HELENA — Brutal cold temperatures in recent weeks almost made for a heartbreaking Valentine's Day in Helena.
Phones rang throughout the day at Helena flower shops on Valentine’s Day. Knox Flowers has been serving the Helena community for 16 years. With temperatures just a bit too cold to grow roses nearby right now, they source roses from a farm in Ecuador. Knox puts in their Valentine’s Day order months in advance.
“I had probably 1,300 stems of roses show up completely frozen this year. We order months in advance, so getting new roses was a little tricky,” said Tawna Stoddard, Knox Flowers and Gifts manager.
Frozen blooms can cause problems for florists.
“If they freeze, we throw them away; they are not usable; they die immediately once they thaw out," said Stoddard.
Knox Flower Shop is not the only florist in town that has faced this situation. At West Mont Flower Shop and Farm, some frozen flowers were delivered from Spokane, Wash., on a truck at the beginning of the week, but West Mont told MTN that it had not affected their ability to keep up with or fulfill Valentine's Day orders.
Daysha McMurray is the assistant manager of West-Mont and shared the demand her store experienced for flowers this Valentine’s Day.
“This year, it seems our orders have increased quite a bit; we've gotten out into the community more in the past couple of years, and red roses are the big hit,” said McMurray.
A stack of orders for flowers means lots of driving to make deliveries.
"We'll probably do about 200 deliveries; we also have people coming in to pick up stuff,” said Stoddard.
The national average for the price of a dozen roses this Valentine’s Day is around ninety dollars. Here in the Treasure State, you'll see the fourth highest prices in the country for a bouquet with a dozen roses, costing one hundred-five dollars on average.
