On Wednesday afternoon, the sky was a gray overcast and the freezing wind chilled the herds of parka-donned students walking to class. But inside Campus Florist, a flower shop on Green Street, red hearts strung from the ceiling and buckets of colorful flowers covered the room, perfuming the air. Behind the glass door and bright blossoms, employees were busy creating arrangements, taking orders by phone and helping customers find the perfect bouquet, vase and other accessories for Valentine’s Day.

For owner Anne Johnston, who opened Campus Florist in 1941, this is the usual atmosphere of the store in the days before the romantic holiday, the busiest time of the year for fresh flower purchases. This is in accordance with The National Retail Federation’s Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey, which projected that 37.8 percent of consumers spent $2.1 billion on flowers for Valentine’s Day.

On this particular Saturday holiday, Johnston said business had an unusual challenge when the store’s power went out at 3:30 p.m.

During the hourlong outage, employees dressed warmly against the cold while keeping the door open to continue business, but not many people came in during the late afternoon. And still, by that time, the shop had already hit their peak sales for the holiday.

Johnston said it will take about a week to know the exact numbers, but this year’s Valentine’s was another success.

“It’s over with — the good and the bad,” she said.

Johnston explained that even in the midst of Illinois winters, they are able to get flowers shipped from Holland, Cuba and other places around the world. Although she said they never run out of flowers at the store, she recommends customers pick up their orders early for the freshest picks. Sometimes during winter months, getting the flowers to the store can be difficult, especially if there is a freeze or a lot of snow. But Johnston said this has not been a problem this year.

“(The flowers) are coming in and going out!” she said.

Robin Shin, junior in LAS, came to the store Wednesday for the second year in a row to order roses for his girlfriend.

“You just know you don’t want to get things last minute,” he explained.

Picking up the bouquet on Saturday around noon, Shin said the flowers looked nice and was the perfect gift for his girlfriend.

“I chose flowers because she always says flowers are one of her favorite gifts,” he said. “I think they’re just something nice to give or receive on Valentine’s Day.”

Johnston said that the most popular flowers on Valentine’s Day are roses, but nowadays people like unique arrangements as well.

Freesias are one of her favorite flowers to make arrangements with and, although they are usually unavailable this time of year, she was able to get them for the holiday. In addition, the store has a variety of other flowers in many color variations, including carnations, hydrangeas, roses and lilies.

At Campus Florist, orders began piling up weeks ago from their website, by telephone and walk-in. When they begin to get really busy, Johnston said they close orders on the website and only allow phone calls and walk-ins.

For employee Rebecca Jung, freshman in LAS, the Valentine’s Day season has been a learning experience as she has only worked at Campus Florist for two weeks.

“It was overwhelming. I’ve honestly never seen so many flowers in my life, but it’s fun,” Jung said. “We have a lot of co-workers that help.”

Johnston admitted that her favorite part of Valentine’s Day is the beginning and the end. She said that dealing with the stress of the day can be hard, but you learn to live with it.

Despite the stress, she has happy memories of working the holiday, such as when a campus a capella group came to sing to her two years ago.

“When I parked my car, they sang me some songs … that is something I’ll never forget,” she said.

Johnston and co-workers spent Sunday cleaning up the aftermath of the chaotic day and decorating the store with the new spring selection. As they put away the love-themed decorations, the end of Valentine’s Day had finally come — until next year.

Annabeth can be reached at [email protected].