BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) – Flower shops are blooming with business for Valentine’s Day as one of their busiest times of the year quickly approaches. Coming in just about every color, shape and size, flowers are a Valentine’s Day staple. So, we spoke with local flower shops about their preparations.

Many flower shops prepare all year for the big day.

“We start preparing for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 15 of the year before,” said Ann Marie Velchek at Blooming Crazy in Boardman.

Velchek says they start by assessing all of their orders to determine what worked and what didn’t work.

“Red roses are always the number one. So we had different lengths of stems. The long stem, still number one. That’s what everybody loves,” Velchek said.

This year, Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday, which Tom Butler at Burkland’s Flowers says means it’ll be a busier year than last. His reasoning? It’s further away from the weekend when many couples tend to go out to celebrate instead of buying flowers.

“When their spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend are at work, they always seem to like to send the flowers to work,” Butler said.

Floral shops encourage you to order sooner rather than later to ensure your flowers arrive on time.

“If you wait until right at the end and you want it delivered on Valentine’s Day, we’re still going to try to do it but we get so many orders, it’s so hard,” Velchek said.

Be prepared that you may be spending more on your flowers this year.

“Usually our roses are going for $65 for a dozen. Right now, a straight dozen is around $80/$85,” Butler said.

Butler attributes a lot of this to the cost of shipping and transportation going up.

Both Blooming Crazy and Burkland’s Flowers accept orders in person, online and over the phone.