Sending Flowers to Your Man

Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us and thoughts are turning to gifts for our loved one. Flowers are always a popular choice, and the relationship between flowers and love goes back thousands of years.

In the Song of Songs, the rose and the lily are used as symbols of love. Shakespeare referred to flowers more than one hundred times, most often in the context of love plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Greek mythology, in Japanese traditional culture and in every country today with its national symbols, plants and flowers have been given meaning.

The language of flowers became very popular during the Victorian era in England and America, coinciding with the growing interest in botany and plant hunting, and as a response to the restrictions on expressing emotions in Victorian society. Both men and women exchanged messages using “tussie-mussies” or “talking bouquets” of mixed flowers that could be “read” by the recipient.

Today, however, the giving of flowers is very much one-way. Women receive flowers on a regular basis, from lovers, family and friends, yet very few men ever get given flowers. But why not? They’re beautiful, they instantly cheer up a room, they let him know you’re thinking of him, and they’ll bring a smile to his face.

Of course, you need to select your flowers very carefully, not pink, not too feminine, or maybe a living plant would be better. Choose vibrant colours, exotic blooms, angular arrangements. Dress up a practical gift with flowers. One car mechanic delighted in receiving a set of wrenches artfully secured inside a bouquet of daisies and carnations. A single red rose sent by a wife to her husband at work inspired admiration, as well as envy, from his colleagues. Or try attaching February snowdrops, with their meaning of "new beginnings", to your gift of Genus Gardening Trousers for Men.

So go on ladies, be brave, send flowers to your man this Valentine's Day.