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Businesses Hope Weather Doesn't Interfere With Valentine's Day

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some emails arrived in our home this week. They were ads from florists urging us to buy flowers early because looming snowstorms might make deliveries impossible for Valentine's Day, which is tomorrow. As usual, I blew it, because the snow is thick in Washington this morning.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And it turns out the weather is a big deal for florists. For Mary Beth Reagan, owner of The Flower Pot in Knoxville, Tennessee, Valentine's Day is make or break. She says even a couple of inches of snow could be trouble.

MARY BETH REAGAN: We're just not used to it. We don't know how to drive in the snow. It's crippling. For example, our town, I've never even seen a snow plow. I'm not sure we have them.

MONTAGNE: She's been worrying about the storm since Monday, when she first heard about it from her accountant.

REAGAN: She said Mary Beth, what are you going to do? And I said, I mean, we're just going to pray for the best. We're just going to hope for the best and prepare the best we can.

INSKEEP: She has 600 orders that are supposed to go out before the end of the day tomorrow. Now, during a typical Valentine's week, her shop brings in as much revenue as it normally does in two months. When she talked with us late last night, she and her employees were at her shop, surrounded by flowers.

REAGAN: Buckets. Buckets and buckets. Tons of red roses, thousands of them.

MONTAGNE: They're all bought and paid for. Valentines are waiting. Mary Beth Reagan says she's shaking in her boots, counting on the fleets of vans she's rented to get through whatever the weather brings. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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