Business Notes

Being stationed in the gulf doesn't mean you can't send Valentine's Day flowers back home. Several hundred servicemen have placed orders with Calyx & Corolla, an innovative mail-order flower company in San Francisco. The troops get a 20% Valentine's discount.

Under founder and president Ruth Owades, the three-year-old company has reached sales of $10 million. By contracting directly with 25 domestic and four foreign growers and teaming up with Federal Express, Owades cuts out wholesalers and retailers, guaranteeing that flowers or plants can be delivered within 48 hours and trimming costs as much as 15%. Customers of Calyx & Corolla -- the name refers to the outer and inner parts of a flower -- receive six catalogs a year, offering arrangements ranging from $25 (nine Enchantment Lilies) to $450 (a year's worth of orchids).