*By Lauren Babbage*
Mother's Day is just a few days away, and while you may be scrambling for a last-minute gift, the floral industry has been preparing for months.
"We'll deliver over 12 million stems of flowers. We'll deliver over 150,000 different plants this weekend, said Chris McCann, the CEO of 1-800-Flowers. "Look, mom is important business and if you don't recognize mom on Mother's Day you're going to have a tough year."
Mother's Day, which is on Sunday, May 13, is 1-800-Flowers biggest holiday. Keeping up with certain floral trends this year, the bouquet-on-demand brand is going beyond just tulips and daisies and expanding into succulents, for between $60 and $80.
"We're having a hard time keeping the succulents in inventory." McCann said.
Moms don't just love flowers and plants. 1-800-Flowers' gourmet food business accounts for about 60 percent of annual revenue. McCann said both divisions the company will create more than 20 million gifts per year.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-blooming-business-of-mothers-day).
Tech apprenticeship platform Multiverse became a unicorn with a $1.7 billion valuation, after raising $220 million in a Series D round. As companies across the country face challenges in hiring and retaining tech talent, Multiverse says it's trying to offer a solution with a new way to train and hire workers that can serve as an alternative to college and corporate training. Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America of Multiverse, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cheddar's Kristen Scholer caught up with all-time NBA great Shaquille O'Neal in his hometown of Newark, NJ, working with Icy Hot to repair rundown basketball courts around the country. The Hall of Famer also spoke about the current NBA finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors and had a lot of praise for the Warrior's guard Stephen Curry. "He's the greatest shooter of all time. I had a conversation with Stephen A. [Smith], where does he rank? He's a special player. He has his own category," Shaq said.
On this episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Gemma Burgess, CEO of Ferguson Partners, explains what people are looking for in an employer, and how to convey positive work culture to potential employees; Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, breaks down how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home; Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, discusses Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, joins Cheddar to discuss Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
