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Keith Watson, who owns an event planning business in Gainesville, brought his staff to the parking lot with bouquets of pink roses and white and pink alstroemeria in slender rhinestone-studded vases.

Sixty-two bundles of flowers — lilies, roses, tulips, dahlia, marigolds, alstroemeria, ranunculus — have been donated by Urban Stems, a florist just up the street.

“They’re for my TM teacher,” I told the clerk as I leaned over the Safeway floral counter, watching him trim the ends off a bouquet of alstroemerias.

In one part of the central border, she paired a pink brugmansia with an intense magenta alstroemeria and a royal blue Tibouchina urvilleana.

The Society of American Florists recommends hydrangeas, gardenias, freesia, hyacinths, and succulents, as well, while alstroemerias and daisies are some of the most popular purchases for Valentine’s Day on the website 1-800 Flowers.