Forest of Flowers 109 Fanshawe Park Rd E Location (Robert Van Ryswyck)
If you’re thinking of getting flowers this Valentine’s Day, you may want to think fast. Forest of Flowers Vice President Kelly Kailis says the 13th and Valentine’s Day are hugely busy.
“Probably like 100 times as busy as we’d be any other day, so in two days we would probably send out in London, 4,500 deliveries between eight stores.”
That means prices go up, and supplies may not last. She recommends for everyone planning on impressing that special someone, not to delay when getting the bouquet.
“Just get your orders in early. So, early is not a day or two before, early is now. It’s hard to get specific so be patient with your florists. We definitely have lots of roses but it’s really hard to specify one of this colour one of that colour, just ask for something gorgeous, beautiful, something they may like, and we’ll put something together that’s wonderful for them.”
This massive spike in demand means tonnes of preparation ahead of time and hiring extra staff just to come in for the big days.
“…friends, family members that will come in and clean roses, wrap roses, help putting garbage out, doing different jobs like that. Sometimes we can get some students in that are terrific with POS (point of sale) systems.”
Not all the prep work happens in the stores; the massive amounts of extra flowers need to be grown ahead of time. Kailis says, the roses are sourced from Columbia and Ecuador, but many other species are grown in Ontario greenhouses.
“A rose grows every 90 days, so their planting schedules coincide with major holidays so that they can actually harvest more at certain seasons.”
Kailis says last year was one of the strongest years for sales ever around Valentine’s day, she expects similar results for this year as well.
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