Florists are in for one of the busiest days of the year today as late shoppers rush to buy flowers for their loved ones and secret crushes.

Anyone who may have lost track of the date will soon be reminded that it is February 14 - St Valentine's Day - by looking at shop windows swathed in red and adorned with cute soft toys holding plump hearts and with jewellery and bunches upon bunches of red roses.

Despite novelties, the red rose remains the most popular gift, three florists confirmed. Whether given as a single rose or as a bunch, the red rose is synonymous with love, which is, after all, what St Valentine's Day is all about.

Blue roses have in the past few years become extremely popular with female customers, a representative of florists Il-Qronfla told The Times. This was reiterated by Steve Amaira, who yesterday was manning the Zammit florist kiosk in Republic Street, Valletta.

Plants are also popular with clients although, according to Flower Power managing director Jason Sammut, these have not dented the popularity of red roses.

"Valentine's Day remains a flower feast," he said.

Mr Sammut said about 70 per cent of customers prefer to have their acquisition delivered while the rest want to present their gifts to their loved ones personally.

Mr Amaira said men tend to leave buying flowers for the last minute and he anticipated that today florists will be on their feet most of the time. People who want to give flowers to their loved ones personally also tend to buy them on the day so that they will be as fresh as possible.

The three florists agreed that Valentine's Day remains the most popular time of the year for people to buy flowers.

Apart from flowers, soft toys - mostly white ones carrying red hearts - are also popular, as are chocolates and jewellery.

But not all is rosy this Valentine's Day and computer users should beware of two worms that can cause heartbreak by invading their systems.

The anti-virus company Sophos is urging computer users to put their guard up against viruses disguised as Valentine's greetings. The company discovered two new viruses, one carrying the Kipis-H worm and the other the VBSWG-D worm.

The first has "Happy Valentine's Day" in its message and the second "First Love Story...!!!" and a file called FirstLove.VBS. After the worms are activated, they will automatically send themselves to all the contacts in the computer's address book, after which the second worm will shut down the computer.

A more down-to-earth connection with St Valentine are the remains of the saint that are conserved in an urn in one of the side chapels at the Balzan parish church.

Mass will be said today at 6.30 p.m. for engaged couples and those planning to get engaged and a Valentine evening will be held at the Aurora Hall, in Main Street, Balzan at 7.30 p.m. organised by the parish.

The remains of St Valentine were brought over to Malta in 1784 by Mgr Lorenzo Grech Delicata, who lived in Balzan.

Historians believe Valentine's Day started being celebrated during the Roman Empire, when February 14 was a holiday in honour of Juno, the Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses.

At that time emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers and cancelled all marriages and engagements. St Valentine defied the emperor and continued to perform marriages in secret. The emperor found out about his clandestine activity and ordered his death.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.