It happened in the run-up to Valentine’s Day and now I’m seeing it as Mother’s Day approaches. “Skip the flowers!” cry various online ads for a wide range of businesses. These vendors want you to buy different gifts for your valentine or mom or participate in activities that replace picking up a bouquet or arrangement. Such gift alternatives, they claim, will be more permanent/more desirable/just plain better. 

I don’t argue that these alternative offerings aren’t good ideas. They’re probably interesting choices, depending on the mom or the valentine. But why must flowers be sacrificed?

There’s a small business viability reason. Valentine’s Day is the most lucrative day of the year for florists, followed very closely by Mother’s Day (some put MD first). They’re both big days and those spurts of activity have to make up for some very slow times during the rest of the year. Most local florists are small, family-owned businesses. That’s something I like to support. And recently, we have more florists who are buying locally as much as they can – keeping in mind that this is Buffalo. Some are also striving for sustainable practices, like keeping away from the inappropriately named “oasis,” that green stuff that’s made using toxic chemicals and persists in the environment for generations in the form of microplastics. Wire works equally well and can be reused.

Bottom line: It should be no surprise that I love flowers, but, unlike some gardeners, I also love buying cut flowers. And I especially love receiving cut flowers as gifts.

Why ask people to skip this simple pleasure? Can’t we have both – whatever alternatives businesses are trying to sell, plus flowers? I’m not defending Hallmark holidays but if it’s excuse for buying flowers, I’m onboard to some degree.

As it is, flowers have already been skipped by the Olympics. It used to be that each medal winner would get a bouquet, a tradition that evolved from the original olive branch wreaths. That tradition started changing in 2016 – with sporadic returns to bouquets –  in the interests of sustainability. Little mementos are handed out instead. Some are made out of resin or plastic – which complicates the sustainability question, especially if the flowers can be thrown into a compost pile.

I have enjoyed reading about the Olympic flowers over the years; most had symbolic elements.

This Mother’s Day, though my mom is gone and I have no kids, I’m gonna buy myself some flowers anyway. To make up for someone who fell for that “skipping” nonsense.