Flowers being loaded up for delivery for Valentine's Day, at French Peas Flower Shop. (Lang White / Correspondent)

Tyler florists worked through the night and into early morning to make sure East Texans’ messages of love make it to their sweethearts.

Tyler resident and manager of Jerry’s Flowers, Felicia McCreary, said her team worked longer than usual over the weekend and expected to stay until close to 2 a.m. Tuesday to be ready for a busy Valentine’s Day. She said they would need to double their delivery staff to make sure hundreds of flowers get delivered.

“Hundreds of orders have come in,” Ms. McCreary said, adding they continued to pour in Monday afternoon as workers rushed to prepare.

The shop wasn’t alone. On Old Bullard Road at French Peas Flower Shop, owner of 15 years Stacey Conner said Valentine’s Day had her crew working in overdrive.

She said 10 drivers are on duty for the holiday, compared to one or two for the average day. According to Mrs. Conner, there is no way to know exactly how many orders have been made for this year’s Valentine’s Day, but her guess was “hundreds and hundreds.”

“Between the deliveries and all of the in-store customers, there is no way of knowing an exact number of orders that have gone out today,” she said.

Although Valentine’s Day will be the busiest, Mrs. Conner said each day leading up to Tuesday has been at a hurried pace.

“Every year, Valentine’s Day falls on a different day, and this year it fell on a Tuesday, so it’s kind of combined into two days – Monday and Tuesday,” Mrs. Conner added. “It has been quite busy, and we try to get our flowers in at the last minute, so they are super fresh for everybody. It takes a really big staff to pull it off.”

Betsy Anderson, a delivery driver for French Peas, has been working on Valentine’s Day as a hobby since retiring from teaching. Mrs. Anderson said the job helps fulfill her happiness when she sees the smiling faces as she walks up to the front porch of a home with a delivery.

“When you take them flowers, anywhere you walk up everyone is just smiling at you,” Mrs. Anderson said. “This is the fifth year I’ve done Valentine’s Day deliveries, and you can have a nice little conversation with them. I thought it would be nice for a little extra money, but I enjoy it so much, and who wouldn’t want flowers?”