Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Fear not, last-minute Lotharios

“On the day, it starts getting busy from 7 am and goes straight through to 7 pm”

St. Valentine’s Day messages
St. Valentine’s Day messages

At least one flower stand will be open early St. Valentine’s Day: The Flower Lady on Isabella and Orange in downtown Coronado. Shanel Albert and her partner and husband, Steve, will be up and making bouquets of roses as lines of panicking males grow.

“On the day, it starts getting busy from 7 am and goes straight through to 7 pm,” Shanel says. “It takes weeks of planning. I order all my flowers in the first two weeks of January. Like, 40 bunches of these roses, ten bunches of this, twenty bunches of that. It’s like thousands.”

Is red the only color? She nods. “All people want is red roses.”

For the occasion, they rent out the lecture hall at the historical society across Isabella. “We do all the processing of the flowers there. And all of our design work, and all of our pre-mades. So we usually do like 100 wrapped pre-made bouquets, because the day of, there are usually two lines, all day. Last year was bad because it was pouring rain. But that’s when Philip Rivers came. He bought $50 worth of pink hydrangeas for his wife. He said those were her favorites. So I do have some stuff that’s not red roses.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Is it all guilty males?” I ask.

The Flower lady, Shanel Albert

“It is,” she says. “In their twenties through seventies, and they always say ‘Is it too late to buy roses?’ I want to say, ‘This is what we’re set up for! For you guys who are late, and feel like you’re shit out of luck. You’re the reason we’re so busy on Valentine’s Day.’ So we like that they’re last-minute, because that’s what our bread and butter is.”

Do these last-minute Lotharios have to pay more? “A little. For a dozen roses, you’ll pay between $85 and $100. I’ve looked around, and at other shops it’s more than that.”

Her customers know what they want. “Most want the pre-mades. Red roses, wrapped, or in a vase. But some can’t decide. They just say ‘Make something pretty.’ Others fall on my shoulder and go ‘Help!’ It’s easy. I just say ‘Give me your budget,’ and we’ll stick to that and we’ll create something nice.”

The most expensive bouquet she’s ever made up?

“Probably the $700 one. It was a ton of roses. Several times people have asked for ‘100 roses,’ and they want them nicely arranged. For me, that would probably take like a half-hour.”

Of course, a lot of emotions are tied up in these roses. “We’ve had someone ask if they could return their flowers because they didn’t like the person who gave them,” says Shanel. “We said, ‘No, sorry, we can’t do that. You didn’t even pay for them.’

“We had one lady who thought her husband was cheating on her,” says Steve. “So she sent him flowers anonymously to see if he would tell her about them or not. She kept coming and circling, like ‘Did you hear from him?’

The husband finally did tell her that he’d received the mystery flowers. “The right decision there. Lucky Valentine!”

I have to ask Steve one more thing: “Do you buy flowers for your wife on Valentine’s Day?”

He looks at me like “Are you kidding?”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Next Article

2024’s Best Bitcoin & Crypto Casinos – Play BTC Casino Games Online

Best Bitcoin Casinos (2024): Top 10 Crypto Casino Sites for BIG Payouts
St. Valentine’s Day messages
St. Valentine’s Day messages

At least one flower stand will be open early St. Valentine’s Day: The Flower Lady on Isabella and Orange in downtown Coronado. Shanel Albert and her partner and husband, Steve, will be up and making bouquets of roses as lines of panicking males grow.

“On the day, it starts getting busy from 7 am and goes straight through to 7 pm,” Shanel says. “It takes weeks of planning. I order all my flowers in the first two weeks of January. Like, 40 bunches of these roses, ten bunches of this, twenty bunches of that. It’s like thousands.”

Is red the only color? She nods. “All people want is red roses.”

For the occasion, they rent out the lecture hall at the historical society across Isabella. “We do all the processing of the flowers there. And all of our design work, and all of our pre-mades. So we usually do like 100 wrapped pre-made bouquets, because the day of, there are usually two lines, all day. Last year was bad because it was pouring rain. But that’s when Philip Rivers came. He bought $50 worth of pink hydrangeas for his wife. He said those were her favorites. So I do have some stuff that’s not red roses.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Is it all guilty males?” I ask.

The Flower lady, Shanel Albert

“It is,” she says. “In their twenties through seventies, and they always say ‘Is it too late to buy roses?’ I want to say, ‘This is what we’re set up for! For you guys who are late, and feel like you’re shit out of luck. You’re the reason we’re so busy on Valentine’s Day.’ So we like that they’re last-minute, because that’s what our bread and butter is.”

Do these last-minute Lotharios have to pay more? “A little. For a dozen roses, you’ll pay between $85 and $100. I’ve looked around, and at other shops it’s more than that.”

Her customers know what they want. “Most want the pre-mades. Red roses, wrapped, or in a vase. But some can’t decide. They just say ‘Make something pretty.’ Others fall on my shoulder and go ‘Help!’ It’s easy. I just say ‘Give me your budget,’ and we’ll stick to that and we’ll create something nice.”

The most expensive bouquet she’s ever made up?

“Probably the $700 one. It was a ton of roses. Several times people have asked for ‘100 roses,’ and they want them nicely arranged. For me, that would probably take like a half-hour.”

Of course, a lot of emotions are tied up in these roses. “We’ve had someone ask if they could return their flowers because they didn’t like the person who gave them,” says Shanel. “We said, ‘No, sorry, we can’t do that. You didn’t even pay for them.’

“We had one lady who thought her husband was cheating on her,” says Steve. “So she sent him flowers anonymously to see if he would tell her about them or not. She kept coming and circling, like ‘Did you hear from him?’

The husband finally did tell her that he’d received the mystery flowers. “The right decision there. Lucky Valentine!”

I have to ask Steve one more thing: “Do you buy flowers for your wife on Valentine’s Day?”

He looks at me like “Are you kidding?”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.