Choosing flowers for someone who gardens can be as intimidating as cooking for a gourmet. Don’t think that because they grow flowers, they don't like receiving them as a gift. Many gardeners hate to cut flowers from their own gardens to bring indoors; they like to see their garden full of splendor. So a gift of cut flowers or a flowering plant is a guilt free pleasure that might just inspire them to garden some more.
1. Everyone Loves Roses?
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Actually, even gardeners who don't enjoy growing roses, enjoy getting roses. Just try and think of your gardening Valentine's preferences and choose a rose that complements them. Do they avoid red flowers in their garden? If so, choose white, pink or apricot roses. Do they have an exuberant cottage style garden or a more formally maintained border. Cottage gardeners enjoy full, cabbage-like rose blossoms and tiny, but exuberant, spray roses. Long stem hybrid-tea roses are more elegant and refined.
2. Make it Personal. Acknowledge Their Inner Gardener.
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Rather than just giving her a dozen roses, give them with a rose pruner or rose cutting gloves, a beautiful vase to re-fill when her own roses come into bloom or a book on roses... They'll think of you long after the flowers have faded.
3. Break with Tradition.
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If you don't wish to go with the traditional Valentine rose, you have two options:
- Exotic hot house specimens, like Bird of Paradise or Calla Lilies and
- familiar old-fashioned favorites, like Carnations and Gladiolus.
Look for stems with one or 2 open blooms and lots of plump buds, so the display will last a week or more. You could go sophisticated and stick with 1 type of flower or color or mix up a large festive bouquet.
4. Fragrant Flowers Speak Volumes.
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Gardeners love fragrant flowers and you’d be surprised how many garden favorites have no scent at all. So delight all your Valentine’s senses by choosing flowers that fill the room with perfume. Good choices are lilies, freesia, hyacinth, jasmine, lavender and even some roses. Let your nose be your guide.
5. Give the Gift That Keeps on Giving.
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Give your Valentine a plant. No gardener would be disappointed with a plant instead of cut flowers. Many areas will still be too cold to find outdoor plants and even if you could, they’d have to be kept indoors until the weather warms. But in warmer climate, you could give a rose bush instead of a bouquet. Or consider a flowering houseplant, like an African violet or kolanchoe. Or how about an orchid plant, already in bloom, but with plenty of unopened buds to keep it in bloom for weeks to come?
