5 Unexpected Holidays Perfect for Flowers!

We all know that Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Easter are great excuses to fill the house with fresh flowers. We have also seen quite a bit of interest in flowers for occasions like graduation and Halloween, recently … with some very inventive flower bouquets available out there! We may be a little biased, but we think that there are plenty more holidays out there that are worth giving flowers for. What month or week of the year can't be brightened up with some sweet scents and bright colors? Not many, as we're about to find out!

January 11 -- Secret Pal Day

You don't have to give flowers to a person whose friendship with you is a secret today. Just enjoy the fun of sending flowers to a friend … when they have no idea who it is! If you're doing this to someone in your workplace or home, you'll need to practice keeping a straight face for quite a while before hand.

January 31 -- Backwards Day

If you are in a romantic relationship, and your man is usually the one to buy you flowers, today is the perfect day of the year to turn it all upside down! Or perhaps, backwards…Guys love flowers too, and there are plenty of masculine flower bouquets to choose from, especially in the Teleflora range. If you just can’t bring yourself to buy him a bunch of pretty petals, a plant and herb display is just as effective.

February 1 -- Wear Red Day

You don't actually have to wear red … just give something red! Red roses are not the only flower to use in your bouquet on this fun day -- there are red carnations, Asiatic lilies, asters, camellias … and the limit is your imagination.

February 11 -- Satisfied Staying Single Day

If you are the one who is satisfied staying single, then get yourself a flower delivery … you know you deserve it! If you have a friend that is happily single -- or even if they would really rather be with someone -- get them a bunch of flowers today and make them feel special, loved and wanted.

February 15 -- Family Day

Whether you live in the same house as them or not, if you have family members that you haven’t spoken to in a while, today is a great excuse to buy them a bunch of flowers and put yourself front and center in their minds again.

Florists' Favorite Flowers for … Congratulations!

So many people only think to send flowers at sad occasions … funerals, illnesses and hospitalizations -- and when they're trying to get out of the dog house! Flowers are such a joyful gift that it seems a shame to relegate them only to negative experiences in life. They are a wonderful way to say "congratulations" as well -- today we are looking at some of a florist's favorite ways to say "Great job!"

The tall equisetum stalks in this flower bouquet echo those arms, outstretched to the sky, saying "Yeah! I did it!" It's wonderful for congratulating friends and family on any job well done. The bouquet include purple dendribium orchids, burgundy and chartreuse assorted blossoms, equisetum stalks as well as leaves and moss. It is almost two feet tall!

The Blue Horizons bouquet expresses all the crisp clarity that you feel when you have achieved a goal -- refreshingly graceful. It is also exceptionally appropriate for friends or relatives who have given birth to a baby boy. The dark blue iris contrast wonderfully with the Asiatic lilies and other white and blue blossoms and greenery.

This Sunny Smiles flower bouquet comes in two versions, the Standard and Deluxe. The Standard version is pictured, and we think that the simplicity makes it all the more charming! There's nothing happier, more hopeful and uplifting than a big bunch of yellow flowers … and no better occasion to give them than a congratulations.

The 'How Sweet It Is' bouquet includes roses, asters and carnations -- all the traditional ways to say "You're wonderful!" Those passionate shades of pink and red make this a wonderful gift for romantic friends, or for family.

The Polka Dots and Daisies flower bouquet is great for younger girls -- perhaps as a graduation present from either elementary or middle school, or as a way to say congratulations for getting through exams, or for an exceptionally good grade. Every petal on every one of these carefully chosen flowers reaches for the sky in joy -- the bouquet includes daisy-spray chrysanthemums, daisies and white roses.

The Birds of Paradise in this Paradise Found bouquet are taking flight -- just like your loved one's possibilities, hopes and dreams when they have something to be congratulated for. This arrangement is well over 2 feet high, and guaranteed to draw attention and remind them of your good wishes every time they walk past.

Beat the Post-Holiday Blues: Why Flowers Make a Great New Year's Gift!

Flowers are so often restricted to certain times of our lives … Valentine's Day, birthdays, sometimes Mother's Day, and often times when our feelings have been hurt! Having fresh flowers in the home can be truly uplifting, so why not break out of the box for your next bouquet? Give someone special a New Year's flower bouquet - there are plenty of great reasons to! We explore them here.

1. Flowers banish sick feelings

New Year's Day (and in fact, the entire week afterwards) is a time of self-inflicted illness for much of the population. Help quiet that headache and soothe that churning stomach with the sweet scent of flowers. Even if your friends or loved ones hasn’t been able to clean the house for three days because they've felt so horrible, there will be one beautiful thing to focus on!

2. Kick start fulfilling resolutions

The Feng Shui principle of bringing the life and energy of the outside world into the home in order to create a more positive, energetic, forward-moving atmosphere isn't a crazy superstition. Humans evolved in an almost exclusively outdoor environment, surrounded by plants, flowers, running water, fresh air … our bodies and brains crave it. Flowers can help motivate and bring energy into a house, and this is never more important than when there are resolutions to fulfil!

3. Change your relationship from a one-hit gift wonder, to something deeper

This isn't only meant in a romantic sense! If you have friends or family that you rarely have contact with outside of buying holiday gifts, there is no better time than the New Year to let them know they are truly important to you. A flower bouquet is simple, beautiful, has universal appeal and carries no associated burden of feeling they must return the gift.

4. Cheer up a house!

This point is just as good a reason to buy flowers for yourself as it is for someone you love. If your house seems awfully empty after the holiday rush, or you spent the entire holidays with a relative whom you know is staring at four walls now, a flower delivery is a great way to keep the house full in spirit for awhile longer.

A Quick Guide to Flower Care

Cut flowers are one of life's great pleasures -- especially the beautiful, artfully arranged bouquets of flowers utilizing exotic species that your florist can make up! It's a pity to waste all that gorgeousness … and there is a lot of confusion out there about the best way to care for flower arrangements.

If you don’t know …

Ask! This is especially true of the expectations you can have of your cut flowers. Your florist will be able to tell you how long a particular arrangement will last looking its best. They can also give you tips on keeping it looking good longer, like taking the earlier-decaying flowers out, pruning off withering leaves and petals, and so on.

Environmental factors

Being in a dry or hot place will mean your flower bouquet doesn't last as long. Keep the flowers as you would food -- away from direct sunlight, in a place that is neither too cool or too warm, and away from dehydrating things like ceiling fans, the tops of radiators and televisions. A humidifier can help your flowers last longer -- but does use electricity!

What to feed them

Flowers can still uptake some nutrients when they are cut, even without a root system. However, some people put all sorts of things in their cut flower vases -- sugar and salt, household fertilizers, and so on. Depending on what you use, this might actually shorten their life. Floral food has nutrients in carefully proportioned amounts, as well as anti-bacterial agents that don’t harm your flowers. Buy floral food from your florist or from a specialty shop for best results and no guessing!

After a few days

• If the water becomes cloudy, replace it entirely
• Recut the stems of the flowers with a very sharp knife or pair of scissors -- blunt scissors will damage the uptake systems
• Take off leaves that will be below the waterline, and remove any leaves that drop into the water; they promote bacterial growth
  

Just for Fun: Hidden Messages in Flowers!

The Victorians imbued a whole variety of flowers with meanings. In an age where parents kept a tight rein on their children's out-of-wedlock affections if they so much as mentioned liking each other, it is understandable that some sort of code evolved! We know that flowers mean whatever you want them to … and that most of their meaning comes from your own preferences. But today, just for fun, we're looking at the meanings of different flowers, according to Victorian thinking. We've grouped the meanings by purpose for handy reference.

General romance

• Baby's breath meant everlasting love.
• Acacia meant secret love
• Ambrosia was supposed to be a symbol of love returned.
• Jonquils meant roughly the same thing -- love returned, or the desire for love to be returned.
• Arbutis was just love … plain, pure and simple!
• Lavender symbolized devotion to your love, while lemon balm was supposed to bring love.
• Moss represented maternal love as well as charity
• Mistletoe is easy to decide -- we use it to mean the same thing today! The sender wants to be kissed :-
• Orchids represent love and beauty, and are a symbol of having many children to the Chinese
• Pansy shows a person that you are in their thoughts - with love.
• Coriander represents lust
• Maidenhair ferns represent the secret bonds of love
• Roses, of course!

Personal qualities

The following flowers are supposed to represent or imbue some sort of personal quality - good for friends and family, and also lovers.

• Bay leaf represented strength
• Angelica provided inspiration
• Bird of paradise represented magnificence - perhaps a good wedding flower!
• Buttercups are cheerful,so are crocuses
• Burnet shows a merry heart
• Magic ferns are supposed to inspire fascination and confidence, and represent shelter
• White roses represent innocence

Coded messages

Every flower has some sort of message to tell, but these are supposed to be more obvious than the others:

• Solid color carnations sent indicates agreement
  
• Striped carnations indicate refusal
• A withered bouquet of flowers was a rather obvious and somewhat cruel way to reject advances! You wouldn't buy your own and let them wither … the flowers would just be sent back

Halloween Flowers!

Halloween is not traditionally a flower giving time … but the time of year is so filled with gorgeous colors, beautiful textures in the form of dried and drying leaves and petals and rich visual inspiration that once you see what online florists create for Halloween, you'll be an instant convert! Check out these awesome online flower bunches for Halloween, available through your Teleflora florist.

There's so much more to the creepy style presentation of this bouquet than the evilly giggling pumpkin box! The tall, straight stems of the bouquet make look like the innards of a stark, ghostly forest, with a thinly threaded orange sheer ribbon completing the spiderweb effect. The colors are traditional Halloween ones, and the flower bouquet is very affordably priced.

The Jack-O-Lantern blooms flower bouquet is stunningly colored -- the black effect comes from sprayed oak leaves and stems. The orange flowers are roses and gerberas, fresh flower favorites and quite long-lived options. The black box and orange satin ribbon make for a rich, spookily colored base! It is around 26" high -- quite imposing and great value.

The Mostly Ghostly flower bouquet uses hanging amaranthus to create a graveyard effect for the sweet white fabric ghost. Red and green flowers capture the colors of the season, while black faux pumpkins create a dark and very unusual background. Rose, Asiatic lilies and chrysanthemums form the body of the flower bouquet. It is 12 inches wide and a big 26 inches high -- very impressive!

Teleflora's Wicked Bouquet is the perfect choice to send to male friends, boyfriends or husbands! Boys are slugs and snails and puppy dog's tails … and the colors and feel of this bouquet seem to bring the spirit of those items to your man, without any actual tails or slugs! Seeded eucalyptus, green carnations and chrysanthemums, black-sprayed magnolia leaves and white hydrangea are what makes a good man's flower bouquet for any Halloween!

After the Flowers Have Gone: How to Make Pot Pourri

Buying fresh flowers is a wonderful luxury, and an affordable way to brighten the days of our loved ones. I'm not sure if you are anything like me, but I always feel a twinge of guilt after the flowers have withered and died and I'm faced with putting a gift from someone I love in the trash! If you feel the same, today we are exploring an alternative to throwing your fresh flowers away and will show you how to make a beautiful pot pourri.

Roses in pot pourri

If you've received a bunch of roses by flower delivery and can’t bear to throw them out, don’t stress. The fresh flowers are highly scented and retain quite a lot of their aroma through the life of the petals. Different colors of roses create different scents:

• Red and pink roses tend to have the standard, sweet scent we know particularly as rose.
• White and yellow roses have a tinge of violet and nasturtium in their perfume.
• Hawaii roses are scented like raspberries.
• Orange roses have citrus and other fruity scents.

Rose pot pourri recipe

Combine your fresh flowers with the following ingredients to keep them for months after they've been delivered.

• 6 cups of rose petals
• 2 cups miniature rosebuds
• 2 cups lavender
• 1 cup rose leaves
• 2 tablespoons of orris root (available from florists) or fiberfix, available from craft shops
• 15 drops rose oil

Once the petals of your fresh flowers look past their best, spread them out on a mesh screen or large tray. Stir them around a little each day.

Put the dried petals in a large bowl, and mix your orris root or fiberfix through. Drop the rose oil in a few drops at a time, mixing with your hands constantly.

Leave your mixture in a roughly sealed paper bag for four to six weeks -- this allows the scent to fully permeate the petals of your once-fresh flowers! Shake it occasionally, and once it is seasoned you can display it in open bowls throughout the house. When the scent fades, you can simply add a little more essential oil. Much easier to revive than fresh flowers … although not quite so pretty.