Simply Blooming owner Lisa Eikamp (back) is still smiling after a long day spent in the back of her downtown Traer floral shop creating Valentine’s Day arrangements while her friend Lindsey Phillips works in the foreground. Simply Blooming had well over 50 orders this year on Valentine’s Day combined with another 50 bouquet deliveries to North Tama School the Friday before the big holiday. Photo by Ruby F. Bodeker

One of the biggest holidays of the year occurred this week for florist retailers around the country.

In Traer, the staff at Simply Blooming flower and gift shop take their Valentine’s Day experience to the next level.

Each year those meandering down 2nd Street on Valentine’s Day are likely to find a trail of rose petals guiding shoppers into the store where a whole team of workers are bustling about the store making sure everyone in Traer and the surrounding areas has what they need for their special someone on Valentine’s Day.

Simply Blooming, owned by Lisa Eikamp, has been a mainstay in downtown Traer for 15 years.

“We just have fun, and my staff is amazing,” Eikamp said. “I even have a lot of people volunteer to help us out on holidays because it’s so fun to deliver. Everybody loves seeing the smiles when they deliver the flowers.”

It’s a family event! Simply Blooming owner Lisa Eikamp (left) is pictured in the back of her floral shop with her parents Pat and Bonnie Harrison (center) and her brother Nick Harrison late in the day on Feb. 14. Eikamp’s family members assist her every year with Valentine’s Day deliveries. Photo by Ruby F. Bodeker

For Eikamp, big holidays like Valentine’s Day at the flower shop are a family affair. She estimates nearly a dozen family members, staff and volunteers are on hand on Valentine’s Day to keep the operation flowing smoothly.

One of the highlights for Eikamp during the holiday seasons including Valentine’s Day is a program where Simply Blooming donates flowers to Sunrise Hill Care Center in Traer so that each resident can have a bouquet on Valentine’s Day.

She said on Monday they will often make several trips to Sunrise Hill delivering both their own donations, other donations from the community as well as personal orders from family members.

This year the shop has also worked to provide between 60-80 candy bouquets for kids in the community.

Eikamp said Valentine’s Day presents a few singular experiences that differ from other major holidays where flowers play a major role.

A Valentine’s Day floral arrangement gets the finishing touch treatment late in the afternoon on Feb. 14 in Lisa Eikamp’s floral shop, Simply Blooming, in downtown Traer. Photo by Ruby F. Bodeker

Valentine’s Day is contained to just one day of celebrating compared to Mother’s Day or the Christmas holiday that stretches out over a few days or even an entire season. She said also the clientele on Valentine’s Day makes for an interesting change of pace.

“Men as the customer makes the day fun and unique,” Eikamp said. “It’s just something a little bit different from my norm. Normally women are my customers. And so for that one day, you know, it’s mostly men.”

Eikamp said after 16 years at work in the community she’s been able to thread the needle in determining what her customers will want and how much to purchase for a holiday season.

Unsurprisingly, red roses still reign supreme for many shoppers on Valentine’s Day, though Eikamp said she’s noticed mixed arrangements have gained popularity in recent years.

This past year Eikamp said her cost to purchase roses wholesale has “gone up tremendously” which has resulted in price increases for bouquets featuring roses.

Flowers line the shop floor, waiting to be included as part of a special Valentine’s Day arrangement in Simply Blooming in downtown Traer on Feb. 14. Photos by Ruby F. Bodeker

Patty Seuss, who works for Eikamp at Simply Blooming, said there’s more to the Valentine’s Day preparation process for Eikamp’s business than just getting flowers lined up and ready to arrange.

“It’s the bows and the vases and the bears, you know, everything that Lisa has to get to make sure we have all we need for the holiday,” Seuss said. “It’s just a lot of merchandising in general. There’s someone that comes in specifically to blow up the balloons that go out with the orders. And that all takes a lot of investment.”

Eikamp said something that might be easy for customers to overlook when they send or receive an arrangement is that each flower has been personally touched and prepared by the florists before it’s ready to be a part of someone’s Valentine’s Day bouquet.

“Every single flower gets looked at and we make sure that it’s good enough quality for us before we put it in an arrangement,” Eikamp said.

For many florists, 2022 represents their first opportunity to go through the Valentine’s Day holiday under more normal conditions since the pandemic began.

Spray of roses waiting for that special someone on Valentine's Day this year in the downtown Traer floral shop Simply Blooming. Photo by Ruby F. Bodeker

Last year’s holiday fell on a Sunday and some hesitancy around the pandemic may have affected buying patterns for some shoppers.

Eikamp said last Friday her shop had already reached the total number of Valentine’s Day orders they received throughout the entire 2021 holiday.

On a one-day holiday season like Valentine’s Day the delivery coordinating efforts for a rural flower shop like Simply Blooming require an expert level of detail.

Eikamp said her shop’s footprint is wide given the rural areas surrounding Traer and the lack of competitors in many of the small towns. This year she’s got orders going out as far as La Porte City, Vinton, Reinbeck and Tama.

With the high temperature below freezing Monday, it also required the shop to wrap all of their orders that were going out the door to keep the flowers protected from the cold air.

Eikamp’s tips for keeping fresh flower arrangements looking their best are nothing outside of the ordinary, though she said they are simple things she hears people forgetting more than one might expect.

“The simplest thing that people forget with their flowers is not adding water to their base or their container,” Eikamp said. “For the most part they should keep them out of the sun. A lot of people think they need to put them in the window so that they bloom, but all they’re doing is making them expire faster.”

“We keep them in the cooler, and that’s for a reason,” Seuss chimed in. They like to be cool, but not frozen.”

Simply Blooming is one of only two flower shops in operation in Tama County. They are located at 518 2nd St. in downtown Traer and can be reached by phone at 319-478-8585, online at www.simplybloomingtraer.com or on Facebook at Simply Blooming.