Love is in the air

Trade blossomed for florists yesterday as romantic types showered their loved ones with roses on Valentines Day.

Love was in the air and gifts were aplenty, with chocolates, cuddly teddy bears and the traditional dozen roses the big sellers.

Dunsborough Florist owner Ann Yorke said this year was particularly busy because Valentines Day fell on a pay day for many people.

She told the Times the average spend was $100 but some customers splurged much more on flowers, cuddly toys and chocolates.

“We cover the entire Capes region and last year we were still delivering at 7pm on Valentines Day,” she said.

“We do get some desperate guys who come in on the day because they have forgotten and we’ve got a lot of made-up things for them ready to go.”

Ms Yorke said an emerging trend in recent years were the long distance orders telephoned in from fly-in, fly-out workers.

“We have a mixture of customers - a few girls who like to buy the guys flowers,” she said.

“There is a mixture of relationships going on. We even have men buying their wives and girlfriends flowers.”