Valentine's Day gifts: How to save money on roses

Furthermore, the red roses given on Valentine’s Day are generally long-stemmed roses. Roses grow on a bush, so creating one long-stemmed rose means trimming the bulk of a bush, sacrificing up to 50 rosebuds, according to SAF's informational website, aboutflowers.com.

As a result, Valentine’s Day roses tend to be nearly three times as expensive as they would be at other times of the year. At Winston Flowers, a top-rated local florist in Boston, one dozen roses in a vase will set you back $125; if you buy online from FTD, it will cost you $79.99, plus shipping.

Happily, there are ways to buy roses, or any flower, for your loved one without breaking the bank. The economy isn’t completely out of the woods, after all. Here are our tips:

1. Why go red? The present day rose customer has a slew of options unavailable to buyers just 20 years ago. In the 1990s, the varieties of commercially available roses multiplied from a few dozen to nearly 120 types. As a result, you can get roses in every conceivable color and size. If you’re willing to mix up colors within the bouquet itself, you’ll lower the price even further. In fact, at FTD, you can get a “Sunrise” bouquet of two dozen red, yellow, pink, and orange roses plus a vase for $59.99 – still $20 cheaper than a dozen reds.
2. Go local and be your own delivery guy: There are a lot of good reasons to visit a local florist instead of a big website. You can see what you’re getting, the flowers are likely to be fresher and, if you pick the flowers up yourself, you won’t have to pay an arm and a leg in shipping and delivery fees.
3. Get your own vase: You probably have a vase lying around somewhere; if not, you have a jar. Skipping the florists’ vase can save you between $10 and $20, plus it gives you an opportunity to get creative. Anything that can hold water can also hold flowers, be it a teapot, an oversize mug, or a small metal pail.  
4. Get roses arranged with other flowers: Roses are the most expensive flowers, so anything you can add around them is going to lower the price. Good options include lilies, carnations, and irises, which come in a slew of colors at a low price point. One of Skaff's favorite filler flowers is the "Matsumoto Aster," a bushy, daisy-like flower that comes in a wide array of colors. "It's a moderately priced flower that lasts a really long time," he says. "It's like a daisy, but a little less common."
5. Make Feb. 15 your Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day flower buying is the plan-ahead type’s nightmare – buying roses a month in advance and stashing them in a closet is an option. What you can do, however, is have roses shipped a day later, resulting in much lower delivery fees and great sale prices. It’s like buying Christmas ornaments on December 26.

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