Florists begin their week-long prep to make hundreds of arrangements for this year’s day of love.
Nina Koba holds a finished arrangement, which takes extensive preparation to complete. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
As Valentine’s Day fastly approaches, florists are beginning their scramble to put together the perfect arrangement for people’s loved ones. Nina Koba, the owner of Adele Rae Florist, said, “it’s a hard business,” as designers and helpers have to stand for hours a day, opening packages, and prepping flowers.
Koba said Valentine’s Day is one of their busiest days of the year, along with Mother’s Day and Christmas. Her small shop usually gets hundreds of orders, all of which have to be put together in the week leading up to February 14.
Amongst other flowers, the shop orders thousands of roses every year, and local suppliers can’t always keep up. “We try to sell local flowers, but for Valentine’s because it’s a lot of flowers our growers can’t cover all needity for all shops, so we have to buy from South America,” she explains.
This year, Koba said the shop has fewer pre-orders than usual, but she hopes people will come in at the last moment to get their bouquets.
“Like, Friday they wake up and [are] like, ‘oops, today it’s Valentine’s, so I have to buy my flowers’.”
Prep work is quite extensive, and involves lots of unpacking, trimming, and organizing flowers. If you’re curious about all the prep work Koba and her team put into each bouquet, check out the photos below.
Along with prepping flower arrangements, workers also write out cards for some orders. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Thousands of flowers need to be unwrapped and separated for prep work. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
The shop orders thousands of roses – each one is de-thorned. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Flowers and other foliage have stems snipped and prepped for bouquets. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Koba preps a sponge block. These are commonly used to help retain moister in the fresh-cut flowers. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Helpers pick through flowers to use in their pieces. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Making arrangements comes very easy to her, said Koba. She said she doesn’t notice how long it takes as she quickly plugs in flowers and foliage into a sponge block. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Trimmings from Koba’s work surround the final piece – which is not complete without a bow. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Flowers are usually shipped dry and come into the shop with closed petals. They’re placed in buckets of water for a few days in order to open up and look better in arrangements. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)
Everyone is busy doing something in the shop, whether it’s trimming flowers, or putting together arrangements. (Isabella Calissi / BCIT News)