A Day's Work: Mark LeGrand, owner of Legrand the Florist in Gretna

New Orleans CityBusiness, Feb 8, 2008 by Richard A Webster

There will come a time on Valentine's Day when Mark LeGrand, owner of LeGrand the Florist in Gretna, will be forced to take his phone off the hook.

"We'll have to do it at a certain time to save us the embarrassment of not being able to service our customers," LeGrand said.

Valentine's Day is the king of holidays for the floral industry but the nature of the business has changed drastically since LeGrand opened his store Feb. 15, 1958.

Back then, if LeGrand received a delivery order he could be assured it was going to a residential address. But today, with so many women in the workforce, 99 percent of his deliveries go to commercial addresses. This adds time restrictions to the equation due to the business hours of operation, making deliveries more complicated.

The type of flowers people order has also evolved, mainly due to the Internet, LeGrand said. People are no longer content ordering daisies or carnations. They want exotic lilies and peonies.

"It's so advanced it's unbelievable. I have Grandma come in and she wants to buy beautiful carnations. But the granddaughter will want roses and lilies and all of the exotics. Because of the Internet, they have become more knowledgable about all of the varieties," LeGrand said.

LeGrand purchases the majority of his roses, the most popular flowers on Valentine's Day, from growers in Ecuador. He can order 500 roses on a Wednesday and have them delivered and in his shop by 9 a.m. Thursday.

But on Valentine's Day they come at a steep cost. Organizers for the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif., buy many growers out of their roses by December, leaving them without any product to sell in January. They make up for the loss by raising prices for Valentine's Day, charging retailers like LeGrand up to four times the normal price.

One dozen first-class, long-stem roses will run lovebirds around $100 this Valentine's Day.

"Ecuador is now known for having the premium roses and it's becoming one of the largest markets throughout the world," Le Grand said. "The prices are normally reasonable but during this time of year supply and demand is an issue because everyone is calling upon them.

"When I opened this business 50 years ago, we depended on California for our flowers but like everything else, that changed with the times."