Cut Flowers or Potted Plants

            Cut flowers have always seemed to me to be the most perverse sort of gift to give someone as an expression of undying love.  Such a bouquet is already dead.  They have been separated from the root of the mother plant and the nourishment it provides.  Their appearance of life and vigor is brought about by purely artificial means.  Any pleasure these kinds of flowers can give is short-lived with no hope of renewal.

            Certainly a vase of roses is beautiful … for a time, but after a week or two their lives are spent.  The fate that awaits them is one of wilting completely out of shape and rotting, or if extra care is taken they dry into a stiff, fragile, slowly disintegrating mockery of their original beauty.  Should love or a relationship really be compared to the tragic existence of cut flowers?

            By comparison, potted plants are a much healthier kind of gift and a much more accurate symbol of love.  It is not that a potted plant cannot die, but it is still alive and has the chance to grow and thrive and become more beautiful.  Sustenance can be taken in by its roots to feed it.  Leaves continue to grow and replace themselves keeping the little plant covered with daily evidence of life.  Long-lasting flowers bloom in abundance when the proper conditions are present, and their loss is not as sad because there is hope that they may return again to brighten their bearer’s countenance.

            However, a potted plant requires regular attention and care.  It takes work if you wish for it to thrive, but any effort made is repaid tenfold by its continued health.  While the little plant may grow and change in the normal cycle of life its presence remains ever constant and faithful to its caregiver.  If it was given as a gift every glimpse of it is a reminder to the viewer of the one who gave it.

            All melodrama aside, I’m not saying that cut flowers are a bad gift.  If you or the person to whom you are giving them likes them, then “more power to ya” as the saying goes.  I personally would much rather receive a living plant since (honestly) I think too much and the symbolic meaning of such a gift would never be far from my mind.

            To sum up: Hey!  All you guys out there!  It’s Valentine’s Day today – so for pity’s sake don’t forget the flowers and the chocolate … and the card!!!  If she’s happy, then you will be happy my friend!