We visit the oldest flower shop in The Junction to see how they cope with the annual Valentine's Day rush—a.k.a. "the florist's Armageddon"—and get their recommendations for breaking out of the red-rose routine.
During Martin’s Flowers‘ 80-odd years in The Junction, two truisms have clearly emerged: Valentine’s Day is by far the busiest time of the year and, nine times out of 10, men will buy red roses for their significant others.
“The property was bought by my great-grandfather—that was in 1898,” says owner Lynn Martin Freeman. ”The building was put up in 1929, but we’re not really sure when it started being a flower shop—probably in the mid-’30s. I think they tried being a general store first and it didn’t work and then they decided they could make money in flowers.”
Over the 15 or so years that Freeman has been in charge, she’s seen The Junction go through a radical shift, one she regards as positive without qualification. “The neighbourhood has improved quite a bit,” says Freeman. “My dad was on a committee with the people from Lynett Funeral Home and Vesuvio’s restaurant and they got the plebiscite in, so people voted to no longer make it a dry area [in 1998] and that really started things off.”
This change in the neighbourhood—with an influx of new retail, restaurants and foot traffic—has also meant a change in the way Martin’s does business. “Our business used to be mainly phone calls and, of course, now we’ve got internet, but also a lot more walk-in [traffic] than we used to get as well,” says Freeman.
A whole lot of that business is done on Valentine ’s Day, which Freeman describes as “the florist’s Armageddon.” And the rush has already started. “We’re picking up now and it’ll just keep going, but the 13th and 14th will be the really busy days,” Freeman says.
A clear majority of the customers are made up of men buying for their significant others and, according to Freeman, they don’t always have the easiest time of it. “It is tough, because for a lot of guys it’s their first time ever in a flower shop and it’s our busiest day,” she says, lamenting the lack of time these last-minute shoppers give her and her staff to spend with them. “There’s a lot of pressure to get it done quickly.”
And left to their own devices, what are men buying? “Roses, way ahead of everything else,” says Freeman. “Red of course.” Interestingly enough, the most common complaint Freeman hears from women is “why does he always get red roses?”
Should one be looking for another, more creative option, this Valentine’s Day, Freeman has some recommendations. “Tulips and Gerbers. The nice thing is they’re locally grown,” she says, explaining that although “we like to source locally where we can,” for the most part, commercial roses are no longer grown in Ontario.
“Years ago, up in Brampton they were growing roses,” she explains. “But the conditions in Ecuador and Colombia are so perfect—you don’t need to heat a greenhouse, the light is just right, the humidity is just right, naturally. So it’s a cheaper way to grow flowers, even including the shipping here.”
