A flower shop owner in Doniphan County is preparing for her first Valentine’s Day.

Janie Newton didn’t have experience in the flower industry prior to January when she became the owner of the Flower Peddler in Wathena, Kansas.

“There are some classes that our wholesalers offer in Kansas City so we did some of that,” Newton said. “Some of the previous owners have kind of shown me the ropes so we just kind of had fun and went with it and it seems to be working out so far.”

She said the Flower Peddler has been in Wathena since the 1980s. Currently, the store averages around 100 orders a month.  Newton said she was surprised at the number of orders they would need to fill for Valentine’s Day.

“We have about 500 roses coming in that we’re preparing those for Valentine’s Day and getting ready,” she said. “We have a whole team that’s coming in to help out for Valentine’s.”

Newton said she has been running the shop mostly on her own with some help from a friend. However, for Valentine’s Day she’s getting additional aid to make deliveries.

“We have a whole team of delivery people who are just helping out for Valentine’s,” she said. “We have free delivery to county schools on Valentine’s Day.  That includes teachers and staff.  We have one person who’s our Missouri person who does St. Joe and the Elwood area.  Then we have somebody who goes west and does Highland and White Cloud and Hiawatha.  Then we have several people who are just scattered throughout the county.”

Newton said they have been taking many orders ahead of the 14th.

“They can either look us up on Facebook, Flower Peddler, or they can give us a call,” she said.