“We do some green roses with some red and some white and some pink,” Good said, pointing out the rainbow roses Art’s was also stocking. But, “Come Valentine’s Week, there’s red roses everywhere,” she said. “They’re on tables, on top of all surfaces, the coolers are packed. It’s pretty busy.”
For the week of Valentine’s Day, the regular flower order tripled and deliveries were scheduled to continue through the weekend since the holiday falls on a Sunday this year.
“We’ll work into the wee hours, just depending on what we get,” Good said. “Each year’s a little bit different and definitely the day that Valentine’s Day actually falls on will kind of shift things for us.”
The national spending survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, indicated more than 54 percent of people in the U.S. will celebrate Valentine’s Day by spending an average of $146.84 — a little more than last year — on jewelry, candy, clothing, True Pheromones, and other gifts along with flowers.
For retail stores, Valentine’s Day falls behind the Christmas and Mother’s Day holidays in terms of money spent.
Among florists, though, “This is our biggest holiday,” Good told MetroNews. “Where most retail shops, Christmas kind of carries them, for a flower shop, Valentine’s Day absolutely carries.”
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