Flower shops discuss Valentine’s Day expectations

Date: 2/2/2022

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, local florists discussed the challenges ahead for one of the most popular flower holidays of the year.

Before looking ahead to Valentine’s Day, Heather Sullivan, the owner of Durocher Florist in West Springfield, said holidays have been busy for her shop since the start of the COVID-19.

“The holidays have been extremely busy throughout the pandemic. I think over the last couple years maybe people did not feel like they could go out to eat when restaurants were closed, and I think not being able to have contact with people turned Valentine’s Day and other holidays into sending things to more than one person. Someone might send Valentine flowers to a grandmother or a mother rather than a spouse or a partner,” she said.

Despite supply chain issues, Sullivan said as a flower shop they can adapt with orders if a specific flower is not available.

“The great thing about the flowers is we are always constantly getting in new product so we may not always have the exact flower, but we always have something beautiful we can substitute with,” she said.

Regardless of supply chain issues, Sullivan said prices tend to increase around Valentine’s Day.

“Valentine’s Day is always a time when there is some basic economics of supply and demand so there is only so many roses to go around. We definitely recommend ordering early, that always helps to be able to get what you are looking for and ensure your delivery date,” she said. “This year Valentine’s Day for the first time ever falls the day after the Super Bowl so we are encouraging people to think ahead and not wait until Monday morning.”

Orders for Valentine’s Day from Durocher are already available online at https://www.durocherflorist.com/.

Sullivan added she is looking forward to the holiday.

“We look forward to just making people happy, being able to spread the language of love with flowers,” she said.

Durocher Florist is located at 184 Union St. in West Springfield.

Tim Cummings, the owner of A Cut Above Florist in Chicopee, said for his shop, Valentine’s Day is the busiest single day of the year.

“We have two main holidays in the year, we have Valentine’s Day and we have Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day is actually bigger but Valentine’s is the single biggest day. It is kind of like the Super Bowl of flower holidays and it is probably the most chaotic because everything is in one day and the weather is always a factor,” he said.

So far, Cummings said people have been placing orders ahead of time.

“This year I have been taking Valentine’s Day orders all day today and that has never really happened so that is a good omen that people are taking the COVID thing seriously and with the supply chain shortages and have to get their act together a little earlier,” he said.

Cummings said people can place orders online https://www.cutaboveflorist.com/ or by calling 593-3344, but online orders may be cut off closer to Valentine’s Day.

“We have a website that is only going to be up for a limited time during the Valentine’s season, sometimes as it gets close to Valentine’s it gets so overwhelmed that we have to shut that down and only take phone orders,” he said.

Cummings said the current supply chain issues cause new challenges every day.

“Every day we do not know what is going to happen until it happens, and we just have to react. COVID and the supply chain have thrown a wrench in the works, and you may not have some things and have to deal with it the best you can,” he said.

He added that if rose prices are higher this year, there are other options for people to choose.

“Roses may be the most expensive flower this time of year, but we will try to accommodate for everyone if the rose prices are higher this year. If you are in a tougher financial situation, you should call as early as possible because we may not be able to address everyone’s needs closer to Valentine’s Day,” Cummings said.

A Cut Above Florist is located at 1193 Memorial Dr. in Chicopee.

Brittney Procon, the owner of Kinderhook Flower and Gifts said she is looking forward to her first Valentine’s Day owning the store.

“I am looking forward to the stories of people with the phone orders and sending flowers to significant others so it is a cute time hearing the messages they want written on the card. We are looking forward to a lot of that and we want to push Galentine’s Day for celebrating your friendships with your best girlfriends,” she said.

Procon said she is planning to run specials the week leading up to the holiday.

“We will be running some specials that we will be announcing the week before Valentine’s Day. Most men are not planners anyway so we will make sure we do have some good sales out there for them,” she said.

While the website is not up and running, Procon said people can place their orders by calling or stopping in.

“We are still working on our website and we are still in the beta testing so I do not believe it is going to be up and running by then. People will have to call in, stop into the shop or there is always the Facebook messenger, which we do get to,” she said.

Procon said people can reach the store by calling 566-1052.

Due to ongoing supply chain issues, Procon said there is a shortage of flowers and vases.

“The cost of vases is up, there is a back order on vases, the cost of flowers is up, there is a shortage of flowers right now. Back when COVID hit and everyone had to put a pause on the farms they stopped growing so if you stopped growing flowers for one year, how many years does it take to catch back up,” she said. “It is unfortunate but hopefully over time we will get back to where we used to be.”

With prices for flowers anticipated to go up for the holiday, Procon said the changes will be meant to follow the market and not to artificially increase prices for Valentine’s Day.

“They are going to be market, we do have some of orders locked in so depending on the balance of it, it is not like we want to increase our prices, we are going to do our best to keep them the same but there are going to be some flowers that will have their cost go up for us,” she said. “People think that we increase flowers because we can at the holiday, but it is because the cost goes up for us.”

While it is her first Valentine’s Day in business Procon said she is planning for a busy holiday.

“With it being our first Valentine’s Day sale, it is really hard for us to gauge, so I am not sure. I do know that we are increasing hours that weekend so we will be working 10 [a.m.] to 5 [p.m.] Saturday and Sunday and we are open on that Monday when we are normally closed on Mondays to accommodate any last-minute orders,” she said.

In her first few months, Procon said the other holidays have treated her well.

“So far the other holidays gone well, we had a lot of last minute Christmas centerpieces, we had more gifts during Christmas instead of flowers. And then for Thanksgiving we had a lot of centerpieces we had to do that holiday, so that was very flower-oriented, but the holidays so far have treated us very well,” she said.

Kinderhook Flower and Gift is located 13 Allen St. in Hampden.

Reminder Publishing reached out to several other flower shops but did not hear back by press time.