Local Florist Casa de Flores Celebrates Valentine's Day

On one of the busiest days of the florist's calendar—the day before Valentine's Day—the owner and staff of had everything in hand.

The store was filled with carefully prepared bouquets, all labeled, wrapped and ready to be delivered to hundreds of local homes on the big day.

One customer, Encino resident Hap Kent, was in the store buying a bouquet of roses for his wife. He wasn't going to wait until Valentine's Day, though; he said he would present her with the flowers when he got home.

Rae, a florist at the store who prepared Kent's bouquet, said that he was an old friend. "I've known him since he was five," she said.

Another customer, Albert Parnagian, had phoned in a special request that the store prepare a Lily of the Valley bouquet for his wife. Casa de Flores florist Nellie said that Parnagian had told them that the flower had been in his wife's bouquet on their wedding day. The florist had searched high and low for the flower in the U.S. without success, but finally found an importer in the Netherlands who could ship it to them.

, 15600 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91436 (At the corner of Haskell Avenue). Local: 818-783-1818; Toll-free: 300-544-0269, www.​casadeflores.​us/.