The Catholic Church recognizes three different saints named Valentine. One legend suggests Valentine was a priest in Rome who disobeyed Emperor Claudius II's command that outlawed marriage for men of military age. When Valentine was discovered secretly marrying couples, he was put to death.

In another legend, Valentine was imprisoned and fell in love with the jailer's daughter, sending her a letter signed, "From your Valentine."

A variation of the story is that Valentine helped Christians escape Roman prisons where they had been beaten and tortured.

Some believe Feb. 14 was the anniversary of Valentine's death or that the church chose that day to counter the pagan holiday Lupercalia, a Roman festival dedicated to the Roman god of agriculture and the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The celebration included animal sacrifices and a marriage lottery.

Whatever the reason for choosing the date, Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 to be St. Valentine's Day around A.D. 500.

Just as there are many legends about the origin of Valentine's Day, there are also diverse ways Willow Glen residents choose to celebrate the holiday dedicated to love.

Tomato Thyme restaurant owners John and Holly Smith offer heart-shaped pizzas on Valentine's Day.

Holly said her husband's creation was popular with customers last year as a way to include their children in a Feb. 14 tradition and with customers ordering takeout.

"It gives people an option," she says. "Valentine's doesn't have to be an expensive, romantic dinner with filet mignon and candlelight."

Holly said the heart-shaped pizzas are great on Valentine's Day because they are not just for couples.

"It fills a different need," she says.

She adds that John is not only creative in the kitchen, but "he actually is really romantic."

John's idea of celebrating Valentine's Day would be to go on a mountain-biking trip and then pull out real wine glasses and a vase of flowers from his backpack, she says.

"He does things differently," she says, adding that he avoids the "cookie cutter or commercial" approach.

If pizza isn't on the menu, then for those more romantically inclined, long-stemmed roses from Ecuador exude the fragrance of sweet devotion.

"Traditionally, red roses are the standard gift," Posey Garden Florist owner Kay Wolf says. "There are lots of color options, but people always come back to the staple."

Long the subject of love lore—as in "My love is like a red, red rose," the first line of a Robert Burns' poem—the red rose comes in 11 varieties at Wolf's store, including Red Magic, Love's Story, Charlotte, and Classy. Roses there also come in yellow, pink and orange.

Since buying the business three years ago, Wolf has sold roses from Rosinvar farms near Quito, Ecuador, because of their long stems and large, long-lasting blooms. With Valentine's Day sales the biggest event of the year for Florist, Wolf wants to her customers to enjoy the holiday well past the romantic date.

"The biggest compliment I get is how long they last and that they open so beautifully," she says. "Some open right away and bloom for weeks, some don't open for three weeks."

Wolf says the secret to the flowers' longevity is that Rosinvar workers sterilize the scissors before they hand cut the flowers and they dip the stems in solution to seal them. The roses are treated like precious cargo; they are wrapped together in a surgically sterile, stainless-steel room and are refrigerated until they reach the airport. After arriving in Miami, the roses sit in pre-cooled chambers and are shipped to San Francisco. Once Wolf receives them, she cuts off the sealed stems and hydrates the flowers for 12 hours with water and flower food. It's this meticulous process that keeps the flowers fresh.

A dozen roses from Posey Garden Florist that come in a glass vase with seeded eucalyptus, tree fern, lemon grass and myrtle cost $85 and approximately $10 for delivery.

"It's an investment," she says. "But if you want the best, you should buy the best."

To ensure the roses' longevity, Wolf recommends cutting the stems every couple of days, filling the vase full with water and adding lemon-lime soda to prevent mildew.

For the people who don't want roses, Wolf has two flower-arrangement specials with a mix of snapdragons, lilies, Gerber daisies, tulips and a rose for $45 or $65.

"For guys who don't know what to order, it's the easy way to choose," she says.

Most of her customers pre-order their bouquets, but she always orders extra for last-minute shoppers.

Wolf says she was a little surprised last year that women ordered approximately 30 percent of the flowers for Valentine's Day.

With her business providing flowers for special occasions, Wolf knows several customer romance stories.

One filled a room with rose petals and scattered a trail leading up to the engagement ring, while another man orders flowers for his girlfriend regularly. If he gets in trouble in the relationship, he asks Wolf what bouquet he should send her to make amends.

"I say, 'I don't want to know what you did,'" Wolf says. "'How bad is it?'"

He tells her if it's a "little, a lot or heaps of trouble," which helps Wolf decide what size bouquet to design.

Once a male customer, who was madly in love and afraid he was going to lose his girlfriend, called Wolf for floral suggestions.

With her background in marketing, Wolf helped the man plan a series of gifts to woo the woman at the holiday season.

"We called it the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' and sent flowers, vases and candles for 12 days," she says.

The man called the last day to thank Wolf for her creative assistance and to tell her he'd become engaged.

"At some small point I helped," she says.

Though Valentine's Day is synonymous with bouquet giving, sparkling gifts are also big on the list.

Mann's Jewelers owner Merel Heggelund knows that his business has played a big role in making couples smile. And he has been doing it since 1930.

"Valentine's Day is always good for us," he says. "We sell a lot of earrings and pendants."

His store is offering a diamond pendant with ¹/4 carat of baguette-cut diamonds for $99 and a $50 clearance of selected rings.

"People give everything," Heggelund says. "People buy 3-carat stones without settings."

He notes that not as many people get engaged around Valentine's Day as during the holiday season. But he added he does get insight into a relationship when people personalize their jewelry with an engraving.

"With rings, we get inside jokes, names of kids and 'Don't lose this,'" he says.

Jewelry has also crept into D'Anna's Gifts and Flowers business. Co-owner Marie Maxwell says she almost panicked about losing an engagement ring when one customer sent it in the envelope to be included with a flower delivery.

Her business sells flowers, European dish gardens—live plants in a basket—and custom gourmet-food baskets for Valentine's Day.

Dana Parker, Maxwell's daughter, who runs the store with her mother, said customers like the food baskets because "they're something unusual and you can personalize it."

A $40 basket contains a Bargetto wine, Monterey Bay Chocolates, chai latte, honey, roasted coffee and dips. An $80 basket contains three wines, coffees, white chocolate popcorn and almonds, guava jam and beverage coasters.

And for those who want a little sugar and spice for the holiday, Dick's Bakery creates heart-shaped cakes, pink heart cookies and its popular burnt-almond cake.

Clarence Sota, who owns the bakery with his brother, Dick, has been in the business since 1947 and calls his place "a real, old-fashioned bakery."

Besides cheesecakes, cupcakes, cookies, rolls, Danishes and cakes, Sota bakes sheet cakes for special orders.

The burnt-almond cake consists of white and chocolate marble cake with burnt almonds atop custard frosting and comes in heart shapes for Valentine's Day.

"More people come around holidays," Sota says. "You can go to any store and buy chocolates. But not many bakeries truly bake from scratch."

While most present-day Valentine's celebrations revolve around food, flowers, gifts and spending time with that special someone, not everyone follows tradition. Especially when everyone else is going out on the same day.

"My husband and I got tired of the packed restaurants and fixed prices, so we go out for dinner a week early," Susannah Pfalzer says.

Because her boyfriend has to work on Feb. 14, Felicia Borrego made plans with her girlfriends to go to the San Francisco Ballet on Valentine's Day.

Oliver Herning, who is single, says he planned to invite all his single friends to commiserate.

"We're like the Lonely Hearts Club," Herning says, "sitting on the patio and talking about love and love lost. Everyone who doesn't have one is looking for one."

And Connie Schlechter, who became engaged in November 2003, says she has no idea what to expect.

"He has some surprise planned," she says. "He'll tell me the day before what to wear."

Tomato Thyme is located at 1560 Hamilton Ave. and can be reached at 408.723.7333. Posey Garden Florist is located at 1213 Lincoln Ave. Suite 108 and can be reached at 408.286.8106. Mann's Jewelers is located at 1347 Lincoln Ave. and can be reached at408.287.7858. D'Anna's Gifts and Flowers is located at 1712 Meridian Ave. and can be reached at 408.723.7111. Dick's Bakery is located at 1593 Meridian Ave. and can be reached at 408.269.5212.