At 6:30 a.m. the day before Valentine’s Day, the San Francisco Flower Market bustled with shoppers loading up carts full of roses, newspaper-wrapped ranunculus, and fragrant bundles of eucalyptus. It was a gray morning with near-constant sheets of rain, but most vendors, expecting a rush despite the weather, had been working since midnight. 

It was the 113-year-old institution’s first Valentine’s Day at its new Potrero Hill location, but the market, previously in SoMa, had its usual frenetic holiday hum. 

“If anything, there’s even bigger buzz this year, because we’re in the new spot,” said vendor  Dustin Torchio. 

He and his team at Torchio Nursery Company pulled 14- and 16-hour days Monday through Wednesday. Instead of commuting back to Santa Cruz County to crash, Torchio and a handful of his employees stayed in the city. 

“The last couple of days have been nonstop,” echoed Jesus Franco, a manager at the wholesale florist Mayesh, quipping that the team “had to forcefully close the doors the other day” to get shoppers to leave. “This is the top. This is the Super Bowl for us.” 

Wednesday was actually the “craziest” day, he said, because it’s the cut-off for many florists to prepare and send out bouquets. By Friday, the flower-buying frenzy will slow down: At that point, it’s only very-last-minute shoppers vying to snag stems. 

“These guys are still going to be cranking it out — they will still be busy until the bitter end, and maybe a few hours past that,” said Deborah Hall, the ribbon maven (yes, that’s on her business card) at Floral Supply Syndicate. The company sells the “hard goods” that florists (and shoppers) buy to display flowers, and has been slinging heart-shaped boxes and pink and red ribbons all week. 

The market’s new location is “infinitely more shoppable,” Hall added, for both business owners and the general public. (Professionals can arrive at 5 a.m., while non-members are let in at 8.) 

One of the market’s strengths is that it offers everything, because its vendors grow locally and import from all over the world, according to executive director Jeanne Taggart Boes. While Valentine’s Day is a delightful madhouse, it’s neck and neck with Mother’s Day as the market’s biggest holiday. After all, “everyone has a mama, but not everyone has a Valentine,” she said. 

While the market’s offerings range from flamingo flowers and torch ginger to baby’s breath and peonies, the hot commodity this time of year is roses. “Valentine’s Day is easily five to 10 times more than what we’d normally sell,” said Mel Ng, an employee at Rafa’s Wholesale. He estimates that his stall alone hawks 50,000 stems in the run-up to V-Day.   

Damian Segura of wholesaler Miguel Flowers said the team is excited to decompress Saturday after a week of continuous hubbub. “It’s been a little hectic and crazy,” he said. “But good crazy.” 

One way he’ll unwind is by checking out the social media accounts of the florists who buy from him to track how they transform the blooms. “They create art,” he said. “I love seeing those pictures.”  

He hopes he’ll also receive some flowers of his own. 

“For all the women who don’t know what to buy for their boyfriends or their dads or their sons or whatever, get them roses,” he said. “Men almost never get roses, and it’s such a nice feeling.”