Why Flowers and Gift Baskets Make Such Great Gifts

Choosing the right gift should be simple. In reality, it often isn't.

What do they already have? What do they actually need? What size do they wear? Do they have room for it? Is it something they'll use, or will it eventually become one more thing sitting on a shelf because they feel guilty getting rid of it?

Those questions are part of the reason flowers and gift baskets have remained such popular gifts for generations. They don't necessarily become permanent possessions. Instead, they're gifts meant to be experienced and enjoyed, while giving us a way to communicate something from one person to another.

Love. Sympathy. Congratulations. Gratitude. Friendship. Appreciation. Romance. Or simply, "I was thinking about you."

Sometimes the greatest value of a gift isn't the object itself. It's what the gift allows you to say.

There's a Reason Everyone Compares Themselves to Flowers

Flowers have long been one of the gifts people immediately think of for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and countless other special occasions. They're also one of the few gifts that feel equally appropriate when there isn't an occasion at all.

You can see just how established flowers are as a gift by looking at the way other products are marketed.

How often have you seen an advertisement telling you to skip the flowers and buy something else instead? Their product lasts longer than flowers. It's more practical than flowers. It's better than flowers. Send this instead of flowers.

We see it constantly, particularly around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas, and we've always found it a little amusing.

After all, you don't usually advertise yourself by comparing your product to the second-best option.

Flowers have become the benchmark that other gifts compare themselves against precisely because they work. They're immediately recognizable as a gesture. When someone unexpectedly receives flowers at work or hears a knock at the door and discovers a bouquet waiting, the message has already started before they've even opened the card.

Of course, flowers aren't the right gift for every person or every occasion, and there are countless wonderful ways to show someone you care. But the fact that so many alternatives feel the need to explain why they're supposedly better than flowers says something about the place flowers already occupy in our celebrations, relationships and traditions.

And perhaps the argument that something else "lasts longer than flowers" misses the point anyway.

A Gift Can Say Something When You Don't Know How

There are moments when words come easily, and plenty when they don't.

"I love you" is easy enough to say. But what about, "I know you've had a terrible week and I wanted you to know I've been thinking about you"? Or, "I'm incredibly proud of you even though I probably don't say it enough"?

What do you send when someone is grieving and there really aren't any words that are going to make things better?

Flowers give those thoughts and feelings a physical presence. A bouquet arriving at someone's door isn't simply a collection of flowers. It tells the recipient that somewhere, someone stopped what they were doing, thought about them and decided they wanted them to know it.

A thoughtfully chosen gift basket can do exactly the same thing. Congratulations on the new house. Thank you for everything you've done. Welcome to the team. We miss you. Enjoy a night off. Merry Christmas. We're thinking about you. You deserve a treat.

The card provides the words, but the gift gives those words weight.

And not every message needs a major occasion behind it. Some of our favourite orders are the ones that don't have an obvious reason at all. Someone has had a difficult week. A friend accomplished something they're proud of. A parent has been helping more than usual. A co-worker went above and beyond. Or perhaps someone simply hasn't heard "I appreciate you" in a while.

Those moments don't necessarily need a gift that lasts forever.

Sometimes they just need a gesture.

Are You Choosing the Gift for Them—or for Yourself?

There's something interesting we've noticed after many years of helping people choose flowers. Quite often, people choose the bouquet they personally like rather than stopping to think about what the recipient might like.

It's completely natural.

When you're looking through arrangements, you gravitate toward the colours, flowers and styles that appeal to you. If you love bright colours, that's probably where your eye goes. If you love roses, you'll notice the roses. If your favourite colour is purple, the purple arrangement probably gets your attention first.

But you're not the one who's going to receive it.

If you know that Mom loves yellow, your partner loves lilies or your best friend can't stand pink, choosing something is fairly easy. But what happens when you really don't know?

Maybe you know the person incredibly well, but you have absolutely no idea what kind of flowers they like. Perhaps you couldn't tell a hydrangea from a delphinium and don't know whether the arrangement should be pink, purple, white, yellow or orange.

That's okay.

In fact, knowing what you want to say can sometimes be much more useful to a floral designer than knowing which flowers you want to send.

Tell Us How You Want Them to Feel

That's exactly why we created our Flowers By Feeling option at The BloomBox.

Instead of expecting you to understand flower varieties, design styles or even how much you should spend, we can start with something much easier: tell us about the gift.

What's the occasion? Who are you sending it to? How do you want the arrangement to feel? What emotion are you trying to express?

With a few quick questions, we can help determine an appropriate style, colour direction and budget and let our professional designers take it from there.

Maybe you're trying to tell someone you appreciate everything they've done for you. Perhaps you want something cheerful because they've had a terrible week. You might be celebrating a milestone, making a romantic gesture, sending comfort after a loss or simply reminding someone that you're thinking about them.

Those things can tell us far more about the purpose of the gift than clicking on a photograph because you happen to like the flowers in it.

You don't have to know what flowers to send.

You just have to know why you're sending them.

Turning that thought or emotion into something beautiful that arrives at their door is our job.

A Great Gift Doesn't Have to Become a Responsibility

Most of us already own a lot of things.

Our cupboards are full. Our shelves are full. Closets somehow seem to get smaller every year, and there's a good chance most of us have received at least one gift that we genuinely appreciated while quietly wondering, "Where am I going to put this?"

That's something we think is often overlooked when choosing a gift. When you give someone an object, sometimes you're also unintentionally giving them a responsibility.

They need to find somewhere to put it, store it, clean it, dust it, maintain it or eventually decide what to do with it when they no longer want it. Because it was a gift, they may even feel obligated to keep it long after they otherwise would have let it go.

Flowers ask very little of the person receiving them.

They take up relatively little space and require very little care. Give them some fresh water, perhaps trim the stems occasionally, and enjoy them. They can sit on a kitchen table, desk, coffee table or counter and immediately change the feeling of the room without requiring the recipient to rearrange their home to accommodate them.

And when the flowers have finished blooming, they're done.

They don't need to be packed away after Christmas and brought out again next year. They don't need batteries, repairs or maintenance. Nobody needs to dust them six months from now or move them every time they clean the shelf.

They were given to be enjoyed. They've fulfilled their purpose.

There's a certain freedom in a gift like that.

Gift Baskets Work Much the Same Way

A beautifully designed gift basket has many of the same advantages.

When it arrives, it looks impressive. There's something about receiving a beautifully arranged basket filled with treats that immediately feels special and perhaps even a little indulgent. It has enough presence to feel substantial without demanding a permanent place in someone's home.

Then comes perhaps the best part.

You're supposed to take it apart.

The chocolates get eaten. The fudge disappears. Coffee gets brewed. Cookies get opened. Snacks are tucked into lunches or enjoyed in the evening. The recipient can keep everything for themselves or put the basket in the middle of the table and share it with family, friends or co-workers.

That shareability makes gift baskets particularly good gifts for families, workplaces and groups. One gift can turn into a small experience enjoyed by several people rather than another object intended for only one person.

And eventually it's gone.

That's not a shortcoming. That's the design.

The enjoyment of receiving it, discovering what's inside and sharing or enjoying the contents is the value.

Sometimes a Little Luxury Is the Perfect Gift

There's another reason flowers and gift baskets work particularly well: people don't always buy little luxuries for themselves.

Someone might love having fresh flowers on the kitchen table but rarely think to purchase a bouquet for themselves. They might walk past handmade fudge, chocolates or some other treat they would absolutely enjoy and decide they don't really need it.

Give it to them, though, and suddenly it's a treat.

That's part of gift giving. We're not always giving people things they couldn't possibly obtain for themselves. Sometimes we're simply giving them permission to enjoy something they wouldn't normally justify buying.

Flowers aren't necessary. Neither is chocolate. Neither is a really good cup of coffee, a favourite candle or an evening spent sharing treats with someone you love.

Fortunately, some of the nicest parts of life aren't necessities.

There's Something to Be Said for a Gift With a Small Footprint

There is also an environmental aspect to flowers and consumable gifts that's worth considering.

Fresh flowers are a natural product and are biodegradable. Once they've reached the end of their vase life, the flowers and most greenery don't need to become another permanent manufactured object sitting in a landfill.

The containers can have a life well beyond the original gift as well. Glass vases can be reused again and again, repurposed around the home or recycled where appropriate. Other floral containers can often be repurposed or recycled once the flowers are finished.

We take a similar approach with the gift baskets we create at The BloomBox. Much of the packaging associated with the products is biodegradable or recyclable, including cardboard and other paper-based materials. Our baskets and containers are often made from wood, metal or other materials that can easily find another purpose once the treats have disappeared or can be recycled where local programs accept them.

A wooden container might become storage around the house. A metal container can be repurposed for any number of things. Cardboard can simply go into recycling.

The recipient gets the experience of receiving a substantial, beautiful gift without necessarily being left with a substantial amount of permanent stuff afterward.

Value Doesn't Have to Be Measured in Years

We sometimes have a strange relationship with the idea of value. There's an assumption that something lasting ten years must somehow be a better purchase than something enjoyed for ten days.

But permanence and value aren't the same thing.

We don't judge a wonderful dinner by how long it took us to eat it. We don't come home from a concert disappointed because the music didn't continue indefinitely. We don't consider a vacation a waste of money because eventually we had to come home.

The value was in the experience.

Flowers work much the same way.

They change a room. They bring colour, texture and sometimes fragrance into someone's home. The blooms continue to develop and change from one day to the next. The recipient gets to enjoy them with their morning coffee, see them when they come home from work and be reminded every time they walk past them that somebody was thinking about them.

Eventually, they're gone.

That doesn't mean the gift wasn't valuable.

It means it was enjoyed.

The same is true of a great gift basket. The chocolates disappear, the fudge gets eaten and the coffee gets brewed. Hopefully some of it gets shared. Perhaps there's even a little argument over who gets the last piece.

That's exactly what was supposed to happen.

Flowers and consumable gifts can make a big impression when they arrive without making a big demand on the recipient afterward. They don't ask for years of space, maintenance or responsibility.

They simply ask to be enjoyed.

The Gift Disappears. The Message Doesn't Have To.

Years from now, someone probably won't remember every flower that was in a bouquet or every treat tucked into a gift basket.

But they may remember receiving it.

They may remember the flowers that unexpectedly arrived during a particularly difficult week. They might remember the bouquet waiting for them on an anniversary, the basket their workplace sent when they had a baby, the Christmas basket everyone gathered around to investigate, or the treats that arrived from someone who couldn't be there in person.

They may remember who sent it and, more importantly, how receiving it made them feel.

That's ultimately why we think flowers and gift baskets make such wonderful gifts. They allow us to take something we feel—love, gratitude, sympathy, pride, congratulations, friendship, appreciation—and turn it into something another person can see, touch and enjoy.

They can be personal without becoming permanent. Luxurious without becoming a responsibility. Impressive when they arrive without creating clutter long after the occasion has passed.

The physical gift doesn't need to last forever for the gesture to matter.

It doesn't need a permanent place on a shelf.

It just needs to make someone feel something.

And sometimes that's exactly what a gift is supposed to do.

Fresh. Unique. Flowers. It's What We Do!