Men love flowers! A survey conducted by the Society of American Florists showed that over 60% of men surveyed would like to receive flowers on Valentine's Day.

Men love to get flowers for the same reason they send them - to be recognized. Everyone likes to feel special. A good indicator of when it might be appropriate to send flowers would be to consider his favorite occasions for sending them. Does he send flowers for birthdays, or perhaps as a thank you? Don't forget that no reason is often the best reason! Just as women love receiving flowers for no reason at all, a surprise floral gift will surely catch his attention too.

The Best Designs and Colors for Men

Men are stimulated by color and are visually oriented. Research shows that men prefer vivid colors such as yellow, orange and red. Flower arrangements that are contemporary, linear styles or natural styles are best. Other favorites might include green or flowering plants. Tell your florist that you want flowers for a man and ask for specific suggestions. If your recipient has a hobby, perhaps you could highlight that. For example, if he is a golfer, tuck in a box of golf balls. If he is into cars, add an auto magazine or two. Your florist can offer creative suggestions for flowers that are sure to please.

Hibberd remarked that the petunia's (Petunia phoenecia) usefulness rested first on its beauty, and next on the ease with which it could be adapted to different decorative effects within the garden.

The best way to grow petunias was to sow the seed thinly in a well made border about mid-April. As soon as the seedlings had three or four leaves, they could be thinned, and those taken out replanted elsewhere. When in flower the best should be marked and, if the gardener wished to perpetuate them, cuttings could be taken about August, five or six together in five inch pots in sandy loam, then placed in a greenhouse or frame for the winter.

The gardener could also purchase plants of the best varieties, and save seeds from those.

The petunia is a 'very nearly hardy' plant, needed good air and a light, rich sandy soil. The Victorian gardener would also stake the plants as they became 'leggy'.

If kept under glass during summer the petunia invariably became infested with green-fly, the only Victorian remedy being to fumigate with tobacco smoke (do not do this yourself).

While the blue flax has provided fibre for fabrics since ancient Egyptian times, the crimson flax was a regular flower in the Victorian flower garden. Hibberd called it one of the most splendid hardy annuals known, capable of becoming a perennial under suitable management.

Gardeners first had to ensure a suitable supplier of seed (crimson flax seed often being corrupted with 'worthless' seed). The seeds needed a fertile sandy loam, and could be sown in pans, or trays, from March. Once they were large enough to handle they could be planted out six inches apart. The crimson flax needed plenty of air and light in a sunny open position, and should be kept moist while still young. Seeds could also be sown direct from April onwards.

Popular among amateur gardeners, seed packs of coreopsis 'was sure to be included in his first purchase of garden seeds, along with the Virginia stock, ten-week stock, sweetpea and mignonette' - all seeds which could be scattered directly where they were to grow, and be assured of actually growing.

Short of digging them up every two or three days to see how they were going, coreopsis could be guaranteed to endure almost all kinds of mistreatment.

The name comes from the Latin koris, or bug, or possibly korus, helmet.

Coreopsis were also known as Calliopsis, or 'beautiful flower' or 'lovely eye'.

Grouped among the 'spiderworts', the Commelina was either greatly liked or disliked, depending on the gardener. Coming originally from the Americas, the perennial Commelina could be grown as an annual by sowing the seeds in heat then nursing the plants under glass until May, when they could be hardened off in cold frames before being planted out towards the end of the month.

The tuberous roots could be kept in the same manner as dahlia roots, being taken up early in October, removing the stems, and packing them away in moist sand in a large flower pot and put somewhere where no damp could get to it, which would rot the roots. Tubers could then be planted out again at the end of May when they would begin to grow immediately. Hibberd, however, believed saving the roots was a waste of time as they were so easily raised from seed.

All species of the Commelina required light, rich soil and a sunny position.

The columbine in Victorian gardens, as now, was one of the most beloved flowers. Requiring very little care, they could flourish just about anywhere. Hibberd states that a columbine should resemble a likeness in some way to a dove or a pigeon ... in 'a roundabout' way.

The common columbine was a British plant, generally found in woods and coppices. When grown in the garden border it scattered its seeds plentifully, and thus required no particular care in propagation. By the 1880s the double columbines were as popular as the singles and, not producing any seed, were easier to control within the garden situation.

The columbines generally found in the Victorian garden were Aquilegia glandulosa, A. caerulea, A. Skinneri, A. truncata and A. Alpina.

In late Victorian times the ranks of the columbines were swelled with new varieties from Veitch and Son of Chelsea who regularly offered their new varieties at meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society and Royal Botanic Societies.

The 'sweet clematis', also known in Victorian times as 'Traveller's Joy' and 'Virgin's Bower', was a common sight in England's roadside hedgerows (thus the Traveller's Joy) where it was considered something of a weed. Kent and Buckinghamshire were the counties where the roadside clematis flowered at its most glorious where it wove fantastic garlands about thorn trees and blackberry bushes when it wasn't rioting through the hedgerows. Field mice were said to love the soft, silky down of its seed cases.

the common clematis could generally withstand the British winters, although severe frost might kill it. Overall it liked moist, cool soil for its roots and sunshine for its leaves and flowers.

Victorians loved to plant clematis so that it rambled over potting sheds, trellises and arbors, but they also liked to have it as a bedding plant, especially in rockeries.

By the late Victorian age new hybrid varieties were coming out with huge brightly coloured and striped flowers, the Jackmanni being the most widely known variety.

Gardeners were advised to cut clematis down to a few feet above the ground after a few years to promote new and vigorous growth. Clematis 'ran out' after about 10-20 years, and then it was advisable to dig them out, refresh the soil, and start with a new plant.

One of the best showings of clematis was to be found at the entrance to the nurseries of Mr Richard Smith, St John's, Worcester. "here, amidst the richest green of coniferous trees, grass lawns and banks of ivy,, we behold a great hemisphere of the richest violet-blue which may be likened to the mighty shield of a war-like wanderer from Olympus."

Hibberd had no certain idea of the origin of the Cineraria, but considered that they may have been a result of a crossing between C. cruenta and C. populifolia. Whatever its original, by the late Victorian period it was a highly popular plant, despite the difficulties in growing it.

The Cineraria was a tender plant, and a troublesome one, and one yet more that often disappointed the experts, thus Hibberd warned that amateurs should not have high expectations. It would not tolerate heat for any length of time, nor would it tolerate frost, damp, cold wind and dry air. It simply did not like extremes, and it tended to become infested with red spider-mite, greenfly, thrips, mildew and numerous other plagues. Hibberd remarked that if one actually saw them in a garden, then it demonstrated the skill of the gardener.

Cinerarias were best grown in cold frames, or in pits heated only to a sufficient point to keep frost at bay. They were never to be planted in wooden boxes, or in large massed displays (save when displayed in the conservatory), all the growing should be done in pits or frames on a groundwork of clean coal-ashes or gravel, and at all times the plants were to have an abundance of air and light, but needed to be protected from frost and excessive sunshine. The soil should be rich and light, consisting of turfy loam, leaf-mould, very rotten hotbed manure, and sharp sand, the turfy loam always predominating. The compost should be prepared long before it was needed, and turned and mixed several times to keep it free from vermin and to render it perfectly sweet and mellow. It should be broken down into a fine texture, but should not be sifted (Hibberd believed that in general sifted soil was worthless).

Cineraria could be propagated by seeds and offsets, although seeds generally worked better. Seeds should be sown as soon as ripe, or as soon as possible thereafter. (If kept for longer than a year it became worthless.) Seeds could be sown in shallow pans filled with light, sandy soil, and should be very lightly covered.

When offsets were wanted, the flower stems should be cut down and the plants placed out of doors and taken care of. When offsets appear they should be carefully removed and should be nursed as seedling plants. They could be planted into light rich soil in an airy pit.

Hibbers remarked that the magnificent flowers seen at spring festivals were invariably the product of offsets. Offsets produced a better plant, being more compact with larger heads of flowers - the gardener also had the advantage of knowing precisely the flower he could expect from an offset, whereas with seeds it was a lottery. Offsets could also be planted three to a pot to present the appearance of one plant - a virtual impossibility with seedlings, as the gardener would invariably get different flowers on each plant.

The Cape Leadwort, or Plumbago capensis, derived its name from its likeness to lead (the blue of the flowers not unlike that of pure lead), or "plumbum". The Cape Leadwort was a half hardy climbing shrub with scaly leaves and diffuse panicles of phlox-like flowers of a soft-azure blue. It could be planted out freely during the summer in the garden, but grew to its full height and beauty within a greenhouse trained up a pillar or trellis. It could grow in just about any kind of compost or soil so long as it had good drainage. Cuttings could be struck at any time with the aid of a little heat, although Hibberd advised striking them in the late summer under a bell glass.

The Victorians knew some dozen species of plumbago, the best known being P. capensis (depicted to the left), P. Europaea, which was a native of southern Europe, and Lady's Larpent's (P. Larpentae) which was a native of China.

Hibberd warned that the plumbagos were bitter and acrid, and probably poisonous, but noted that the root of the European species was sometime chewed as a cure for the toothache, and a preparation of it mixed with olive oil was highly regarded as a cure for ulcers and itches.

Cape cowslip, a bulbous plant with spotted leaves and tubular flowers, was a member of the hyacinth and scillia section of the order of Liliaceae (lilies).

The cape cowslips were introduced from the Cape of Good Hope about 1774 the first was the Lachenalia tricolor. They were strictly greenhouse plants, and grown in five or seven-inch pots with a neat upside-down oyster shell on the bottom (for drainage) and filled with sandy-loam and leaf mould. Bulbs were placed close together in the pot - perhaps 5 or 6 per pot.

Being potted in the summer or autumn, they were then be kept in a frame with little water until the leaves had grown to two inches in length. At that point the pots needed to be moved to the greenhouse and stood in pans of inch-deep water where the plants could attain their full splendour.

The Canary Flower creeper was known in the gardens as Tropaeolum canariense, but its recognised botanical name was T. aduncum or T. peregrinum. Hibberd believed it had come to Britain, not from the Canary Islands, but from New Granada. Perhaps, he mused, the canary attribution came from its canary-like colour.

It was an amusing creeper, wandering happily over any trellis or support it could find, peeking in windows and saying "How d'ye do?" at that very moment you did not wish to be disturbed. Its great joy was in its "rampant, rambling, and ill-regulated ambition to overstep everything and everybody" and could be used to great effect in many areas of the garden.

The five-lobed leaves of this creeper were mostly circular and peltate and like a buckler, while the flowers were helmet-like. It grew very rapidly but was susceptible to red-mite spider during hot and dry weather.

The Canary Flower was a half-hardy annual and needed to be seeded out in February or March, grown on in a hotbed (where its size often needed to be checked) before being planted out in the desired location. By Late April the seeds could also be sown direct into the garden bed.

Hibberd called the Browallia the American, or Occidental, forget-me-not. The Browallia elata had two varieties, the blue and the white.

To grow this pretty flower it was necessary to sow the seed in March in light rich soil, placing the pan containing the seed on a mild hotbed or a warm greenhouse. When the plants were somewhat forward they could be pricked out into pots, and have another period of growth within a warm house. Finally, having been hardened off (in frames), they could be planted out into the garden.

The Browallia might also be advantageously employed within the Victorian conservatory as a summer flower.

There were a variety of 'pinks' for the Victorian gardener to choose - the Cheddar pink, the wild clove (the 'castle pink' of poetry), the pheasant's-eye pink and the Deptford pink. They were a somewhat old-fashioned flower, but they flowered more readily than did the 'show' pinks. Show pinks were richly and regularly marked with broad bands of colour on each petal, but border pinks were irregularly marked or of one colour only.

Both show and border pinks had a lovely spicy fragrance.

The best way for a gardener to guarantee a good crop of pinks in his garden was to sow the seed in sandy loam in April and raise the young stock in frames. They did not need much water, but did need air and light. When large enough to handle, they should be planted out in a border of fine soil in a sunny position at about three inches apart. Then, once grown on further and starting to crowd one another, they needed to be replanted into their desired position (generally this was done in September).

Victorian gardeners had many varieties of Salvia to choose from. Most could be struck from existing plants and potted on to provide summer colour in the garden.

The specimen figured here, Salvia Boliviana, was a native of Bolivia, introduced to Europe by Van Houtte, of Ghent, and grown largely as a conservatory plant for February flowering. It was a robust-growing shrub, producing glorious panicles of scarlet blooms.

I could be propagated by rooting cuttings on a mild hotbed in March. The Bolivian Sage was usually kept as a pot plant, being shifted on to ever-larger pots as it grew, but care had to be taken not to pot them on into too commodious a pot - a nine-inch pot was believed to be the largest they should be allowed to grow in.

As the flower spikes developed they needed to be fed a weak solution of liquid manure, and the temperature of the glasshouse kept to between 60 - 70 d. Fahrenheit. The greenhouses at Kew had some fine examples.

The Blue Sage, or salvia, was in declining popularity by the late Victorian age. According to Hibberd it needed to be grown in the glasshouse or hotbed, which may have contributed to its decline as gardeners looked for more easily grown plants which did not need expensive equipment.

Salvia patens could be raised from seed sown in sandy seed trays early in February, then placed in a heated glasshouse or on a common hotbed. Repotted into pots by mid-May, they could then be transferred to cold frames where they could be exposed to more garden air by slow degrees. By June they might be planted out into the garden if the weather was warm enough.

The plants could be kept for years by lifting the roots once the frosts had cut down the leaves and storing them in sand during the winter. Early in spring the roots should be placed into boxes or pans filled with light soil and placed in moderate heat to start them into growth. Once shoots have reached two to three inches in length, they could be taken as cutting and struck in a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

If they plants were lifted before the frosts had got to them, then they needed to be over-wintered in a greenhouse.

For the greenhouse and conservatory Hibberd recommended the narrow-leaved S. augustifolia, the light blue S. azurea, the scarlet S. fulgens, and the white S. patens alba.

The introduction of the begonia (in the form of Begonia Boliviensis, rosaflora and Pearcei among others) caused a small storm in the Victorian gardening world. They became instantly popular, and more varieties were imported or created. By 1880 some 150 varieties could be found in gardening catalogues.

All begonias required a light,mellow rich soil. Victorians could grow begonias in pots by mixing together equal quantities of turfy yellow loam, old rotten hotbed manure, and well-rotted and sifted leaf-mould. Some grit could always be added.

Begonias could be planted out into the garden from June onwards in a sheltered, sunny position. Once the plant had finished flowering, then the roots could be dug up and stored in sand on a shelf in the greenhouse. In February or March the tubers could be planted out in pots to start growing on (the tubers not to be any deeper than three inches) to be eventually restored to the garden when it was warm enough.

The scarlet avens was to be found generally in the Victorian country cottage garden rather than the town or more formal garden.

The avens was a rosaceous plant, and Victorian England had two 'wildings' of the tribe - the common aven (Geum Urbanum) which had yellow flowers, and the water avens (G. rivale) which had nodding flowers of purple and orange. The scarlet avens was an introduced plant from Chili and there were two or three varieties of it in cultivation.

Hibberd believed it should be more widely used in the town garden, where it would make a valuable contribution to flower borders with moist peaty or sandy soil.

The agapanthus was first cultivated in the Royal Gardens at Hampton in 1692 - by Victorian times it was an old favourite.

It was generally cultivated in pots or tubs in the garden as most gardeners felt that it required some protection during winters, although in the south of the country it could grow well outdoors all year if protected from severe frosts (although Victorian Manchester boasted a large established clump in the botanical gardens that had been in the border for several years).

The agapanthus required rich loamy soil that needed much watering in summer time.* If grown in pots then they needed to be periodically potted on into larger pots as they became rootbound.

*I felt I had to add a note here: in Australia they are renowned for their drought tolerance, and clumps survive many years with little rain and no additional watering.