The alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m, but I never appear to get up immediately. There’s always one hit on the sleep button. Often getting up is the toughest thing I am doing all day.
But this is Mother’s Day week and I am a florist. The second round of the exasperating buzz manages to poke me sufficiently to make me perk up and swing my legs out from under the covers. It needs a moment for me to come around, and then the words escape my lips once more ; time to make the donuts. The funny line from the old commercial has been a yearly vacation morning ritual for so long as I can remember. It is the Wed. before Mother’s Day, and I have a large amount of work to do. It’ll be 4 solid days of answering the phone, planning bouquets, waiting on patrons, routing deliveries, and handling any crisis that turns up. Every day will get more busy. But that is the life of a florist. The key turns in the lock, the lights come on, the clock announces four a.m, and I need coffee.
Preparation for the vacation commenced last year on the day following Mother’s Day, May eleven, 2009 actually, when I sat down with my lead designer, Kim, and we made our evaluation of the prior week. What sold well, and what failed to sell. What did we run short of, and what was left over. Notes are taken, order lists are made, advertising is scheduled, and everything for Mother’s Day 2010 is prepared, put in a folder, and filed away for safe keeping. Step one finished. Step 2 commenced in the autumn when FTD and Teleflora released their designs for the imminent spring vacations. Boxes are examinated, floral content is evaluated, and the choice is formed whether to feature these bouquets, or to develop our own in store specials for the vacation. It is a troublesome call to make. Often the case pack on the containers is simply too huge for our shop to sell, or the cost of the container doesn’t supply an amazing value for the purchaser. If I find this to be true, then this is when the hunt starts for similar boxes at better costs. Yippee! A road trip! The Jan Market is the 1st stop, with extra stops at sellers in the towns.
Step two finished. The 3rd segment of preparation started in March. The all potent file is pulled, and the enormous job starts trying to find the most up to date flowers at the most acceptable price.
Sellers are called, visits are made, deals are struck, and orders are placed. Another job finished.
Eventually Mother’s Day week is on us as Monday arrives, and so do the great majority of the flowers. Buckets are crammed with preservative and water, boxes and boxes and boxes of fresh blooms are emptied, the stems are given a fresh cut, and by the end of the process we’re all three or four inches taller thanks to the rubbish on the floor. The floors are swept and a few visits to the bin are made. I check the list of flowers ordered against the seller invoice and what’s before me, and then I hear the familiar voice. Holy catfish, my Ma asserts, that is plenty of flowers. I giggle and let her know this is not everything I have ordered. She shoots me her ordinary look of shock, and then, as usual, the terror sets in. I get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, but luckily it doesn’t last too long. A little voice informs me to chill, you have done your homework, you have prepared well, and it’ll all be as it is supposed to be.
Infrequently it’s my Uncle Harold’s voice I hear ; infrequently it’s my Aunt Elsa. Either way, I am thankful for their relaxing vote of confidence. As a preventive measure, I put the invoices away, thus avoiding any farther comment from Ma . By the end of the day, the flowers are good to go into the cooler to get toughened off. On Tues. , the remainder of the flowers arrive, as does the additional help. Staff from years gone by still grace the workroom at Virginia Floral on the busy vacations. It’s a welcome sight for which I’m awfully thankful. I have a superb staff, but it’d be an intensely long and tough week for everybody without the added help of these seasoned designers, ( as well as the extra delivery help that shows up to keep things moving at a steady pace ).