QUEENSLAND commercial rose grower Stephen Spierling has more riding on Valentine's Day than most men.
The veteran flower farmer lost everything last January when a wall of water destroyed his Lockyer Cut Flower operation at Grantham, and he needs a bumper Valentine's Day to help his business blossom again.
When the floodwaters hit the 1.2-hecatre property they destroyed everything in their path. Stephen lost his high-tech greenhouses, his plants and most of his growing equipment.
And because his property was deemed 'flood-free', many of the neighbours had parked their equipment, quad bikes and mowers in his shed too.
Stephen and his family had been growing flowers on the property for 18 years, but he knew there was no way he could ever ask his family to return to the region where 12 people died.
"I was stuck on the Toowoomba range, one daughter was with friends and was safe and another daughter was in Gatton, but my wife and our other three kids were at home," Stephen said.
"The only warning they had was a neighbour came running in screaming, 'Get the (expletive) out - there's water coming!'
"They sought shelter on the railway line, thinking they'd be safe, and then this wall of water just came towards them. They ran one kilometre to escape it, but had to watch as people floated by calling for help.
"When you put all those memories together there's no way we could return."
So Stephen put his retirement plan into action - many years earlier than he had intended.
Following the floods he moved his business and his family to a property he had bought years earlier at Mt Sylvia. The elevated property, with scenic views, was going to be the place Stephen and his wife retired.
Instead he's built a new 0.4ha greenhouse and has re-established his business there. Second time around he's taking a different approach.
He's only growing red roses - which fetch the most money on Valentine's Day - and he's gone 'low-tech'.
No more expensive climate-controlled growing systems, no 'bigger is better' approach. Stephen will grow only the plants he can fit in one greenhouse, relying on the natural climate.
"I've gone back to how roses were grown 15 years ago," he said.
"I used to be able to pick 365 days a year using automated heating, now I will only be picking from October to June. The plants will go dormant after that and I will prune back.
"My cost of production is low and the main reason I have gone only for red roses is that they are the most profitable at Valentine's Day; coloured roses only bring half the price.
"There's a lot of opportunity to run the business in a different way... you can't sit on your bum and worry about what happened in the past, you have to try and set yourself up in a smarter business."
Over the past year Stephen has been sustained by some insurance money and by the proceeds of a crop of Statice he grew on leased land, but admits he's hoping for a very good Valentine's Day.
He has forward sold about 70 per cent of his crop to wholesalers he has been trading with for 18 years.
Aside from the challenges of recovering from the floods, Stephen said the industry also faces competition from cheap foreign imports.
He said flowers grown in Africa, using cheap labour, have the potential to flood the Australian market and depress prices, and there are no labelling laws requiring retailers to advertise the origin of the flowers they are selling.
He reckoned about 90pc of the flowers sold in chain stores are imported.
But Stephen warns imported flowers are devitalised and fumigated which affects their shelf life.
"There is a place for imports on Valentine's Day because Australia can't grow enough red roses," he said. "But it needs to be a level playing field.
"There are no tariffs on imports and most of the roses come from Africa where wages are extremely cheap and growing conditions are perfect."
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