So, I took the easy route: I simply contacted the same national florist delivery service that was used 6 years ago, got a callback from Tina at Coast to Coast Florist, and lo and behold, we're all set!!

SO, here's the deal: Coast-to-Coast Florist is gonna give us the same special pricing that they gave for the Boxer campaign: Just $10 to send 3 roses direct to Speaker Pelosi's Washington D.C. office!

To add your order, simply call: 1 866 596 1860. You can send more than 3 roses, but it's a flat $10 per batch of 3. They'll take your name and credit card info, and you'll be all set.

They can take orders right up through this evening. All roses will be delivered to her D.C. office on Friday, as a combination Thank You/Happy Birthday from those of us who admire her amazing accomplishment in pulling this thing off.

To help spread the word, link back to this diary, or to the official link on Coast to Coast's website.

Other ways to say thanks:

Join the facebook group wishing Speaker Pelosi a happy birthday and thanking her for healthcare reform. (Must log in after following link.)

Write her a thank you note.

Donate money to her reelection fund.

Donate to other tight-race candidates that supported HCR.

To answer some of the FAQs:

--The campaign has blossomed (pun intended) to more than 1,900 roses in just 3 days. I've been posting updates as new numbers come in, and will try to do so throughout the day.

--No, I don't have any specific target in mind. As a point of comparison, the Sen. Boxer campaign ended up with over 4,500 roses being sent, but they also had a full 2 weeks; we have 4 days, so there's no "competition" going on. As many as people want to send, I guess.

--The delivery of the roses has been all arranged for and confirmed by Coast to Coast's D.C. associate, Conklyn's of Alexandria, VA. They also happen to be the same florist that handles all of the Pentagon's accounts, so this should be in good hands.

--Yes, I'm well aware that the roses won't last forever. In Sen. Boxer's case, she ended up donating them to the wounded soldiers at Bethesda and Walter Reed. I don't know exactly what Speaker Pelosi will do with a couple thousand roses, but I presume it'll be something along those lines.

--I'm thinking over how to word the card, and will be finalizing it with my contact at Coast to Coast later on today. We both figured I should wait until we had a better idea of just how many roses there would be before deciding on the wording!

--Speaker Pelosi's staff does know all about it; I couldn't expect her staff to just have something like this dumped on them with no warning; they do have jobs to do and everything...

--I'm quite certain that the Speaker knows about it as well; it was originally supposed to be a surprise for her, but come on, it's the age of Twitter and this is a viral online campaign.

--I couldn't verify whether or not Pelosi will actually be there for the delivery, but I'm sure her staff will do their best. There's no way she's gonna leave D.C. before this Senate reconciliation business is done with anyway, so she should be around.

--Yes, some people have started contacting some press contacts. I have no idea how much coverage there will be, but I would think that the media would be all over it once they get ahold of the story; it'd make great TV to have pics of Speaker Pelosi surrounded by a zillion roses. They love that stuff. Plus, of course, it'd be fantastic PR for not just Pelosi, but the HCR law as well as the Dems in general to show the strong support they all have out here.

--Plus, as noted in the title of this diary, this sort of positive PR is even stronger when contrasted with the hate-filled, nasty death threats and bricks being thrown through windows by the wingnuts.

They throw rocks. We send roses. The contrast couldn't be clearer.

--Coast to Coast has made arrangements to accept orders 24 hours a day through this evening, so you can call in your order any time between now and then! I think they're cutting it off at around 9pm, but I'll double-check to be sure.

--No, you can't use PayPal for this particular campaign. Again, I'd just call them up at 1 866 596 1860.

--If you want an order receipt just ask for one when you place your order and they'll email it to you.

--Many people have pointed out that, as nice as roses on her birthday are, donating to her campaign would be a more practical/useful thing to do with our money, I say this: Yes, you're probably correct, and yes, I strongly urge people to also donate to her re-election fund--or to other deserving candidates--but it never hurts to also show a non-financial gesture of thanks to someone who's doing their job well.

--I should also call attention to Steven D's diary, which goes into the back story about just how much credit Speaker Pelosi deserves for this victory. I don't agree with every decision that she's made--in fact, I've strongly disagreed with her on many issues. HOWEVER, given what an unholy mess the whole HCR process had become, and given the realities of where things were at both politically and procedurally, it's absolutely astonishing that she pulled this off, and she should be commended heartily for doing so.

--There was a poll yesterday about whether to keep pushing for as many roses as possible to get the biggest PR benefit, or to wind the thing down as "point made" in favor of more "practical" donations like swing-district candidate campaign funds and so forth. The "push for as many roses as you can!" choice won handily with 80% of the vote, so there it is. It ends tonight anyway, so let's have fun with it!

Update: Over 2,000 roses as of 9:30am!

Action Alert: OK, I guess the next logical step here would be to see about some actual media coverage! I was actually contacted by someone from Pelosi's office yesterday to get some details about the flower delivery, but to be honest, I have no idea whether they plan on doing any direct media contact themselves; they didn't commit to anything specific. Perhaps they figured it would be best if that sort of thing is handled at our end, to maintain the true grassroots (or flower roots?) nature of this thing (and perhaps that's for the best anyway).

Soooooo...if anyone out there wants to make a few calls or send a few emails to the appropriate contacts, please feel free to do so. I don't have an exact delivery time beyond "Friday morning" yet, but will let you know if I hear anything more specific. It's conceivable that with the security concerns of the past few days, that sort of info might not be made available.

Update x2: I just wanted to repost a fantastic comment from G2geek below that nicely sumarizes the difference between the two parties (or at least between the two ideologies):

By this time Stupak has realized a few things: Many of his supporters are worse than fair-weather friends, some of them are two-faced rabid monsters who know no boundaries of decency, or even the boundaries of the law. His opponents here on the progressive side can cuss up a storm and threaten to have him primaried back to the private sector, but we do not threaten violence against public officials. We'll protect and stand up for anyone, even someone we ferociously disagree with, if they are threatened with violence. If someone published a hit message on Boner or any of the most recalcitrant Republicans in the pack, we'd be helping the FBI find out who they were and get them arrested. This is the difference between politics as a contact sport between teams that play by the rules, and politics as a blood feud where there are no rules.

Update x3: OK, I've started working on the wording of the note/card. I've posted a poll to see if there's any consensus on what general direction to take...

To be honest, the biggest thing I can't decide on is whether to direct it towards her and her alone, or to also include some mention of the other 218 members of the Democratic House Caucus who voted Yes as well. Certainly they deserve some recognition as well, but perhaps that should be inherently understood already with this gesture?

Update x4: Over 2,100 roses!

Update x5: The official cut-off time for placing your order is tonight at 10:00pm EST.

Update x6: Several people have reported their calls being routed to the wrong florist ("Beneva" is Coast to Coast's sister company). It sounds like their phone lines are being overwhelmed, and may have some sort of automatic routing switch thing that takes you to an alternate florist after a certain amount of time on hold. So, it's possible that you may end up getting a florist who doesn't know anything about this campaign.

I've alerted Coast to Coast about the issue and will let you know what they say; meanwhile, my recommendation is to try again a bit later.

OK, I just heard back:

Our phone system went down for 20 minutes but calls where still ringing in. We are back up and working fine now, it was an internet issue.

Update x7: OK, looks like the diary is about to fall off the Rec radar. If someone wants to repost it, I'll be happy to direct people towards it to hopefully keep this listed throughout the day.

(And yes, I'm well aware that there are other, more important stories going on today that could use exposure--mostly about the lunatics threatening Dem members of Congress--but this campaign is at least diametrically connected with those stories. Besides, this campaign will be over tomorrow.)

Update x8: Y'know, yesterday--and in a few comments today--there were a few people who griped about how this is a waste of money/time/effort/flowers/etc, and that we should donate the same $10 to a tight-race Democratic campaign, or the DCCC, or a charity, or (fill in the blank here). My response to that is: Fine, then do so. I've included several alternate links, and many of us are doing both. One doesn't preclude the other. However, let me ask you this: Have YOU ever spent money on flowers for someone? Or gone to the movies? Or bought a friggin' cheeseburger? If so, how come YOU didn't donate that money to charity/a deserving campaign/whatever? In other words, stop telling other people what they SHOULD do with their money. If people want to buy 3 flowers, or 300, or 3,000, or 3 million for Speaker Pelosi (or the other Dems who voted for the HCR bill, or their wives/girlfriends/mothers/daughters), that's their call to make. As for the flowers being "wasted", as noted repeatedly, Sen. Boxer donated her Valentine's Day roses (all 4,500 of them) to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and Bethesda--I presume Pelosi will do something similar. Besides, if we're able to get some decent press coverage, it could be worth far more in positive PR than the money spent on the flowers--which, by the way, is going to help small businesses in Florida and DC, I should remind you. That is all.

Update x9: Well, in addition to being picked up by perhaps a dozen blogs (mostly comments within blog stories, but still), I found this amusing quip from Roll Call's "Heard on the Hill" (subscription required for the whole story, but I think we can guess the gist):