Local flower vendors in Salinas getting ready for Valentine’s Day

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- Expect to pay more for those Valentine's Day flowers. East Alisal Street in Salinas is blooming almost year-round.

With what is arguably one of the busiest holidays for flower vendors, they make sure they have the best product.

"Usually, the week of Valentine's, it gets very hectic, like yesterday. Yesterday was probably our busiest day out of the week," said Stephanie Serrano who works at Ceasars Flowers.

Many vendors on East Alisal Street pick their flowers at Ceasers Flowers, which is a shop in Royal Oaks.

"I grab from there, it's a really good product so we go there," said Julio who sells flowers.

Ceasar's flowers receives flowers from various countries like Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, and Columbia.

Store workers say many of their customers are flower vendors on East Alisal Street, like Julio.

"The rose is very beautiful, I haven't had complaints from customers because they're so pretty," said Julio.

Serrano says unfortunately they have had to raise their prices, mainly because of the cost of transportation.

Their prices going up pushes local vendors to do the same.

"I remember people were calling us crazy for selling flowers for 18, $20. And now that same flower is $45," said Serrano. "So it's gone up a lot significantly."

But other vendors like Magdalena Bautista orders her flowers.

Bautista says after selling on the streets for over 20 years, she was able to afford her own business.

"I now have my flower shop and it's called Magdas Flowers," said Bautista, a flower vendor. After a lot of years of selling on the street with a bucket and a lot of hard work, thanks to god I can now work out of my own business,"

All of the vendors that KION spoke to said roses are a top seller for Valentine's Day.

Many vendors will be out here until 8 p.m. on Tuesday night for those grabbing flowers before the holiday.