I recently came across a site which talks about how to send flowers to the Philippines. And looking at it made me realize that the environment now for sending flowers to persons, whether with a romantic angle, or maybe something much more platonic, such as sending flowers to someone sick in the hospital, is so much more flexible and different now compared to back when I was younger.

When I was younger, really, I would really just have to head for the nearest flower shop, an actual shop, place my order in person after picking out the flowers I wished delivered. I then paid in person and either walked out with the flowers (if I wanted to bring them myself) or leave instructions for the shop so they could deliver the roses or tulips or whatever to my intended recipient. And really that was basically all I could do.

Now, the internet just makes things much easier. You can place your order online, even pay online, all without having to step out of your comfortable basement. Then again, something might be lost because you’re not able to view the actual flowers which will be delivered, but I think that if you make your purchase with a reputable site, then you don’t have to worry as much.

And the fact that there are sites which talk about how to send flowers to the Philippines only underscores the fact that it’s now even fairly easy to send flowers across national borders. Which is great, I think, since nowadays, many relationships start and are nurtured online anyway.

Of course, all sorts of things could still go wrong with a flower delivery to the home. She might not be home. But again, you try to minimize the chances of this. You try to find out from her or her friends what her schedule’ll be so you can choose a date when she’ll probably be home. You maybe call her house earlier in the day just to verify this, but in a subtle way please.

And if the worst case scenario happens and for some reason she’s not there to receive the flowers, no big deal. Someone else will probably be there to receive them, and they’ll be waiting there for her to return. Although then again, the worst thing that could happen would be for the flower delivery person to get lost and not be able to make the delivery at all, but if you have them the complete address, this shouldn’t be a problem. You could also leave your number so that in case the person gets lost, you can be called for directions and guidance.

Sending flowers to her home, on the other hand, is just a much safer bet. Not that nothing can go wrong, because many things can, but at least they’ll tend not to go catastrophically wrong. Again, you first have to get her complete address. Don’t forget the house number and street name. Then you need to get a better picture of when she’ll actually be at home. Ideally, she’ll be one of the first people, if not the first person, to receive the flowers.

Then head on over to the flower shop. Hand over the address. Identify the desired date and time. Choose the flowers to be delivered. Make the necessary payment. Have a card of your own or make use of the one they provide, and write something spiffy on the card, words to endear you to her, that sort of thing. You might even want to call her house a little earlier in the day just to make sure that she’s there, and that she’ll stay there.

So you got the flowers past the guard at the front of her school? Great. And you found out her list of classes and classrooms. Now, you’d also need to coordinate with the flower delivery people in relation to the time they’ll actually be arriving. That way, when the flower person arrives, he knows which class she’s having and which classroom she’ll be in. Oh, and even if he got past the guard, that doesn’t mean he’ll be allowed all the way to the classroom.

He might end up having to deposit the precious flowers at the administrative office, or some other setup like that, so it’s just too bad about the intended dramatic effect because there won’t be any. Oh, and don’t forget that the day that the flowers are scheduled to be delivered just might be the day that classes get called off, or a field trip is set, or maybe she calls in sick. So good luck with that.

Like I said previously, sending flowers to her school really is full of all sorts of pitfalls. You need to check for quite a number of things, and if you get maybe one of these wrong, the whole plan can end up kaput.

Do you have the complete address of the school? This one’s pretty easy to work out, so there’s really no excuse for not having this information. Trickier… will they let the flower delivery person bring the flowers in? Some schools, well actually, most schools had pretty heavy security so that delivery people could only get as far as the guard house at the school entrance, and no further. So there the flowers would wait. Pretty much completely useless.

And even if the delivery person were allowed inside, you still have to find out her schedule. Her list of classes. The classrooms in which those classes are held (since they might change rooms). And that’s just the beginning. It’s quite a mess.

Now, depending on how things work out, you might want to send flowers over to her place. Again, if you like her, and you think there might at least be even the slight chance that she’s remotely interested in you, then a flower delivery might be a nice touch.

So you take a few preliminary steps. Where do you want to send the flowers? Her home? That’s a pretty safe choice since at least you’re fairly sure that there’ll be someone there to accept the flowers. Her school? Could work, and will make a much bigger splash of course, but there’re all sorts of variables that’ll need to be worked out and in the end it could end up a total failure. Her workplace? Well, sure if she’s working, but since I’m pulling into my memory bank here the setting really mostly involves teenagers still in high school and back then, workplace delivery of flowers really wasn’t as much of a viable option.

So you did the whole flower thing on the first date. Maybe. After all, again it would depend. If you felt that even a single flower would feel like something already overboard, then you wouldn’t do it. And again, it would depend on who you were going out on the date with. Someone you’d known for a while? Cool, flower then. Someone you’d just met, and maybe weren’t even sure you liked? Cool, postpone the flower then. No biggie.

Then maybe after the first date or two, you talk on the phone some more. You hang out a bit more. Get to know each other better. Try to get a feel for whether you actually like her. And also try to get a feel for how she feels about you. Is she giving off vibes telling you that she’s into you too? Or is her response basically the equivalent of a blank wall? If it is, tough luck, man. Especially if you realize that you do like her.

Again, if she left the flower in the car or at home, it wasn’t a big deal. If she left it at home, you’d have the added effect of her parents seeing the flower and thinking that maybe you weren’t the young jerk they imagined you to be. Lol. And if she left it in the car, well, as long as she brought it home with her at the end of the date, then it’d have the desired effect as well. So nothing lost.

Of course, if she decided to bring the flower along, then you’d have the added effect of other people seeing the two of you and thinking that maybe you weren’t a complete jerk of a date either. Assuming of course that you got her a flower that was at least decent to look at. Felt pretty good actually. The feeling that other people might see that you weren’t just another stupid male date.

I always liked the idea of giving a girl just the single flower, at least at first. You weren’t dumping a whole bunch of flowers on someone that you’d barely just met. But at the same time, you were trying to convey the impression that you cared enough about the date to work in a few touches.

Back then, I’d go for the single rose at first, because well, I just didn’t know any better really. And roses are a classic after all. Then later, when I came across people who would tell me that roses were something of a lazy choice, or that there were other flowers to choose from you know, then I would sometimes throw in a tulip every once in a while. And really, you didn’t make a big deal out of it. You met up with the girl. You gave her the flower. And you moved on. She might just choose to leave it at home, or maybe in the car. No big deal.

So I just realized that the last post had absolutely nothing to do with flowers at all. Lol. Anyway, where was I. Oh yes.

So you meet a girl you like. You talk on the phone. You ask her out. On the day of the date, you make yourself presentable. Flowers for the date? Maybe, maybe not. It would depend, I guess. Some guys would try to impress. Go for the big bouquet of red roses, even on the first date. And hell, sometimes it went down alright. But other times you have a girl, shaking her head, or rolling her eyes, thinking that, well, it’s a date, but c’mon, it’s just a date.

Then you had other guys who would get a flower, but well, it was just one flower. The single rose or single tulip perhaps. Again, trying to impress, but not going overboard, and thus not shooting themselves in the foot, in the process.