A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
OK, this is your official warning. Valentine's Day is one month away. And while that might seem far in the future, now is actually the perfect time to start making those dinner reservations and reach out to your local flower shop.
AMBER FLACK: Valentine's Day is the busiest holiday of the year for florists, and things will sell out.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Amber Flack is the owner of Little Acre Flowers in Washington, D.C.
FLACK: The sooner you can place your order, the better off you're going to be, the more options you're going to have to choose from.
FADEL: Flack recommends going with locally sourced options, if you can.
FLACK: They're just better for the environment. There's a lower carbon footprint to obtain them, and they're going to last longer than flowers that have been imported.
MARTÍNEZ: Which means you may have to go without the most popular Valentine's Day option - roses - because they aren't growing in a lot of colder climates right now, Flack says. But there are other options.
FLACK: Tulips stand for love in the Victorian language of flowers, so it actually is a pretty suitable replacement.
JEFF DAY: We start pre-ordering Valentine's items before Christmas.
FADEL: Jeff Day has owned and operated the Old Town Florist in Portland, Ore., with his wife, Wendi Day, for nearly four decades. He says, if you have to wait, at least order your flowers a week in advance.
DAY: If you wait the last day, you might end up at Safeway or Kroger's or somewhere else and grabbing a quick last-minute arrangement.
MARTÍNEZ: Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Day emphasizes that receiving...
FADEL: There might be something wrong with that.
MARTÍNEZ: ...A bouquet still means a lot to people.
DAY: I think it shows that you went the extra mile, you made a call, you purchased something, you had it hand-delivered to their door.
FADEL: So now that we planted the seed in your mind, don't let it wither away.
(SOUNDBITE OF CORY WONG'S "LILYPAD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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