The California Flower Mall in downtown Los Angeles is bustling with buyers eager to show gratitude to their family’s matriarch as the vendor hall prepares for Mother’s Day – one of the busiest days of the year.
Fresh floral aromas filled the air of the wholesale flower market as the Latino community rushed Friday to buy bouquets in honor of their culture’s Mother’s Day, which was celebrated Friday. With American Mother’s Day just around the corner on Sunday, the market is bracing for the influx of customers by modifying its hours.
“We’re going to be open (Friday) until 9 p.m. and tomorrow, we’re going to be open 24 hours until the night of Sunday, so it’s going to be very busy for us,” said Eduardo Sura, manager of Flowers Direct at the California Flower Mall.
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With 30 family-owned businesses at the market, there are a variety of flowers for shoppers that range from carnations to hydrangeas, orchids, roses, chamomile and more. Vendors said they’ve been working around the clock since Tuesday to build their arrangements and accept shipments of flowers from all over the world.
“It’s really important to these bootstrap vendors to have a good year for the rest of the year,” said Mark Chatoff, CEO of the California Flower Mall.
The California Flower Mall will be open through 9 p.m. Friday and then run on a 24-hour operation Saturday, beginning at 4 a.m.
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Drivers should be mindful in visiting the market this weekend as some streets in the immediate area are blocked off until further, posing difficulty in finding parking.