After 43 years in the flower business, Alan Cotton said that one thing is constant – Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year.

“When I was in high school, I was working at a local shop doing deliveries,” Cotton said. “After looking at what she was doing for a while, I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ That is how I started and it has gone on from there.”

Cotton said that this year, the Valentine season has been a lot busier than last year for his shop.

“We have had a lot of people order early,” Cotton said. “Which is really good for us.”

When it comes to the most popular flower, Cotton said that every year it is a dozen red roses.

“A dozen red roses just says, ‘I love you,’ ” Cotton said. “It is just a traditional ‘I love you’ bouquet.”

The second busiest time of the year for Cotton is Mother’s Day.

He said that the content on the cards that people bring in for the flower arrangements could be used in a Hallmark movie they are written so well.

“The excitement of seeing the people expressing their love is my favorite part of this holiday,” Cotton said. “Some of these cards could start a Hallmark movie. Some of them are very moving and they really express their love in these flowers. That is pretty gratifying, that they use these flowers as a way to express the way they are feeling.”

Cotton said that if people have waited to order, it will be hard to order flowers on Valentine’s Day.

“We will have an operator standing by,” Cotton said. “They may not be able to pick the ones that they wanted if they wait until actual Valentine’s Day.”

Giving roses to a significant other dates back to the nineteenth century when Victorians used floral bouquets to deliver a message to a loved one. This system is called floriography and it officially solidified the rose’s romantic status.

The flower itself may not be the only reason for its expression of love. The color of traditional roses, red, represents passion. The pink rose may stand for appreciation and grace, the yellow rose may stand for friendship and happiness and the white rose may stand for innocence.