Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Valentine's Day Roses

This article was excerpted from the
Society of American Florist's website (SAF)

A Rose Revolution
A rose is a rose is a rose - or is it? The 1990s spawned a virtual baby boom of rose varieties. Today, close to 120 rose varieties are commercially available.

Trend tracker and SAF floral consultant Denise Lee calls it “a rose revolution."

Roses are red, and pink and yellow and...
Red still reigns as the all-time favourite rose colour, especially among men. However, 62% of women prefer other hues, such as yellow, pink, peach and white. Lavender and orange are also emerging favourites.

Expanding families of colour
The new rose varieties also have enhanced characteristics like bloom size, shape, stem length and strength of fragrance. The SAF offers the following colour guide.

Red:
From bright raspberry to majestic scarlet, velvety-dark red to orange-kissed hues.

Pink:
Traditional bridal pinks and hip hot pinks, plus peaches, apricots, corals and lavenders.

Yellow:
Crisp lemon, buttery hues, golden yellows or trendy two-tones – yellow roses, men’s second favourite, cover a broad spectrum of color and appeal.

White:
Shades of white - ultra white, ivory, champagne - are lovely for weddings and romantic settings, and easy complements to elegant home decors.

"Roses are like fine wines, a delight to be savoured and cultivated," says Lee. "Like an expanding wine cellar, florists' coolers are now stocked with more choices worth learning about."

4 comments:

Dale Savage said...

Hi Karine,

I was looking online for a florist to deliver some get well flowers to a friend who lives near the old port, and I came across your blog and the flower pot website.

Thanks for some interesting sidelights on flowers.

(I'm partial to orchids, myself. I used to be a SITES certified orchid collector in the wild some many years ago!)

By the way... if I were in Montreal and my friend weren't so sick at the moment, I think I would go for the $50 worth of rose petals and chocolates!

I'll try to call in the morning and see if you can deliver some flowers for me tomorrow.

ciao,

Dale in Tucson

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I just dropped by and was going through your site.

I was just wondering what is it about roses? Why do women favour them so much, especially on Valentine's Day? There are so many other flowers that a man could send a woman on February 14th.

Is it the smell of roses? The colour? The shape?

Noor Sobhan said...

Here is what I think about the questions anonymous raises regarding roses and Valentines day. Roses have traditionally been associated with love, so the link between expressing love and giving a rose is old and embedded in our culture. What kind of rose you send and even how many expresses a symbolic language. So, red means love, whereas lighter colors can have less romantic associations. That is why, in my opinion, most women prefer to get roses, especially red roses, on a day that is supposed to be about love. So, unfortunately, even if there are other far more beautiful, or nicer smelling flowers, the rose sticks to Valentines day.

These traditions are a little old to change easily, but not everyone sticks to convention! I helped with deliveries last Valentine's day, and I don't believe I saw that many orders with other colored roses. But there were a few bouquets with other flowers, and in some cases floral arrangements that have tropical flowers. I say, you send what you feel expresses your emotions the best. So if the woman in your life is partial to sunflowers, hey, make it a sunflowers valentine!

Florist Education said...

Hi, this is interesting information about roses. It is perfect content for florist education too. Hopefully budding florists in floral schools receive this info. Thanks for sharing.