Montgomery County Florist Offers 'Talking Roses'
GLENSIDE, Pa. (CBS) -- From balloons and blooms to love you can taste, at Penny's Flowers in Glenside, Pennsylvania, preparing for Valentine's Day can be a bit hectic.
"Oh it's good crazy, we live for this," said owner Bob Pannepacker.
This second generation, family run business expects to design and deliver over ten thousand flowers.
"I feel good because it's just something about presenting flowers. You get 100 percent smiles, people are excited and that's a nice business when you can do that."
Penny's may be a community staple, but as an extra-item business, the last 5 years have been a bit rough.
"We have lost forty-four florists in the last five years that were part of our Delaware Valley co-op," explained Pannepacker.
But, this year should be better. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend 1.7 billion dollars on Valentine's Day flowers, up 12 percent from last year. Bob expects a fifty percent increase.
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"It's on a weekday instead of weekend, we had a blizzard last year, and the economy is so much better."
But through it all, the sentiment remains the same.
"I wanted to surprise my wife with something nice," said Mike Katz of Glenside.
Don Dolan added, "Came in today to pick up tulips for my daughter."
Just as important as the flowers is the message that goes along with them. Of course, if you're not sure what to say to your sweetie, why not let "speaking roses" say it for you?
"Its basically putting a message right on the rose," said Pannepacker. "It's neat, it's something new to our market and we're just in the beginning stages. But, we can see it blossoming."
And with any luck, his business will too.
Reported by Nicole Brewer, CBS 3
