Perhaps the number one gift of all times is flowers, any kind of flowers, from bouquets of long stemmed roses to potted plants. It just takes a moment or two to consider all the flowers you’ve seen as gifts in your lifetime and you will understand why they are thought to be the most commonly given gift of all times. If you doubt it, just look at the myriad of reasons for giving flowers and you could almost say they are the ‘universal gift.’ Here are the top 10 occasions for giving flowers as gifts.
1) Valentine’s Day
What would Valentine’s Day be without a box of chocolate and a bouquet of long stemmed roses? In fact, think Valentine’s Day and you think candy and roses. Is there any other popular gift on this day for lovers? Perhaps an engagement ring, but those are not nearly as common as roses.
2) Mother’s Day
Flowers have always been a traditional Mother’s Day gift. They are symbolic of beauty and nature and everything that is sunny and real. A Mother’s Day without flowers is a sad day, indeed.
3) Birthdays
Although it is more common for men to bring flowers to women on birthdays, it is no longer considered to be socially taboo for women to give the men in their lives flowers for their birthdays. Most often the selection includes the flower of the birth month, but literally any type of flower is acceptable if the flower of the month is unknown when ordering a bouquet.
4) Apology Flowers
Here again, women are not the only recipient of apology flowers. It is becoming more and more common for women to say they are sorry with the gift of flowers, often red roses just as a man would send to her if the roles were reversed.
5) Expressions of Sympathy
Few occasions even come close to being a reason for sending/giving flowers for funerals. The unfortunate fact is that everybody passes at one time or another and flowers are about the only gift which can be sent at a time like this except perhaps gifts of food for the family during their early days of grief where cooking is unimaginable.
6) Get Well Wishes
Few hospital rooms are unadorned with flowers and they are the most common get well gift of all. Lovely bouquets and potted plants are commonly given because of their bright and sunny nature. It would be interesting to trace the roots of giving flowers as get well wishes, but certainly this tradition has been going on for literally hundreds of years.
7) New Baby
Then, there is the birth of that new little bundle of joy. Flowers, being a sign of love and life, are always the perfect gift for the arrival of the newest member of the family.
8) First Date
Perhaps this is a tradition that is slowly fading away into the sunset, but there is still hope as florists recently report that more and more flowers are being ordered by young men for just this purpose. How do they know? Boys are asking what type of flowers they should be taking on that exciting first date.
9) Prom
Of course prom night calls for a different kind of flowers and generally bouquets are not what is called for. Typically the young man will order a wrist corsage or perhaps a traditional corsage, but usually these will be orchids in keeping with tradition.
10) Anniversaries
If a man forgets his anniversary, it will take more than the gift of flowers to make things right! The number one gift for anniversaries from the first to the fifty-first year is flowers.
So there you have the top ten occasions for sending flowers. However, flowers are the universal language of love so there is never an occasion that doesn’t call for a bouquet or potted plant. If you are ever at a loss for what to give, you can always give the gift of flowers and you won’t go wrong.
