DON'T blame it on the moonlight, blame it on the Russians. That trebling in the price of a red rose in the last two weeks is partly the fault of eastern Europe where St Valentine's Day has become a big hit.
Romantic Russians, Poles and Czechs have forced up flower prices at international auctions, according to a Dublin flower wholesaler, Mr Thomas Dukes. But with average Russian wages at $15 a month it seems unlikely.
The rose that cost 30 pence three weeks ago now costs him £1. Add the shipping costs and wholesale and retail margins, and by the time it reaches the shop it will cost up to £4. He hopes to sell around 60,000 long stemmed red roses in the busiest week of the flower sellers calendar.
Yesterday a competitor in the flower market off Capel Street in Dublin, Mr Norman Fannin, also argued that the price leap is beyond their control. "People think we put up the prices just for the hell of it. We don't. Valentine's Day is a worldwide phenomenon in a way that Christmas and Mother's Day aren't. So the whole world is demanding red roses, red carnations, red baby carnations. Anything red".
Mixed bunches with one rose are also more popular, so the sales of all kinds of flowers go up. Orchids, which can be pricey in summer during the debs season, are cheaper in winter, because they are a winter flower. Mr Fannin estimates he will have sold around half a million flowers this week.
A fellow wholesaler, Mr Paul McLoughlin, said the red rose is still the staple. However, he will be giving his wife a bunch of yellow roses this morning. Most flower shops already have their orders organised, but "then you'll have the fellow who wakes on Wednesday and realises what day it is. Between four and six o'clock they'll be queuing outside the florists".
According to Jacinta Doherty in the Flowerbox in Dublin a dozen red roses will cost £50. She sold more than she could count yesterday, and the red rose is a popular choice with women who are buying for men.
Mr John Cronin will be busy this morning. From 7 a.m. he and four of his friends will be driving around Dublin in tuxedos, with trays of food on the back seat. "You get some weird looks, walking around Dublin in a tuxedo with breakfast tray
The "champagne breakfast in bed" service has been booked out since Monday. Most requests are from one person for another, rather than the double version, which costs £55. Around half the deliveries will be to offices. One breakfast is going to a Dublin Garda station, although John wouldn't say which one.
The standard order is a continental breakfast, champagne and a newspaper, although special requests have been made. One young man, ordering for his girlfriend, wanted Sugars Puffs and chocolate spread instead of croissants and smoked salmon. Another punter preferred a golf magazine to the morning newspaper.
In Whitefriars Church on Aungier Street, the Carmelite priests say they have the bones of St Valentine under the altar. They were a gift to Father John Spratt, a 19th century priest, from Pope Gregory 16th and arrived in Dublin in 1836.
At the Irene Broe statue of the saint in the church 13 candles were burning yesterday afternoon. Today's afternoon Mass will include a blessing of wedding rings.
According to the literature, St Valentine was famed for marrying young Romans against the emperor's wishes. The emperor believed single men made better soldiers. February 14th was supposedly the day the birds' mating season started and the day St Valentine was beaten and beheaded.
Apart from price considerations, the true traditionalist should forget red roses. St Valentine, as he is depicted in Whitefriars, clasps a crocus to his plaster breast the symbol of spring.
