Meet the man who spreads love, one rose at a time

He’s Cupid with a Santa Claus beard.

Brian McGee looks more like a diet-conscious St. Nick with his fluffy white beard than he does the Roman god of love. But for at least two nights every week, he emulates Eros, using long-stemmed roses instead of arrows to spread love.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, McGee travels from restaurant to bar to restaurant to bar, offering diners and revelers the chance to show their love to someone else with the purchase of a rose.

The Garretson resident increased his appearances to three or four nights out in the weeks preceding Valentine’s Day, knowing more people take the chance to dine out with a loved one. He likely will stay home on the actual night itself, though, since Tuesdays — even holiday Tuesdays — make it difficult to obtain roses from his supplier. He would have to order overnight delivery, increasing his costs.

He feels a bit of regret for not going out for Valentine’s Day, if for no other reason than seeing human nature in action. Selling roses for 30 years — off and on — has given McGee insight into human interaction.

For instance, he wants all young men to know this: Never ask your special someone if they want you to purchase a rose. Just go ahead and buy it.

“The young men, they don’t know they’re not supposed to ask their lady,” McGee said. “I lose more sales that way. If they say, ‘Hey, you want a rose?’ I’ll try to interject: ‘She’ll say no, but she really wants one.’ They’ll go, ‘She doesn’t want one.’”

McGee doesn’t push young men into buying roses because it benefits him financially, although that is how he makes a living. He sells roses to bring a little romance into people’s lives.

McGee started selling roses about 30 years ago when he was a missionary and needed to raise funds. He has kept doing it because a regular job in the 8-to-5 business world holds no interest for him whatsoever.

While he has supplemented his income with other jobs such as delivering food through DoorDash, McGee returned to roses when he moved to the Sioux Falls area about two years ago. He had moved from Michigan to New Jersey, joining family there, before the pandemic, but the lockdowns in both states meant he needed to find somewhere else to live. He chose South Dakota as the freest of all states opposed to lockdowns, and Sioux Falls appeared to be large enough to support his rose sales.

Amera McGee, the youngest of his three daughters, joined him in May.

He started contacting restaurant and bar owners shortly after he arrived and was surprised — pleasantly — at how many were willing to let him go from table to table offering his roses.

Although technically McGee could be described as a salesman, he doesn’t see himself that way. Instead, he uses the skills honed by years in theatrical productions and a natural wit to offer people something they may not think they need but, in fact, truly want.

“You learn about being connected to all kinds of people,” McGee said. “You learn to be congenial. I have a good sense of humor; hopefully I’m witty sometimes.”

He also has learned not to take rejection personally. Most people say no at his roses with kindness. A previous experience also taught him never to make assumptions and to never skip a table just because he doesn’t think anyone there will want a rose.

“Once in a while, it’s four guys sitting there, and they’ll go, ‘We’re four guys sitting here,’ and I say it doesn’t matter, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sold roses to four guys,” McGee said.

“And one time, I had these lollipops, like for a dollar. A guy that was a total bum, sitting there in the chicken place, sitting there, filthy, and I didn’t ask him. He looked like a guy sitting on streets asking for money. He said, ‘Hey, weren’t you going to ask me?’”

So McGee asked. And the man pulled out a wad of cash and bought the entire box of lollipops.

“I learned my lesson on that day,” McGee said. “You can’t judge people by how they look. You never know what their life is really like.”

McGee offers roses in a rainbow of colors because it’s impossible to predict what someone will like.

“It’s whichever one the women like, and women always change their mind,” McGee said. “It’s a funny thing. You know differences between men and women really well after awhile. Lot of times, women will tell their guy ‘You choose it,’ and I’ll go, ‘Now you’re in trouble.’ They’ll go, ‘I know; now she’s testing me.’”

One thing he can predict: A woman is more likely to choose a rose that hasn’t unfurled, while a man will select a rose that displays its petals.

On a night he’s selling roses, McGee will leave his home in Garretson about 5 p.m. and make several stops at Brandon restaurants. Then, he heads to Sioux Falls to make his rounds of the restaurants and bars where he knows he’s welcome. McGee usually visits restaurants earlier in the evening, maybe returning once later on. He saves what he calls the “hangout busy bars” for later at night.

Not only was McGee surprised at how many businesses are willing to let him go table to table but how generous people can be. In 20 years in Michigan, he rarely encountered someone who wanted to buy an entire bucket of roses. In Sioux Falls, that happens more often.

“I can’t even tell you the last two years how many times I sold the whole bucket. Sometimes once a weekend, somebody will buy the whole thing, and they’ll pass them out to people in the bar or wherever,” McGee said.

Another evening, a woman gave him $100 for the roses in his bucket. Rather than take the flowers, she told McGee to continue selling them so he could double his income.

That came in handy because McGee relies solely on the sale of 125 roses a night to support himself. When he can’t work on a Friday or Saturday — December’s freezing temperatures were too cold for fragile roses — he has no income. Another activity also kept him from his rounds in December. McGee appeared on stage in the Lights Up Productions show “Prince of Peace.”

When roses don’t sell, he takes them home and tries to find someone in Garretson who will appreciate them. Daughter Amera doesn’t mind that he gives them away because she’s not a big fan of the flower.

“I’m not a real rose person. They’re pretty, but I like them as a bush,” she confessed. “I like them in the ground.”

“She doesn’t care about the roses, but she works real hard for me,” McGee said.

Since roses are his income, McGee too sometimes has to stop and realize just how beautiful they are. That beauty allows him to lead the life he wants to live, even if it keeps him far away from his wife, two older daughters and two grandchildren who now live in Maryland.

Roses, that symbol of love, let him lead the life McGee loves.

“It’s been my life as far as work goes. I did it because I knew I could,” McGee said. “Over the years, I tried to find another business. I tried multilevel marketing, different things. I just couldn’t put myself into it. I just didn’t care that much about money. I care about people, and I care about just, you know, life, people in general.”