Special Features / February 2008

Flowers Are Her Passion

Aletha Shirley

What’s the biggest single day in the floral industry? You guessed it. Valentine’s Day. For 29 years, Aletha Shirley has made sure that her flowers are especially beautiful for Valentine’s Day.

“Yes, Valentine’s Day is the single most busy day of the year, followed by the day before and the day after, when many men who forgot to get their special one flowers and are now making up for it,” she laughed.
“Roses are our biggest sellers. Red is the most preferred color, followed by pink and then yellow.

Also, the most popular is usually a dozen of roses, followed by half a dozen, and then followed by one long stemmed rose in a vase,” she added. “But, we have people who have a special type of flower, or flower color that they want on Valentine’s Day and we provide that also. Some men purchase 3 dozen roses for their sweethearts. And some people want balloons, angel bears, or chocolates added to their flower order,” she said.

Aletha starts in December placing her order for Valentine’s Day. And she hires 20-30 extra people for those few days around Valentine’s Day – some to design and some to deliver. “Most people want their Valentine’s Day flowers delivered to their work which means that we must deliver all the orders between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on one day. We get our pre-orders out first and then we get the rest of the orders out,” she commented.

As hectic as it is, Aletha enjoys every minute of it. In fact, during those days prior to Valentine’s Day, she actually sleeps at the store. “I love just being a florist. I get to make people happy! I want to make sure that all the arrangements that go out of my store are top quality arrangements and that our service is excellent. I want to maintain the store’s great reputation and I think that is why I have been so successful for the last 29 years,” she explained.

When she went to college, she studied accounting and computers/data processing and she was offered a job at Public Debt, but her dream was to open a full-time Christmas shop. Her mother lived near Myrtle Beach, so Aletha began the process of locating and planning a Christmas Shop in the Calabash area of North Carolina.

She found the property and made an offer on it and was continuing to proceed with her dream idea when she found out that one of the business people that she was working with to open the shop, stole her idea and her location right out from under her. Her dream was “busted,” and to make matters worse, she saw “her dream idea” go up under another person’s name.

Back in Marietta, Ohio, most people told her that the idea of a full time Christmas shop would never work and that it was a crazy idea, then some of her friends asked her to do their wedding flowers. She had no training in floral design, but being the creative entrepreneur that she is, she read some books and looked at different types of wedding flowers. “I didn’t want to let my friends down. So I researched and worked and worked on design and flower ideas. Even then I wanted my flowers and designs to be unique and beautiful,” she said. Well, much to her surprise, the word spread about how beautiful her wedding flowers were and she was on the path is owning a floral shop.

Aletha’s advice is to remember that flowers bring happiness. “If no one gives you flowers, give them to yourself. You are worth it. Sometimes the best way to make your self happy is to make other people happy. So give flowers to someone else. Whatever you give to the universe, the universe will give back to you,” she chanted.

She has been known to give out 3,000 roses during “Good Neighbor” day in Marietta. Another time, there was a heavy snow storm right before Valentine’s Day and she had extra flowers left over. When the snow cleared, she had her dad drive her around in a van and she went door to door and passed out the extra flowers and then went to the nursing homes and gave out flowers.

“There is nothing more exciting and exhilarating that seeing the faces of people who receive flowers at their door or at their workplace,” she said. “That expression makes my job worthwhile and I know that my purpose in this life is to give the present of happiness by giving flowers.”

Aletha Shirley is the owner of Aletha’s Florist, located at 132 Green Street, Marietta, Ohio. Telephone: (740) 373-8670

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