Petaling Away from Flowers this Valentine’s Day

It seems all too soon for the return of the gift-giving season. Wasn’t it just Christmas? But Valentine’s is here, and the season of love is all around us. Which, of course, means that you’ll have to get a gift for a friend or loved one. Out of ideas, you may be considering getting them some fowers again; doesn’t everyone love that? Think again. Over the years, the meaning behind fowers has been lost to gimmicky and commercialized ideas of love. Originally sought after to create paradisal atmo- often only enjoy them for an hour or two, but afterwards these plants become items pushed off to the side to collect dust. For a gift with such little gratifcation and so much environmental havoc, it seems a little unreasonable to feed into the trend.

Sadly, fowers are quick to be misinterpreted as signs of your insincerity or lack of effort to get someone a more personalized gift. When 15 Mills students were asked whether they would prefer real fow- less when gifted with little to no thought or personal signifcance. But for those who are set on getting fowers, there are alternatives to lessen the environmental impact while making a more lasting impact on your loved one. For example, you could source your fowers from a local forist, meaning that your purchase not only contributes to a more ethical and eco-friendly practice, but also that your fowers will be more unique to your area. Shop- spheres and celebrate the vivid beauty of nature, fowers have been used as symbols of love and natural beauty in acts of appreciation and celebration. Nowadays, people have become so desensitized to the true meaning of fowers because of how much they are frequented or advertised as the “optimal gift for every occasion.” In other words, bouquets have simply lost their touch in conveying genuine romantic feelings. Millions of fowers are grown every year to stock stores across the country and satisfy the Valentine’s season demand. Tons of water, land, and energy is pumped into growing fowers, many of which don’t pass quality control. If they survive the journey to stores, these fowers may be among the lucky onein-two who are actually bought before living out their shelf life of four days. The staggering 50% of fowers who never make it out of the store are discarded to landflls. The total energy spent produces almost 10,000 metric tons of CO2 per 100 million fowers, enough to fuel a hot air balloon. Furthermore, people who receive fowers

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