02-15-2007Poor weather conditions didn’t prevent local florists from making Valentine’s Day deliveries to local residents Wednesday.
Warsaw florists made sure items such as roses, carnations, balloons, teddy bears and chocolates were delivered.
Maple Avenue Florist made 100 deliveries Wednesday despite winter weather conditions.
“We got in here around 6 a.m. and double-bagged flowers to protect them from the cold weather, and our employees started deliveries at 7:30 a.m.,” said owner Lea Derbyshire.
Derbyshire said some businesses where deliveries were scheduled to be made were closed, so florist employees had to find home addresses and fight snow drifts.
Creative Floral Designs and Mr. J’s Floral and Gift Shop began making deliveries Tuesday to beat the winter weather, and said they will have deliveries to make today.
“Our two drivers started making deliveries Tuesday because we didn’t know what to expect with the weather,” said Rod Teeple, co-owner of Creative Floral Designs.
Teeple said the shop delivered 50 deliveries Tuesday and expected to make the same number of deliveries Wednesday.
John Sawchuk, owner of Mr. J’s Floral and Gift Shop, said his shop had six employees who delivered about 175 items Tuesday and expected to deliver 175 to 200 items Wednesday.
Linda Neidigh, manager of Lovebug Floral, said four employees began delivering Tuesday morning until noon, then didn’t deliver the rest of the day because of the poor weather. The employees resumed deliveries at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“We made deliveries as far as Leesburg and out in the country where roads were not plowed, so our drivers parked on the side of roads and walked in the snow to get to people’s front doors,” Neidigh said.
She said when customers made orders, the employees got second addresses for customers to assure deliveries were made.