Flowers for a dating anniversary

An anniversary is the only occasion where the bouquet competes with itself: if you send twelve red roses every year, by the fourth it's a formality. The point is for the gift to match where the relationship is.

First anniversary

The classic still works, and works well: a dozen red roses. It's the year when the traditional gesture reads as traditional and not as a lack of ideas. If you want something less obvious, red tulips say the same thing with a more modern look.

Second to fifth

This is when it pays to start changing things up. Options that work:

• The other person's favorite flower, if you know it. It beats any tradition.
• The flowers from your first gift, repeated on purpose and explained on the card.
• Peonies, if it's October or November. They're stunning and their window is short.
• Lavender roses: "love at first sight." Almost nobody sends them, and they're beautiful.

Five years and beyond

The number of roses starts to matter more than the color: 24 ("I think of you all day") or simply the number of years you've been together. A bouquet of seven roses on your seventh anniversary, well explained, means more than twenty-four for no reason.

Another option that tends to win at this point: something that lasts. An orchid, a bonsai, or a flower subscription that arrives every month for a year.

If it's a wedding anniversary

There's a specific tradition for each number of years, with its own flower. It's in the flower for each wedding anniversary.

What makes the difference

The card. A huge bouquet with "Happy anniversary, I love you" means less than a medium one with a specific line about something that happened that year. There are examples in what to write on the card.

Availability of each flower changes with the season. If you are looking for a specific flower, ask us before ordering and we will confirm whether we have it.