Flowers have always been one of the most loved and offered gifts. Sending flowers is a breeze these days. You can find hundreds of stores online that will deliver the same day. However, it’s not always a good idea to leave everything for the last moment.

Here are our top 10 favorites for this Mother’s Day (tomorrow!!)

We mentioned Speaking Roses in our 2009 Valentine’s Gift Guide.

photo courtesy of Speaking Roses

What’s the most popular gift men give to women on the day of love? Roses of course!

Well, Speaking Roses takes “flower giving” to a whole new level! They have taken fresh roses and greeting cards, combined them and formed a new medium called Speaking Roses that will help you get your message across in a very stylish way!

Using their fantastic technology, Speaking Roses will gently print personalized messages right on the rose petal without damaging the flower. And this is just the beginning! They can also print company logos and photographs!

The roses are usually shipped the same or next day; if you’d like your message on a different flower, like tulips or lillies for example, they can do that, too!

Speaking Roses are famous for the fresh, personalized and gorgeous floral arrangements they offer and have been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, Access Hollywood, just to mention a few!

Give these flowers a try, gentlemen! Let them speak for you!

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Have you ever sent Speaking Roses? Share the love! Leave us a message describing your experience.

 We mentioned The Sweetest Love Bouquet
in our 2009 Valentine’s Gift Guide.

Nothing says “Romance” better than an elegant, gorgeous bouquet of Roses! My favorite this year is The Sweetest Love Bouquet.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, 1-800-Flowers.com has joined forces with Grammy-Winning R&B singer Robin Thicke to create “The Sweetest Love Bouquet,” inspired by his hit song of the same name. Who better to create an ultra-romantic bouquet than the king of sexy and sultry himself! The bouquet combines classy and modern elements and is sure to be a hit for lovers everywhere this season. Check it out today!

Price: $89.99

It’s your sister-in-law’s birthday. Today. Even though she’s two time zones away, you can still give her a gift before the day is over. With the help of the Internet, she won’t even know it slipped your mind. So don’t panic– take a deep breath– and start clicking to find that perfect long distance last minute gift.

Photo courtesy of Tanakawho

Flowers

Flowers are a safe gift that fit varying levels of relationships and interests. Just about everyone likes flowers. Another great thing about giving roses or tulips is that you can do it last minute. Check out VirtualFlorist.com where you can easily browse through bouquets and pick a price and style you like. The best part is, if you place your order by 2pm they can deliver it that day.

 You can read some of our reviews and suggestions on the best online florists in a previous post: A Token of Love: Flowers! Online Resources

Gift Card

It may be too late to throw a gift card in the mailbox, but you can still get it delivered to their inbox. Try GiftCertificate.com. Buy gift cards from one of dozens of merchants, or give them a SuperCertificate that they can redeem for the gift card of their choice.

Movies

Give the gift of movies almost instantly through Blockbuster Online. Simply select a gift subscription plan and duration (they start at $11.99), customize an e-card and click send. Then your recipient will be able to redeem the subscription at any time.

Dinner

Even though you can’t be there to take your friend or family member out to dinner for this special occasion, you can still give them a meal out on the town. Hook them up with an e-gift certificate from Restaurant.com. Better yet, sign them up for the Dinner of the Month club. A three month subscription is just $30 and you’ll receive a $10 gift certificate just for being so thoughtful.

E-Card

Sometimes a few well-written words can mean the most. Select an e-card at Hallmark.com, include a personalized note and click send. Your birthday wish will arrive right on time. Other choice for e-cards would be: Zany in the City E-cards.

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If you have more ideas on how to give long distance last minute gifts, please leave us a comment! Also, if you have used any of the above websites and have any feedback (good or bad), we’d love to hear from you!

Go beyond the typical floral gift for Mother’s Day by giving one of the most treasured flowers out there – orchids. Stately and beautiful, orchid plants can perk up any room and there are some great ideas, types and colors available.

Orchids.Com is a cool spot for orchid lovers and those looking to choose from gift baskets, cut flowers and even an orchid of the month club. Tell Mom she’s special this month and remind her every month for the next twelve. That’s a lot better than the vacuum cleaner you bought last year. And it doesn’t matter that it was a Dyson. Sheesh.

For under $50 you can purchase a great potted orchid that will last for weeks at Orchids.Com, which if you’re a thrifty kind of person you’ll find it’s a better deal than $50 on cut roses that’ll die in a week!

1888Orchids.Com not on provides fantastic orchids, they offer a gift guide, gift certificates and an orchid blog. For new moms, a great gift option at 1888Orchids.Com is the “New Baby Orchids” bouquet on sale this week for with about $10 off depending on the bouquet.

So this week, think orchids.

For more online florist resources that offer excellent gift ideas and products, please read: A Token Of Love, Flowers! Online Resources.

photo credit: www.orchids.com

This post was submitted by one of our Guest Contributors: Cindy Magee. You can read her blog at http://mageebaby.blogspot.com  

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Mother’s Day is coming soon – May 11th in fact! It can be tough to figure out what token of affection to bestow upon my two mom’s each year to celebrate and show appreciation for all their love. So last month, when I got a small catalog in the mail from Spring Hill Nurseries I was delighted and relieved! Whew! Flowers to the rescue!

The mailing included several flyers highlighting different varieties of plants as part of the One Cent Sale. Sorry folks, they aren’t giving them away but almost. For example, purchase one Crazy Daisy plant for $6.99 and get one more for just one cent! This particular plant is shipped in a 3” pot so if playing in the dirt isn’t Mom’s thing, then just purchase a pretty container at a local gardening center, plant your flower of choice, and fancy it up with a big bow. Voila – a beautiful lasting gift for Mom at an affordable price!

Gardeners everywhere are starting to salivate. At least, I was when I started flipping through all the different choices available in the One Cent Sale. My top picks are the Crazy Daisy, Sensation Lilacs, Matsukaze Toad Lily, Tenor Tall Phlox or the Golden Marguerite Daisy. I’m daydreaming about planting all of these in my yard… who needs a lawn, or a house for that matter, bring on the flowers!!!

Now the only difficult part is picking out just the right flower for each of my Mom’s. They are both very unique women with distinct taste. For my husband’s Mom I’m thinking the Golden Marguerite Daisy. They are lemon yellow blossoms and look like sun impersonators on tall green sticks. For my Mom, maybe the fluffy looking Crazy Daisy which is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face! I can picture Mom working in her flowerbeds and plucking off one of the blossoms to put behind her ear for décor.

One thing generally all women share in common is a love of receiving flowers. It’s like we are reminded of spring when the buds start to appear, that winter is over and it’s time in life to enjoy the sunshine again. To give your Mom a little bit of sunshine, visit http://springhillnursery.com  and for the One Cent Sale click on http://springhillnursery.com/search.asp?ss=one+cent+sale .

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About our Guest Contributor: Cindy Magee is an artist and a soon to be stay at home mom. Her blog can be viewed at http://mageebaby.blogspot.com  and her artwork can be seen at http://clou.websiteanimal.com

 Ever since antiquity, flowers have been a symbol of Love, tenderness and romance. They may be a classic choice for a gift but they always put a smile on some-one’s face and touch the heart!

Here are a few online resources you might want to check out. And because they are ALL fabulous, complex and offer a lot of choices (same day delivery, message with product, shop by occasion), I only mention what sets them apart. They are in alphabetical order. This list will be updated once in a while.

• Dutch Gardens If your sweetheart loves to grow flowers, to create and design her own garden, then this is the right choice! Dutch Gardens sells the finest bulbs in a huge variety of colors! On their website you can read articles about gardening, garden design, etc and you can request a free catalog. The bulbs are grown in Holland. My favorite article on their website is: Create Your Dream Garden
• is an International Network of florists serving 150 countries. Their website is very flexible: you can shop by flower, by occasion, by gift and more! What I really enjoyed on this website, besides the elegant floral arrangements, bouquets and gift choices, was the information(articles) on flower symbology and flower meanings. What I also noticed was that they offer airline miles and reward points for the Hilton family hotels.
• Flower.com – absolutely gorgeous! They have a comprehensive (I mean COMPREHENSIVE!) collection of fresh flowers, plants, stylish floral arrangements and gift baskets. You can search by occasion. A nice feature: you can add balloons, chocolate, cookies and teddy bears during check-out. The fresh flowers are delivered by a local florist. Flower.com offers same day delivery on select products. I think my favorite products are the Love Flowers
• – another favorite of mine! Gorgeous flowers, gifts, arrangements and bouquets! Some of the features that I find very convenient: future shipping date, gift card (it can be e-mailed to the recipient or just printed and given personally); shop by price. My favorites are probably the Just Because Flowers. On their website I enjoyed the article about color meanings in flowers.
• FromYouFlowers.com – offers wonderful flower and gift basket choices! You can choose by color, price, occasion. You also have the choice of sending a personalized message with every product. A variety of cakes, fruit baskets, chocolate baskets, wine baskets and spa baskets are available to choose from. Same day delivery is available on select products. It is hard to choose your favorite, but if I were to choose one type of flower arrangement from their website, I would probably choose the Lilies Collection…
• 1-800-FLOWERS.COM- is probably one of the most popular flower websites out there! The website offers not only gorgeous flowers, floral arrangements and plants but also gourmet gift baskets, wine and cheese gift baskets, cookies and cakes, fruit gift baskets, chocolate gift baskets and much more! It could be your one-stop gift store. What I found very convenient was their Gift Reminder system (they call it subscription) that allows you to set your important dates or just e-mail others asking for their birthdays. They deliver in over 47 countries. It’s definitely worth checking!

If you want to save some money on flowers at any of these stores, please check-out our COUPONS page! Remember to always check the Merchant’s Policies before you purchase anything.

If you have had any shopping experience with any of these stores, please leave me a message. Happy Valentine’s Day!