Three Reasons To Skip The Valentine’s Day Roses

Roses and chocolates seem like the natural gift to give your love on Valentine’s Day, but let’s face it, roses, while tried and true testaments of affection, should be skipped on Valentine’s Day for the following reasons.

1. Boring.

2. Expensive.

3. Not fair trade.

Boring?

“Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms, but which will bloom most constantly?” – Emily Brontë

1. How can roses be boring?

There are so many better flowers to choose from. Delight your love with something unique. As reported on the Business Insider,

“A dozen roses is something that’s expected,” Nick Faitos of Starlight Floral told the Business Insider. “You can think a little more creatively and get a better and bigger arrangement for your dollar if you do things a little bit differently. There are so many options in flowers that no matter what your budget or price point, you can have something pretty and meaningful.”

2. Roses are expensive.

Yes, your love deserves to be pampered and spoiled on this special day, but as with any holiday, prices surge when interest and demand peak. Roses can fetch $15 at the local grocery mart to upwards of a $100 via a decent florist. Prices can surge up to 100 percent due to demand, and low prices do mean low quality. Simply put, the grocery stores work with what the upscale florists refuse.

Stem length also affects price. The longer the stem, the costlier the rose. According to Reuters, location also affects price. In Los Angeles, local growers supplement importers so roses are cheaper. However in New York, lovers pay a premium for the fragrant flower.

Save a few dollars and get your love one beautiful rose tucked in with a bevy of floral delights. He/she will love you all the same.

3. Finally, do the right thing.

Roses are imported mainly from Colombia and Ecuador. These countries have a long-standing competition to get their roses to the U.S. market. As a result, laborers, mostly women, spend up to 20 hours a day clipping roses at a rate of 250-300 stems per hour. Sadly, it is not just adult women who work at the rose farms. According to the Business Insider, 8.3 percent of the flowers in the U.S. were cut by child labor in Ecuador, where 12 percent of the country’s children work in agriculture.

The workers are also subjected to exposure to chemicals which cause numerous health issues such as headaches, nausea, impaired vision, conjunctivitis, rashes, asthma, stillbirths, miscarriages, congenital malformations, and respiratory and neurological problems. Women are regularly screened for pregnancy and being sterilized is a common condition for employment.

So, choose a different gift for the one you love. Click here for instructions on how to give your Valentine a sensual massage.

[Image courtesy of alldayimages.com]