Romance is still alive in Cardiff, according to the owner of one of the city’s oldest florists in the run up to Valentine’s Day next week.
Stephanie Eynon, who owns Betty’s Florist in Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, said orders are rushing in and the shop is as busy as ever.
Traditional red roses remain the most popular flowers, but increasingly people are requesting mixed bouquets with a single red rose in the centre.
Perhaps surprisingly, Ms Eynon’s team, who have almost 70 years experience in floristry between them, said they often get younger customers in their late teens.
She said: “We have really been trying to get young people into flowers through social media and it has been working.
“Often younger customers have lower budgets and so buy single red roses.”
Gail Vaughan, shop assistant in The Flower Oasis, Crwys Road, also said the age of customers ranges from young teens and students.
She said: “Because we’re in the student area they come in, it’s quite cute. A lot of the ones that are on tight budgets go for the single roses for 5, 6 pounds.”
For those on larger budgets, Valentine’s Day offers the chance to splash out with extravagance and go over the top.
Betty’s Florists has a trading history dating from 1850, and the most expensive order Ms Eynon can remember for Valentine’s Day came in at over £500.
“A man wanted us to decorate a whole hotel room in Cardiff with red rose petals and bouquets,” she said.
The owner also revealed she usually gets around one or two flower orders for marriage proposals on Valentine’s Day each year.
“We do flowers for men planning to propose, for example a ring box nestled into the flower bouquet.”
Ms Eynon’s shop stocks Valentine’s Day flower gifts ranging from a single pink rose in a vase for under £20 to their Ultimate Love bouquet for £299.95 made up of 60 red roses with diamante studs.
But the inflated prices of flowers around this time of year are not always just down to the florists.
Ms Vaughan, who ships flowers to all over the world, said: “We suffer as well. People don’t realise that we’re not the ones clawing the money in.
“It’s the Dutch because they put their prices up then and they bring the flowers over to us. We have to raise our prices, it isn’t because we’re money-grabbing.”
Whether a blossoming romance or a romantic gift after 50 years of marriage, the traditional red rose continues to reign as the flower of choice for romantics in Cardiff.
And even for young teenagers in Cardiff, romance is not dead.
