IamA - We are employees at the largest family owned brick and mortar florist in the US here to talk Valentine's Day! AUA!

Hi! I'm Debb's Mom, Can you tell her that she's the best daughter in the whole wide world?

She's an amazing employee too! We're so happy to have her on our team!

Have you seen allergies towards a particular flower become more common over the years? What are the safest bets if your SO wants flowers but hasn't shared allergy info with you yet?

More people seem to have allergies issues with strongly smelling lilies. Some (typically) safe bets would probably be alstroemeria, daisies, carnations, orchids, sunflowers, blue delphinium, snap dragons - flowers with little to no fragrance.

Lillies are also toxic to pets, and 'shed' lke crazy.

Yes those are both true! We do our best to remove all the "lily poop". And a pet friendly alternative to lilies is alstroemeria, incase you wanna get your cat some flowers for V-day!

If I want to send flowers to someone in the hospital, what would be the best choice for ones that look really nice, but don't have a strong scent?

I (Laura) always recommed something really bright and colorful, something to brighten the room! Long lasting flowers are always a good idea too. I'm super partial to sunflowers because they are both bright and longlasting! "Get well soon" balloons are a good touch too!

How often do you get people sending flowers to themselves on Valentine's Day? Do they try to do it covertly? Do they just outright do it? Or do they make a card from someone else, but you just know?

We have had people do that a lot. Usually it's to make an ex at work jealous. Typically, they're pretty outright with it, but sometimes if they try and write a fake card, we have our suspicions- but never any judgement. Sending flowers to yourself is great.

In the last few years what has been your most popular VD flower? How has that changed from say 10 years ago?

Red roses have always been the biggest hit on Valentine's day! It does seem like in the last couple of years people have been adding more flowers like peonies and lilies to make the traditional rose arrangement more unique.

"VD" heh heh

One of our favorite Valentine's jokes. The code in the system we use to make a standing order is STD- that's a good one too.

What's the strangest order you've ever gotten?

There are too many to count. Our amazing customers always keep us on our toes.

One of our favorites was a person's request to bring flowers to someone’s work, ask her for her, and then throw the flowers away in front of her. Obviously, this was not a request we were willing to fill - we're here to make days, not ruin them, but it was definitely one of the strangest.

BRB, starting new business.

Welcome to the flower fam, friend!

I was in floral design at a brick and mortar store for a few years and was let go because Telaflora and 1800FLOWERS put the florist I worked for out of business with their high prices but minuscule payout to the actual designer. Have those companies negatively impacted your business at all?

In our situation, Teleflora has opened doors of opportunity for our locations. To be able to offer nationwide delivery to our network of customers to cities where we don’t have a location of our own turns one-time customers into lifelong patrons. We’re sorry to hear about your experience, though! It’s hard to compare our business with others because there is no other florist in the country, or world, that operates like we do.

What does it take to get in to floristry? I'm in a weird position in my life and all I know is I'd like to do something artistic. I want to make people smile and happy, but preferably without too much direct interaction with them; I'm a "behind the scenes" person.

We asked some of our designers how they got into it, and they said that a lot of community colleges have floral design programs. It's always good to talk to a local florist and see what kind of experience and training they require. Some shops will hire you and train you as well. Good luck! Floral design is fun and rewarding. Make sure you get comfortable shoes! Any other questions you might have we'd be happy to help you with - you can shoot us a PM with your area and maybe we can help!

How many deliveries do you have on Valentine's Day?

It changes year to year, depending on what day of the week the big day falls on. During the week of Vday it can be in the thousands.

why are flowers so god damn expensive?

When you send floral arrangements you're not just ordering a product, you're ordering a piece of art, a one of kind creation. Some flowers cost more because of the post-harvest physiology aspect- they are harder to transport and handle (ex. Plumeria and Gardenias) or the growing process is more intensive. There are flowers for every budget thought!

This might be a dumb question, but where do you guys get the flowers? Do you have a huge beautiful flower garden out back or are they all imported from somewhere?

Flowers come from all over the world. The biggest places I can think of offhand are California, Ecuador, Netherlands, and Columbia. Tons of trucks come out of Miami every day filled with flowers. Our shop used to have a greenhouse behind it in the 1950's, but now people want all flowers all year and importing them allows us to bring the best flowers and prices to ya'll, the customers.

Hi! Thanks for doing this AMA! I don't have a whole lot of money to spend on flowers for Valentines Day, and the town my girlfriend lives in is semi small, and there weren't very many flower options to choose from. What is your recommendation for flowers? 1800flowers, or stick with the little guys, even though they charge more?

Thanks for reading our AMA!

It's usually a good idea to stick with the little guys. A lot of online floral companies charge additional fees to process the order for you. If you want you can shoot us a PM and we can recommend a florist for you!

Do you get many people that send flowers to multiple people? Like that they are in romantic relationships with.

Not as many as you would think, but this totally happens around Valentine's Day especially.

What's the best way to go about getting rose pedals? You know for romantic reasons.

Call a local florist! We sell bags of them in all of our stores!

Would you ever sell thorns from any type of flower if requested? For example, 1,000 rose thorns.

We could probably do that- logistically it sounds a little difficult. That is like the hardest questions yet.

What's the craziest card message you have received?

My favorite, and I'm paraphrasing, was "I can't wait to rip that black lace off and watch you do the chicken dance while I'm eating a 10 piece. The camera is charged and so am I"

Hello! I'm the flower delivery boy at my families florist shop. How often do you get bad addresses? Like it doesn't even exist or it's just plain wrong?

Multiple times a day it seems like!

Is it true that I shouldn't believe you if you say the roses are free?

You should eat plenty of lasagna!

What is the average amount spent on a bouquet for Valentine's Day?

For Valentine’s Day, all of our locations offer a collection of arrangements that we have designed specifically for our markets that range in price from $39.95-$799.95. We strive to be the florist in everyone’s budget. The most purchased arrangements year over year for Valentine’s Day are our red rose arrangements - an average that would be close to $80 considering the options. There are many factors that go into determining the answer to your question. All of our markets have such unique demographics - so what is true for one of our locations, may not be true for the others.

A lot of guys are intimidated by buying flowers. For example, I once dated a sweet girl who said she liked tulips. Well, I went to the shop to buy them, and got laughed out of the building by the employees, because they weren't in season. (I figured flowers were always available.). I damn near went to the graveyard to steal some flowers, rather than deal with the flower industry.

What do you do to make for a good customer experience for people who know nothing about flowers?

First, I am so sorry for that experience. That's absolutley horrible customer service and that shop should be embarassed.

Second, we are the experts so you don't have to be. It's taken years for me to learn all the things I do know about flowers, and I still learn new things everyday. It is not unreasonable to assume that flowers would be available all year, some flowers just get more expensive out of their "season" so shops will not carry them.

We always will always suggest a substitute and help our customers learn about what they can and cannot expect from us. We are here to guide you and advise you. If you ever have questions about flowers let us know! We will help any way we can!

ps- We have tulips all year, so go in there and laugh at them.

Any recommendations for a girl that might want to send something to her man on valentines day?

Succulents!!! They're kind of the greatest, and super low maintenance!

Do you use any Q&A forums for internal collaboration or KDP?

With over 20 locations, one web team, one buy team and senior management, internal collaboration is crucial to our efficiency and functionality. To answer your question, we do not use Q&A forums or KDP. We tend to stick to what we know - email, Google Apps for business, and phone calls. Lots of phone calls.

How big of impact does V-Day have on your business?

It's the biggest day of the year! I like to call it our super bowl because we must be at our very best. We hire seasonal help, order so many flowers, and work insanely hard to fill the massive amount of orders we get. That one day takes weeks and weeks of preparation and planning. It has a HUGE impact on our business.

May I ask in term of annual revenue, how much of a percentage does VD contribute to? My gf wants to start her own Floral Shop, just wanna get some stats.

I'm going to check on that for you- I know it is different depending on the year and the location. I'll get back to you!

The Valentine’s holiday, not just February 14th, is our main event. We couldn’t give you an exact percentage without asking our awesome Financial Officer, but we can tell you that some of our stores have over a thousand deliveries in one day, oodles of contract delivery drivers, temporary sales help, and flowers from the floor to the ceiling. If you’ve never worked in a florist for the Valentine holiday, it’s basically a circus. And it’s unlike any other holiday in the year. Basically, each store strives to beat their previous year on a daily basis and it has been a successful tactic for our company.

what's the most creative thing you remember being asked to do?

We have this really cool local theater here (we love you Theater in the Park!) that puts on all kinds of amazing shows and we do the flowers for their shows. My favorite, and most creative, was the Dracula arrangement we made. It was super spooky with black flowers, little bats, and spider webs. It was so amazing.

We also made a Gibson Les Paul out of flowers for the funeral of a young man. It was super cool too. We kind of specialize in the weird and creative.

When I go into work tomorrow I'll see if I can find some pictures!

So what's the biggest advantage of going with a family owned vs big chain online company? Other than the regular answer of quality and personal touch. These are just flowers that are truly meant for the recipient to receive unexpected attention from coworkers, friends, and family.

If you go with a local florist you totally do get the personal touch and quality, you get to talk to wonderful people like me (Laura), and you get our help incase anything goes wrong. Aside from that local florists can tell you exactly what they can do. If you order online through a service they're just going to send the order to a local florist, and then take a little off of the top for them facilitating that. You save money! Saving money is the best.

Then why is it local flower shops always charge more than online retailers? I mean they have a promo code for every major holiday, giving you even lower prices than normal.

That may be true for some shops (we're all very different) their promotions only take off some of their fees. They still will send the order to a shop like us, for less money than what you paid, and what the arragement is supposed to cost.

the memorable valentine day bouquet you guys have made/deliver?

One year we delivered 500 roses wrapped- It was absolutely ridiculous. And really really heavy.