Backroad Ramblings

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and some people are already planning ahead. Some have made reservations at a nice restaurant or bought ingredients for a fancy dinner. Some are thinking about a romantic movie or concert. Still others are grumbling that it’s all a big commercial racket and they’re not going to let some greeting card company tell them what to do. These are usually the same clods who show up the day after Valentine’s Day with half priced candy.
But this column is for the vast majority of you who will wake up on Feb. 14 and realize it is Valentine’s Day when your sweetheart says, “Happy Valentine’s Day.” If this is you, here is some iron-clad advice for you. Buy flowers. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that flowers are overdone, or that they’re not special enough or that they don’t take any effort. Those are all just excuses of the devil. Buy flowers. Today.
Flowers are not overdone. They are special to the one who is getting them, and even if they don’t take much effort from you, the flower shops put out a lot of effort to make you look good. Don’t worry if it’s 6:00 on Valentine’s night, they will be ready for you because they know about men. After all, 75% of the flowers bought on Valentine’s day are bought by men.
However, if you really want to look like you’re trying, you can say lots of things by knowing what color flowers to get. According to a florist website, the color of roses can say anything from “I love you” to “Goodbye.” So, to make sure you get it right.
Remember, red roses mean “I love you.” White means purity. Yellow is for friendship or to say “I’m sorry.” Pink is for gratitude, orange is for passion and energy. Then there are the green, blue or purple roses, which have various meanings, but what it boils down to is “I like you enough to buy
you roses.”
Just don’t buy black roses, because they mean goodbye. Unless you mean to say goodbye, in which case you are a sorry little coward for not telling the person goodbye in person…and black roses are not going to make you look any better.
But if you’re a little short in the pocketbook, you don’t have to buy roses. Other flowers say things, too. Tulips also mean “I love you” at half the price. Daffodils are for happiness, daisies are for cheerfulness and hyacinths are for playfulness. So a bouquet of daffodils, daisies and hyacinths are just a bundle of fun.
But there’s one other flower that I’ll bet you didn’t know about. Sunflowers. The good ol’ common variety sunflower means “I adore you.”
It’s true. In the summertime our county roads are lined with sunflowers applauding us and saying they adore us. Even though that’s no help on Valentine’s Day, it’s something to remember in the heat of August.
The weeds adore us. Isn’t that great?