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It’s a sunny, peaceful day on the north side of campus, just a few days before Valentine’s Day. But inside the Poly Plant Shop, it’s crunch time. 

“I literally have orders everywhere,” says Alyssa Snow, a fourth-year agricultural science major, as she talks to a co-worker inside the shop. 

Buckets of cut flowers and other plants fill the shop, while two pink folders off to the side keep track of delivery orders and Valentine’s Day pick up orders. 

“We get so many orders and a lot of people will wait until the last minute,” Snow said. “Melinda does a very good job of getting us prepared for the surplus of orders that come right before Valentine’s Day.”

Snow is referring to Melinda Lynch, who teaches floral design and supervises the Poly Plant Shop.  

Lynch  views the Valentine’s Day experience as fun and intense, and she does her best to make sure every student working in the shop is prepared for the days and weeks leading up to the holiday.  

Lynch has task sheets, where students sign off on the tasks they’ve done in the shop, and all students are responsible for taking down orders, making the orders they’ve taken, and making sure the floral arrangements are ready for delivery. They also deliver the arrangements themselves. 

“If you aren’t on top of it, it will wipe you out,” she said. “This isn’t second grade, where your  parents will buy it because you made it. The customers want it pretty, and they want it nice.” 

Snow, who said she ultimately wants to teach floral design, said the Valentine’s rush is great real-world experience. 

“If anyone’s going to work in an actual retail floral design shop in the big world, they’ll be able to work under pressure and understand the preparation that it takes. There’s a lot of organization involved.” 

Snow said that this year, she’s helped more with the organizational side of Valentine’s Day.  

“I don’t have a ton of experience with ordering and the wholesale side of floral design,” she said, noting that the shop normally has to order roses from wholesalers for the holiday because they can’t produce enough on-campus. “It was really cool to have more of an analytical view of how the preparation process goes.” 

But her favorite part of the holiday is working with customers to create an arrangement that they and their loved ones will be happy with. 

“Sometimes, a customer will just order a dozen red roses, but other times they’ll ask me what I would recommend,” Snow said. “It’s fun to be able to break the norm of a dozen red roses and get creative with a customer.” 

Lynch said that the smartest thing customers can do is preorder a custom arrangement on the 13th. But for those last-minute lovers, the shop will have premade arrangements ready to go on Friday.  

“We deliver really pretty arrangements and beautiful flowers and that is our mission,” Lynch said. “We want to put smiles on all of our customers’ faces!”