Taking the Bloom : Capricious or Classy, Messages of Love Give Florists the Business
As long as lovers have been dreaming up ways to show their affection, those who cater to them have been cackling over some of the requests.
“The strangest was last year, when one man came in with five different orders to give to five different women,” said Artistic Florists owner Jim Lyon of Santa Ana. Each note card professed undying love and included personal jokes. “He was willing to pay any amount of money to make sure they weren’t accidentally sent to the wrong recipients. That’s the kind of thing you just bite your tongue on,” Lyon said.
And as most soon learn, into each bouquet a few thorns must fall. It isn’t always easy being a messenger of love.
“The worst are when people are sending the final one off to the girl or the wife. A goodby Valentine. Those can be real tear-wrenching.”
One woman, concerned about her despondent daughter who had just been dropped by her boyfriend, secretly ordered a bouquet of flowers to lift the girl’s spirits. They were signed by an anonymous admirer, and put in her bedroom as a surprise. The heartbroken girl’s condition went from bad to worse when she thought the flowers were infested with worms.
Lyon explained that florists frequently string wires through stems to keep them from dropping. This time, the green wires poked out through the centers of the blooms, resembling worms. The young woman refused to go back into her bedroom, and the mother threatened to sue the flower company for the trauma, Lyon said.
One woman stops by the shop year after year, arranging to have a spectacular bunch of flowers sent to her at her office, complete with a card signed with a man’s name. To keep up appearances, she changes the names each year, he said.
Bunny Richard, owner of Bunny’s Flower Fashions in Newport Beach, said she has written many messages ranging from naughty to lewd but wouldn’t elaborate.
“Some of them are unrepeatable, but a lot of them are rather cute and clever,” she said.
Victor Yack, manager of Newport Florist in Huntington Beach, said he would be up early this morning to deliver three dozen long-stemmed red roses to a woman at the crack of dawn. “What a way to be woken up,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of crazy things.” The most elaborate was a bouquet of 10 dozen roses with a few orchids thrown in on the side for variety. The cost: $700.
After raking in more than 2,000 Valentine’s Day orders this week, Yack has made reservations for Palm Springs this weekend.
“It’s hell,” Richard said. “Everybody waits until the last minute. It never gets any better or easier. But everybody is so happy that it makes it all worthwhile.”
