Skip the Flower Bouquets This Year for This Greener, Longer-Lasting Alternative

Instead of a flower bouquet that will fade, give a gift of greenery that will last for years to come.

An overflowing bouquet of fresh cut flowers from the best flower delivery services (or the corner flower shop) may be the go-to gift for date nights, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, and more, but that gifting tradition might be moving in a longer-lasting direction. Candy hearts with messages (a.k.a. Sweethearts) are taking Valentine’s Day off this year, possibly a sign that it’s time to ditch the flower bouquet in favor of a live plant.

Most cut bouquets last two weeks, at the very most, and watching what were once gorgeous blooms wilt as the days pass can be a bit of a downer. A live plant, on the other hand, will last for weeks, months, even years to come—with a little TLC, of course. Plus, gifting a live plant doesn’t mean giving up on those colorful blooms. Many indoor plants and container gardening candidates flower annually (or more often than that), so the flowers can just keep coming back, year after year.

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Clever indoor house plant delivery services such as Bloomscape offer giftable, colorful plants that look beautiful with or without flowers. Some options, such as the stromanthe triostar, are easy to care for, thrive in low or indirect light, and even filter certain chemicals from the air—just try to find a flower bouquet that can do that. Plant delivery services such as Bloomscape or The Sill ship potted, live, ready-to-grow plants straight to front doors across the country, with just as much convenience as a flower bouquet delivery service.

Gifting a live plant instead of a flower bouquet may take a little extra research—like making sure it’s nontoxic to pets, if the recipient has any, and checking on maintenance difficulty and light-level needs—but the reward is a thoughtful gift that both fulfills the desire for beautiful flowers and greenery and offers aesthetic and health benefits for a long time to come. (Plus, live plants are more sustainable than cut blooms, so you can gift one guilt-free.) They even work for recipients of any age or gender—consider that Valentine's Day gift for the boyfriend, girlfriend, parent, mentor, friend, or whoever taken care of.