What It Takes to Say It With Flowers in Urbandale

Imagine the retail intensity of the whole month of December wrapped up in one or two days and you have Valentine's Day for florists.

Sandy Taylor, owner of in Urbandale, said florists' biggest seasons of the year are Christmas, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.

Their business is about the same for all three — the difference is Christmas sales are spread over a month; Mother's Day, over the week before. Valentine's Day is almost all on one day.

"They don't want their flowers delivered the day before or the day after," she said.

During a normal business day, Plaza Florist delivers between 20 and 30 floral arrangements. On Valentine's Day they will deliver more than 500, she said.

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Taylor has been at this a few years so she knows some tricks to pulling off this feat of magic for sweethearts:

• Double the number of workers you have leading up to the holiday.
• Make sure you have plenty of drivers lined up to deliver flowers on Valentine's Day.
• Spend the week before getting all the vases and containers and greenery set up, so all they have to do is add the flowers the day of or day before delivery. That way the flowers stay fresher longer after your sweetheart receives them.
• Drink lots of coffee to keep going.

What's the most popular flower for Valentine's Day?

"It's not the best value, but roses are still very popular," said Taylor. They also use a lot of brightly colored Gerbera daisies and popular stargazer lilies, she said.