'Operation Rose' - hundreds of surprise roses given out to Eden community

But not for Jasmine Fleet from The Little Bouquet Merimbula on the Far South Coast.

"It was quite incredible, Valentine's Day as you can imagine is one of our busiest days as it is and we were already at capacity when Debbie Meers from Cruise Eden contacted us and I thought there's no way I can pull this off," Ms Fleet said.

Motivated to give the guests the best possible experience of the Sapphire Coast and make the impossible possible, Ms Fleet proceeded to "move mountains to make it happen", contacting her wholesaler to see if anything could be arranged.

"We're a small family business and my wholesaler is a third generation family business, then there's the growers that are a second generation Australian family business too, so this order helped out so many Australian families," she said.

Fast forward to the morning of Valentine's Day the 480 roses arrived at the Port of Eden, carefully wrapped and put together after hours of work by Little Bouquet's apprentices Marlee Ahmat and Bella Fleet.

Unfortunately the weather had other plans and despite the ship's two attempts to come into port at Snug Cove, the passengers and crew were forced to re-route for Sydney instead.

With the perfectly prepared roses left behind and no options of transporting them to Sydney, an idea blossomed that not only surprised people but touched the hearts of many within the community - its nickname 'operation rose'.

Cruise Eden manager Debbie Meers said it was eventually decided that the roses would be delivered to people who volunteered their time and contributed to the community from behind the scenes.

Ms Meers proceeded to deliver the single roses herself, going out to Imlay House the nursing home in Eden, to the teachers at Eden Marine High School and Eden Public School, to the volunteers at the Eden Whale Museum, the Eden op shop, volunteers at the Wharf, members of the Water Police and sending off boxes with roses to the local hospitals as well.

"It was wonderful to be able to spread the love and while it was very unfortunate the roses didn't get to be presented to our lovely guests, the gesture really touched our community," Ms Meers said.

"There were 480 smiles that wouldn't have happened yesterday if it weren't for these roses, I couldn't believe the smiles there were on the day and I was just honoured to have been a part of that process."

Ms Meers said the fact the cruise ship sourced the flowers from the Little Bouquet, was a brilliant gesture to support local business, that not only helped the Little Bouquet connect with the cruise industry, but helped showcase the fabulous Australian owned growers and wholesalers.

Ms Meers also commended Ms Fleet and her team for having successfully completed the last minute order.

"She moved mountains to make it happen and I think it's important to acknowledge that," she said.

Looking back on the day Ms Fleet said it was incredible to think what a single red rose could do to make someone's day and how a gesture like this could leave such a heartwarming effect on the community.

"The amount of hours that went into the presentation of the roses, the efforts put in by our wholesaler and growers, and the amazing work Debbie Meers does to support the cruise ships and her local community, just blew me away," she said.

"It was just amazing and a heart warming result on the whole."