Record numbers of roses have been imported into Bahrain as romantics prepare to celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow.

More than 350,000 have been ordered to deal with the growing demand, 100,000 more than last year.

Rolanda Chocolate and Flowers owner Ahmed Malik said the Adliya store had imported its largest amount of roses yet.

He revealed while there was an overwhelming demand for traditional red roses, multi-coloured ones were also being bought.

Malik has brought black, rainbow and first edition gold-plated roses to Bahrain to feed the huge demand.

'This is the first time that gold-plated roses have been sold here and at BD25 per stem, they are particularly special,' he said.

His wife and shop manager Rola Adnan revealed a Kuwaiti had splashed out on 5,000 roses and red balloons for his wife.

He plans to decorate his entire boat with petals and spend a romantic evening on the ocean waves.

It is the same Casanova who spent BD7,500 last year on red roses to cover his house so that his wife's feet would only touch rose petals.

Rainbow roses are the new Valentine's trend, said Lamar-quise Flowers and Chocolate manager Amina Al Sherroqi.

'Rainbow roses are made up of seven colours and we are bringing more than 5,000 multi-coloured roses to sell here,' she said.

'Of course red roses are still popular but the rainbow rose is a limited edition and are being sold for BD3.5 per stem.'

One customer has ordered 100 rainbow roses for a lucky lady, while the largest order of red roses is 500.

'The man ordered that many because he wants to fill his wife's room totally in roses so that all she can see are red rose petals,' said Al Sherroqi.

Sellout

Bloom-N-Fantasy received an order for BD200 worth of crystal gifts for his Valentine.

Spa Valentine's packages have also been snapped up in the run-up to the celebration, with the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa's couples retreat offer selling out.

'The evening is completely booked out and we have sold 30 vouchers for Valentine's Day spa treatments already,' said a hotel official.

Couples will also have the unusual opportunity to express their love with one of Papa John's heart-shaped pizzas.

'This is the first time that we have introduced this idea and we are expecting a lot of customers in the run-up to Valentine's Day because of its novelty,' said area manager Mohammed Jawad.

Jewellers also reported increased sales compared with last year.

One customer splashed out BD45,000 on a yellow diamond and flawless white diamond bracelet from the Al Zain Jewellery.

Damas Jewellery brought out five new collections for Valentine's Day, with the Love Maze pendant the most popular in Bahrain.

One customer was reported to have spent BD15,000 in the company's Bahrain City Centre store on Valentine's gifts.

Gloriosa Flowers and Chocolates owner Fay Hassan was also expecting a rush of orders closer to tomorrow.

'This year we haven't started taking orders just yet, but last year we had one customer who ordered enough rose petals to fill his wife's entire bedroom,' she said.

Bahraini artist Abbas Al Mousawi is exhibiting 19 romantically-themed paintings in the shop especially for Valentine's Day and five paintings have already been snapped up.-TradeArabia News Service