Spring Break
Not Everything Is Coming Up Roses
Emily Abbate
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Focus
The most common Valentine's Day gift, according to associatedcontent.com, is roses. In 2007, about 217 million roses were sold, according to aboutflowers.com, and delivered to all different parts of the country. These flowering red shrubs come in over 100 different species, stemming up to 5 meters when grown in the wild. Serving as tokens of love and appreciation, roses are undeniably a signature trademark of Valentine's Day. However, roses are, well - standard. When was the last time you saw someone receiving yellow carnations on Valentine's Day? Or perhaps even purple forget-me-nots? There is a range of other flower options that are both equally as beautiful, and have all different sorts of meanings.
"In Victorian times, certain flowers had specific meanings because the flower selection was limited," according to about.com. "People used more symbols and gestures to communicate than words."
With thousands of different species of flowers, there are obviously a wide variety of options for your Valentine's Day sweetheart. An appealing suggestion is a bouquet of tulips, which has a lot of different meanings associated with love. A red tulip asks the receiver for their trust and is a declaration of love, a yellow tulip infers hopeless love and a variegated tulip tells the receiver that they have beautiful eyes, according to about.com.
Another suggestion is the carnation, which also comes in a variety of colors, all of which have different meanings as well, according to about.com. Pink carnations stand for gratitude, red for flashiness, striped for refusal, white for remembrance and yellow for cheer. Chrysanthemums also come in a plethora of colors, bronze for excitement, white for truth, red for sharing and yellow meaning you have a secret admirer, according to the Web site.
However, on Valentine's Day most flower seekers are looking for a specific message to send through their bouquets.
If roses are still what you desire, you can still mix things up by changing the color as well. Pink roses infer perfect happiness, or asking your partner to believe you, tan colored roses remembrance, white roses signify innocence and purity, or telling your partner that you are worthy of them and thornless roses symbolize love at first sight. Make sure to stay away from yellow roses, which symbolize a decrease in love or jealousy, according to about.com.
"In Victorian times, certain flowers had specific meanings because the flower selection was limited," according to about.com. "People used more symbols and gestures to communicate than words."
With thousands of different species of flowers, there are obviously a wide variety of options for your Valentine's Day sweetheart. An appealing suggestion is a bouquet of tulips, which has a lot of different meanings associated with love. A red tulip asks the receiver for their trust and is a declaration of love, a yellow tulip infers hopeless love and a variegated tulip tells the receiver that they have beautiful eyes, according to about.com.
Another suggestion is the carnation, which also comes in a variety of colors, all of which have different meanings as well, according to about.com. Pink carnations stand for gratitude, red for flashiness, striped for refusal, white for remembrance and yellow for cheer. Chrysanthemums also come in a plethora of colors, bronze for excitement, white for truth, red for sharing and yellow meaning you have a secret admirer, according to the Web site.
However, on Valentine's Day most flower seekers are looking for a specific message to send through their bouquets.
If roses are still what you desire, you can still mix things up by changing the color as well. Pink roses infer perfect happiness, or asking your partner to believe you, tan colored roses remembrance, white roses signify innocence and purity, or telling your partner that you are worthy of them and thornless roses symbolize love at first sight. Make sure to stay away from yellow roses, which symbolize a decrease in love or jealousy, according to about.com.
Be the first to comment on this story