To hate being bought flowers?

[UhtredRagnarson]

They look beautiful. They’re a lovely gift.

But

I can’t arrange them. I cut them wrong. My vases never seem big enough to fit them all in. The water needs changing daily and even then they are droopy and browning within a week and are depressing to look at. Then I’m left with a load of drippy green yuck to get rid of and a vase to wash.

I love cut flowers. I've been given orchids (as a plant) a few times - I hate them!

I was you til literally a year ago. Partly, I think, age. Partly, I had my living room decorated and ut looks so lovely with flowers on the mantle piece

I'd rather have surprise wine before!

"Its the gift of death... Here have something beautiful and watch them die."

I agree - I'd much rather be given a plant that I can nurture & see thrive.

Well, is someone buying you your fav flower in a lovely arrangement with some greenery etc or grabbing a bunch of unwatered chrysanths from the garage?

I arrange the flowers first - put the heads together slightly higher in the middle - then cut the stems, matching them to the height of the vase.

Hi, I killed these for you so the bees and butterflies can no longer gain sustenance from them. I now demand you keep them and their pollen in your house, so your allergy can be just as bad as it is outside. Now give me thanks!

I do make an exception for dafffs, as they flower too early for the pollen to be an issue. Also, £1 is a price I am prepared to pay.

To make them last longer, put a drop of Milton fluid in the water.

My dh used to bring home flowers, but I just saw it as another job to add to my already full to do list!!

Faff about cutting off cellophane, sellotaped flower food (which spills out of the sachet), string or elastic bands.
Stripping leaves, cutting my fingers on rose thorns, finding a vase, trimming to size, clearing up the trimmed stems and leaves mess, clearing up the pollen that drops off the flowers, washing out a manky vase, disposing of dead stinking flowers in the outside bin.
Finding somewhere to put them. On a window sill they get in the way of the curtains, on the coffee table they obstruct the TV, on the dining table I have to move them every meal time, as me and dd have hay-fever.

I hate getting flowers, as I would rather have anything else. If I get flowers I stuff them in a vase, wait for them to die then chuck them. All seems a bit pointless, and i worry if there's something in there Sparklingcat shouldn't be sniffing.

I do like a potted plant though or something I can actually plant in the garden and enjoy all the time.

I love getting flowers BUT I hate those postal flowers that come in a flat box?? I can never arrange them right and there's loads of packaging to get rid of. And I think the flowers in them always look a bit weak. I love a proper florist arrangement that I can either leave in it's cellophane or unwrap and dump in a vase. I also like supermarket flowers as they're pretty easy to arrange nicely too.

They can be beautiful (at least before the mould and death set in), but I usually only have about a day before the allergies get overwhelming.
I’ve given up and got a Lego bouquet instead.

Can anyone find any more info on this? Google is failing me.

Wrong thread!

I agree!! Apart from if it's roses as I love them and look after them as they remind me of my wedding day.

I bought a realistic skull as a prop for some of the photos!

What utter wankery!

YANBU - I hate the waste of money, the packaging and the fact that they die after a short time. Buy me a plant for the garden though and I’ll love you forever.

Real flowers remind me of death - you're effectively bringing them into the house to die. Weird, I know but I just don't like them, but have a garden full of them!

I adore flowers so no chore for me but we are all different.

Well, you a neither being unreasonable nor reasonable.

Personally, I LOVE having cut flowers. I think they really brighten up a room, to the extent I buy them for myself sometimes. They are, of course, even nicer when someone gives them to you.

However, you aren't BU to feel differently from me.

OP my first tip would be to measure the flower against the height of the vase before cutting the stem, this will give you an idea of how short or long to leave them. I would also recommend criss/crossing sellotape across the top of the vase, as this helps them stay where you put them. Alternatively, if you have a garden, go and cut a bit more greenery, as the more you have in the vase, the better things stay in place. Make sure you remove any leaves that are going to be below the water, as this is what turns the water smelly, and if you change the water but don't have any more plant food, have a look here for ideas of additives that will help your flowers last longer: www.rd.com/list/how-to-make-flowers-last-longer/ Finally, if possible, when cutting your stems to length, try doing it underwater, as otherwise an air bubble can get into the stem and stop the flower drawing up the water. Hope this helps

The worst thing is when someone sends you flowers when you're ill!

Thanks so much. I just want to sleep and I feel like shit, but now I've got to bugger about on a stool trying to get the vase off the top shelf, covering the kitchen in cellophane and trimmings, try and arrange them in a way that doesn't look like they've been run over, clear up, invariably spill the sticky food stuff everywhere, clean up again, then hope I feel better by the time they're dead or I end up with a vase of green murk to deal with. Ta.

I occasionally buy myself flowers, if I'm in the mood to twat about doing the above. But I genuinely do see a gift of flowers as just another thing I've got to 'deal with' and not a gift at all. A PP said they're a 'labour of love' - I think they're just labour I'm afraid!

YANBU. The flower industry is a blight on humanity. I have met women in east Africa with devastating permanent lung damage due to having no PPE to protect them from the strong weed killers and pesticides used by the flower industry

Flowers are basically a pointless, sexist and deeply artificial and genetically manipulated gift.

I hate to think what those hungry, unemployable, disabled women think of us western women accepting such poisonous gifts that destroy lives for nothing of any value, a bit of temporary ‘pretty ness’ at best

The worst thing is when someone sends you flowers when you're ill!

Or when you've just had a baby. Needless faffing about and clutter.

Much rather be given a plant, I find the transience of flowers quite mournful

@Tulipomania

I bought a realistic skull as a prop for some of the photos!

What utter wankery!

Why?

I love flowers. The more the better. A house filled with the beautiful scent of floaty, frilly sweet peas or daffodils in Spring. They don’t need arranging into a perfectly symmetrical display, informal is good.