SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Valentine's Day is the big day for florists.
"This is the Super Bowl,” Natalie Gill, the Co-Owner & Co-Founder of Native Poppy, said. "We got our flowers in this morning. We're getting everything cleaned, processed, and counting everything in."
With rain on Wednesday and more in the forecast, Gill hopes her warehouse stays dry.
"I do not like the rain. I do not like it. No, I don't,” Gill said.
She has a good reason for not liking the rain.
Their warehouse was flooded by the heavy rain on New Year’s Day 2026 storm.
“We just got the bathroom back up. There's no sink in the bathroom right now. But we've gotten it all back up and running to the point that we can make Valentine's Day flowers,” Gill said. “We just got both of our delivery vans back. They were both in the shop. We're so grateful they didn't get totaled this time."
ABC 10News also spoke with her co-owner just after New Year's Day about the latest flooding.
In late January 2024, Native Poppy got flooded, and Gill walked ABC 10News through the damage after the heavy rains that inundated much of San Diego.
Both of those floods happened right before Valentine’s Day.
"It is always so stressful when it rains, and just knowing that, like we're sitting ducks in a way, like this is where our studio is, and it's in a flood zone, and just praying and manifesting that it will stay dry and mild,” Gill said.
There are heavier rains expected on the Monday after Valentine's Day.
"I thank goodness it is going to be after we have all of our orders out,” Gill said. “That's always the first thought when it rains, when it floods, like whose wedding is going to get affected, whose flower orders are going to get affected."
And the folks at Native Poppy said they’re going to make sure they don't get affected after the holiday, too.
"We're going to move everything up even higher than we did last time. We're going to prepare even more because it just can’t, we can't let it happen again,” Gill said.
