Al's Morning Meeting

Flowers are doomed to be pricier after a freeze in California destroyed fields of flowers and filler plants.

"Some places lost half of their heather crop," said Rich Dodd, lead buyer for Kennicott Brothers, which supplies flowers to florists in the city. "Some of the stuff has doubled in price."

While flowers grown in greenhouses or on other continents, like roses, were not affected, filler flowers grown in California fields were, Dodd said. Even flowers not destroyed by the freeze may have been damaged, their blooms smaller, their growth stunted.

The price of larkspur, for instance, has jumped 25 to 30 percent, he said. The price of stock is up 25 percent.

The supply of flowers, and their prices, will likely continue to be affected long after Valentine's Day has passed. "It might last through Mother's Day," Dodd said.

You know, I can't think of any commodity, except hotel rooms and gasoline, for which customers are so regularly price-gouged as Valentine's Day roses. In the span of a week, the price of a dozen roses can rise significantly. Why?

Demand.

But wait. It is not a surprise that we want more roses around Valentine's Day. So it is not a surprise demand. Winter coats don't double in price when cold weather moves in. If anything, retailers put the winter clothes on sale.

I wonder what would happen if we exposed floral retailers who jack up their prices around holidays and special days.

Valentine Haters

This is not a great day for a lot of people. Valentine haters range from guys who resent paying so much for flowers to singles who resent feeling left out.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story about "bitter bashes" -- parties for people who don't like Valentine's Day.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported about the "Un-Valentine's Day Party" in town. InsideToronto.com even ran a contest for people who wanted to write about why they hate Valentine's Day.

It seems from the stories I read this week that teenagers are even more vocal.

I wonder how long it will be before retailers will understand the potential of marketing Valentine's Day to couples other than heterosexuals.

The Dark Side of the Flower Business

An insider look at the flower industry does not paint a rosy picture.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer discussed the book "Flower Confidential." The book shows how nearly 80 percent of the roses you will buy this week come from overseas, mainly from Central and South America.

The roses you buy are now grown in what are essentially flower factories. Then they're flown in to the U.S. overnight. The article said:

"Flower Confidential" is not always a pretty picture of floral color, romance and innocence. The intensive breeding of flowers for the cut trade has robbed them of their natural scent. The worst way to display cut flowers in a retail store is in unrefrigerated containers near produce, as so many supermarkets do, because ripening veggies emit an odorless gas known as ethylene that makes flowers wilt. And like so much else in the American economy these days, most cut flowers now come from overseas -- in fact, a whopping 78 percent.

The import flower trade is the source of some of [Amy] Stewart's most startling revelations. The huge flower business in Colombia and Ecuador has energized their economies, but also raised a host of serious questions about environmental safety in their massive greenhouses, as well as other threats to, and treatment of, their workers.

Suffice it to say, pesticides outlawed in the United States are sometimes used in growing flowers in these countries and that workers there have sometimes been exposed to hazardous conditions. Then there is the fungicide applied to roses immediately prior to their shipment to the United States, surely a surprise to consumers who often cannot resist sniffing their floral gifts.

Stewart asks pointedly: "Do I really want that cheap bouquet of roses if I know it's been sprayed with pesticides that are illegal in the United States and that were applied by a minimum-wage-earning Ecuadorian worker in an ill-fitting gas mask?"

Valentine Facts

The Census Bureau has tons of facts and numbers if you like that kind of thing (these ones are from 2006):

• 119 -- Number of single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages.

• 34 -- Number of single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages.

• 904 -- The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.

Love Locations

Below are names of some romantic-sounding places:

• Valentine, Neb.
  

• Loving County, Texas                
  

• Valentine, Texas

• Lovington, N.M.
  

• Loveland, Colo.
  

• Loving, N.M.

• Lovejoy, Ga.
  

• Love County, Okla.

• Loves Park, Ill.
  

• Lovington, Ill.

• Lovelock, Nev.
  

• Romeo, Colo.

• Love Valley, N.C.
  

• Romeo, Mich.

• Loveland, Ohio
  

• Romeoville, Ill.

• Loveland Park, Ohio
  

• Sacred Heart, Minn.

• Loveland, Okla.
  

• Heart Butte, Mont.

• Lovelady, Texas
  

• South Heart, N.D.

Al's Morning Multimedia

StoryCorps.net is one multimedia Web site that knows how to tell a love story. In fact, the stories are a product of interviews by everyday people talking with everyday people.

Just listen to the story of Bob Chew interviewing his wife, Jo Ann, and you will get the concept. Jo Ann has Alzheimer's. It is honest and goes right to your heart. I dare you to listen.

Some Web sites are planning to play nonstop romantic music all day on the 14th.

Click on BroadwayWorld Radio from 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 14 until midnight of that day. The station will play love songs, and nothing but love songs, from Broadway musicals to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I don't know about you, but online e-cards just don't do it for me. Is there an agreed-upon etiquette about these things?

CBS News' Bob Schieffer offers some Valentine advice in a column.