Ah, another Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. What to give,
what to give? Why not consider the old traditional approach and say
it with flowers?
Ah, another Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. What to give, what to give? Why not consider the old traditional approach and say it with flowers?
You can go out and pay a high price for a dozen red roses – red is the color of love, after all. But long-stem roses are extremely pricey every Valentine’s Day for two reasons. One, growers and florists want to make a little extra money. Two, Valentine’s Day falls less than 60 days after Christmas, and it’s just too cold and too soon for growers to catch up to demand.
While a dozen long-stem red roses may be the traditional romantic gift, you can be different and save money all at the same time by being a little creative. For instance, instead of cut roses that last little more than a week, why not consider an entire rose plant? This is the perfect time, too, since it’s bare-root rose season. This translates to a great selection and cheap prices. Bare-roots are plants sold in the dormant stage without soil and containers. Because of this, you can save from $2 to $5 per plant by buying roses now.
Of course, I’ll be the first to admit that a bare-root rose plant doesn’t exactly look very romantic. All it is are a few bare stems and roots. But then, you can always offer to plant it, too. Besides roses, a number of other deciduous plants are sold in the bare-root stage. These include fruit and nut trees, some shade trees, grapes, strawberries, artichokes and more. Planting a strawberry jar up with two dozen strawberry plants would be a welcome gift for anybody.
If you don’t know what a strawberry jar is, it’s normally a terra cotta pot with pockets surrounding the outside. You can get strawberry jars with six pockets or you can get them with 12 or more pockets. Plant a bare-root strawberry plant in each pocket, plus a few at the top. Just make sure to use packaged potting soil rather than regular dirt.
Other possibilities include citrus, camellias and traditional flowering potted plants. Citrus trees like oranges, lemons and grapefruit look great when planted in a container with a bright red bow. Dwarf citrus will stay under 6 feet and can live in containers forever. Many varieties of camellias are also blooming now. You can pot those up in containers or plant them in the garden for color.
Traditional flowering potted plants include azaleas, chrysanthemums, kalanchoe and cyclamen at nurseries and grocery stores. These are greenhouse-grown plants that are in full bloom. All come in shades of Valentine’s Day red or any other color you prefer.
If you’re bound and determined to give cut roses, remember, too, that just a few flowers or even a single bloom can make a nice arrangement – particularly if they’re combined with ferns, baby’s breath or spring flowers.
