Valentine's Day Huge for Homegrown Florist

Rey Bethea florist celebrating 67 years in Fort Worth

Rey Bethea Florist has roots in Fort Worth older than most plants in town.

"They've been open since 1945," said Jim Wright, a seasonal hire who has been working there since he was a kid.

"I've been working here since I was 10, 11 years old, so that's a lot longer than I want to admit to -- about 45 years," Wright said.

Rey Bethea has always been family-owned and has made as much of an investment in the faces around the shop as the flowers they use to craft arrangements.

"A child is going to put this beside her bed and just be so happy with it -- that her dad bought it for her, you know," Sherry Dunnagan said. "It'll almost make you cry."

The staff is made up of generations of family and the friends who help out when business gets busy. Valentine's Day is the single busiest holiday of the year.

Friend Anita Mayfield cooked an entire table of food, including chicken chili and German chocolate cake so no one would have to leave for lunch.

The shop even has a handful of parrots in the back room. One of them talks.

"I don't use any kind of language I wouldn't want repeated around them," florist Rupert Potter said.

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