as a person who delivered the flowers to the recipiant, i can tell you there is a serious “wow” factor.
yes, things would slow down a bit to see who was getting the flowers or balloons or whatever. there would be oooohhhs and aaaaahhhs. i sure don’t remember anyone grumbling about them. just the usual “lucky duck” or happy birthday, anniversary, what ever. it brightened up more than just the recipiant sometimes.
also there is the more the “squeeee!” at work the more “wheeeee!” at home factor.
When my husband sends me flowers at work (which is rare, but has happened) it’s like him being there, a little bit.
And since he’s my favorite person in the world, and since I’d rather be with him than pretty much anything else, having him there in spirit is lovely.
And flowers are pretty, especially daisies and stargazers.
I will say things like “Aren’t you lucky!” to people for gifts they’ve received, but I’m not jealous. I just want something nice to say.
Here you’re talking about a negative thing - someone complaining. Getting flowers is a positive thing - someone expressing love. Apples and oranges.
Flowers arriving at the office aren’t a rub-it-in-your-face gesture that says “nyah nyah, I have someone to send me flowers and you don’t!” If some people interpret it that way, they have a problem. I’m not going to deny my wife flowers at work to cater to abnormal reactions from frustrated fools.
…and for once the Google Ads are on topic.
My husband has had flowers delivered to me twice in public places, once at work, and once at the bowling alley during afternoon league. Both times, everybody was excited and happy for me. And it just made my day. It let me know he was thinking about me, and it let me share some of my happiness with other people. Sharing it made it even better. (The time at the bowling alley is one of my best memories, too. I can’t tell you how many of those old ladies asked me what I was going to have to do to pay him back for those flowers! :eek: ) All in all it was fun, sharing the joy.
I’d hate to think people should go through life hiding every good thing that happens to them, in case someone else might feel bad. I don’t really think most people react that way. Even if I were a bit jealous of your Maserati that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be happy for you. You being happy doesn’t take anything away from me, instead it increases the level of joy in the world, in general.
It isn’t necessarily a bargaining ploy for sex, or an attempt to show off. How about it just being a nice surprise? - The thing with surprises is that they need to be surprising - and having the flowers delivered to the workplace can certainly be that.
And those people are my problem because? Are you honestly suggesting that it’s somehow petty to enjoy my own happiness in the presence of people who for whatever reason may be jealous of it? Sorry, I don sackcloth and ash for no one. If anyone is sitting around seething over my flowers, perhaps they should consider that their time would be better spent figuring out how to make their own fun.
I used to date a woman who would sometimes send me a card to say that she was thinking about me. We saw each other every day, but it made me feel special to know that she thought about me even when we weren’t together. She could have given me the card that night - but it was more fun to get it when we weren’t together.
Flowers are the same thing. When it comes to her office, she knows that she is in my thoughts even when we aren’t together.
To someone else’s point: I used to date a woman who liked getting them because other women would come around and make a fuss. Her quote was something to the effect that it never hurt that she was the center of attention that day.
And I agree with the other poster who put it pretty simply: I send them because it makes her happy.
(OK, I am not currently seeing anyone, so the *her *in this case is imaginary.)
My husband sends flowers to my office rather than bringing them home because if we have flowers sitting out somewhere, the cats will eat them.
I love it when my coworkers get flowers delivered to our place of work. There are only three of us max at any time, and it’s a store we work at, so the flowers stay on the back counter for everyone to enjoy. And it’s not always significant others sending the flowers…once it was from another coworker as a thank you, and once for my boss’s service anniversary, from the company itself. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it brightens up the place for everyone, for days, as the flowers do not get carted home.
That being said…I do get a twinge of, perhaps not jealousy, but wistfulness, that there is no one in my life who cares about me enough to make such a public display of affection for me. If even my kids ever thought to do that. I’d be giddy beyond belief! And it wouldn’t have to be an expensive bouquet…even just a Trader Joe’s or a Giant Eagle bouquet would suffice…or the classic single flower. In the midst of this wistfulness, I am very happy for my coworker, that they have an SO who knows how to make them feel loved, and I add it to my list of “Things I’m Looking For In A Man”. And since it makes them all happy to receive the flowers, they are in a better mood all day and much more pleasant to work with!
If I would ever win the lottery, I wouldn’t tell my coworkers. I think big lottery wins are best kept secret, to avoid the people who suddenly become best friends with you, or the relatives who start calling for “loans”. But if I did win the lottery? I’d make a habit of surprising friends with flowers at their workplace, just to make their day a little brighter.
Back before Mrs. Genghis was The Mrs., she was living in California, and I in Michigan - a real long-distance relationship.
Eventually, we decided that long-distance wasn’t cutting it, so she moved back to Michigan and it’s been wine and roses ever since.
On the day she came back to Michigan for good, I arranged to have flowers delivered to her at the airport departure gate at LAX. Unfortunately, the florist was running late, so they called Continental Airlines, who **held the plane ** until the delivery dude could get there. The whole damned plane full of people sat there for, oh, I dunno, ten minutes or so, with the doors still open. Flower dude came on the plane, gave my sweetie her flowers and took off.
They closed the door, the pilot announced “ladies and gentlemen, now that Genghis Redhead in seat 16B has received her flowers, we’re clear to depart.”
Did she feel special? You bet. Was she glowing when she got off the plane in Detroit? Uh-huh. Was there a whole planeload of people milling about the arrivals lounge to see who it was that was meeting her? Yep. For a moment, we were both minor celebrities.
And not a negative reaction in the bunch. Not one. Just lots of smiles, and a few ruefull looks from hubbies who had just seen the bar raised 'way up…
'Course, this was twenty-some-odd years ago, so I doubt very much it would play out the same way these days. But that one time, a couple of dumb kids, an on-the-ball flower delivery dude and an understanding gate agent made something cool happen.
This is what I have seen at places I’ve worked. Getting flowers at work allows the woman to show off a bit. The co-workers aren’t seriously jealous, maybe a tiny pang or two but nothing to worry about. So, the woman gets to feel special in public and the man gets rewarded later. 
At a school system where I worked, they allowed flower deliveries to the students. It had become the custom to send balloons, teddy bears, flowers and/or singing telegrams to kids from pre-school on up for birthdays. etc… This was absolute madness. On Valentine’s Day a special holding area had to be set up to facilitate the deliveries to the students. The whole point was to let your kids show off to their fellow students. Especially in the younger age children, this was painful for the ones who didn’t get a delivery. I never participated in this madness.
Another anecdote:
I occasionally send my wife flowers at work (not too often, or she’ll get complacent). Last time, it co-incided with a) Co-worker A getting flowers too and b) Co-worker B’s birthday.
Co-worker B’s husband has never, ever sent her flowers - possibly never even bought her any. But given that it was her birthday, and that not one but two bouquets were delivered that very day, she seriously thought that things had changed. And this made her very, very happy, in the way that flowers delivered to work do. Then she found out they weren’t for her, crashed back down to earth, and teared up a little. Not surprisingly, under the circumstances.
Now, my wife loved her flowers. My sending them was a good thing. But when I found out the further consequences, I did feel a little guilty, and I’m just a little more circumspect about doing it again in future. Because the point is to let my wife know I love her, not to rub other people’s faces in it.
I’m surprised the school allowed it. Valentine’s Day at the factory where I used to work was a PITA. We didn’t have a large enough space for a holding area. A foreman had to be paged to tell so-and-so they had flowers. They had to stop what they were doing to find the employee. The employee then had to be “held in” – someone else had to do their job – while they picked up their flowers. A place on the line had to be found for the flowers. And God forbid a delivery was made at shift change and the recipient couldn’t be found before they went home.
It was fun though, for everyone except the foremen. 
You don’t send the flowers for you - you send them for her.
OK, you know how “capturing” a beautiful, sexy woman is a feather in a man’s cap and he wants other men to know that he’s got a beautiful, sexy woman in his life (and is presumably having beautiful, hot sex with her)? Maybe not all men have this trait, but many men want their wife/girlfriend to look her best and to be seen in public with her. It satisfies that visceral desire to mate and mate well.
OK - for many women, the “trophy man” is the good provider. The one who can put a giant rock on her ring finger. Or send flowers to work. That vase of flowers is a sign of a woman’s success in the mating game and she wants everyone who passes by to know that. Women can be quite competitive about these things.
Also, they’re pretty. They can be a pick-me-up on a shittty day. They can say “it’s your birthday”. They can be the prelude to a date night, promising wonderful things to come.
I’m glad that happened that way for you, but not one person on the plane was pissed? Maybe no one showed it, but come on- I’ve never been on a plane without Mr. Important Businessman getting pissy over a legitiamte delay, let alone one like that. Same with flowers in the office, even if you are jealous, you’re going to let everyone know your a jealous twit if you don’t ooh and aah over them.
And to be honest, if I were on that plane I might be a bit annoyed if I had a connecting flight or something I missed for something liek that.
Didn’t say no one was pissed now, did I?
What I said was, we got no negative reactions, and lots of smiley ones. Maybe things were different back then; or maybe whoever might have been pissed realized it would be poor form to rain on this sweet little romantic interlude that they’d all been invited (okay, “forced”) to participate in.
Or maybe we just got lucky that day, and my sweetie had a nice ride with a plane full of genuinely nice people. 
Out of curiosity, and if you don’t mind revealing- how long ago was this? I can’t imagine an airline doing something (nice) like this.
Unless you remember Hill Street Blues, *The Muppet Show * and Night Court, it was before your time. 
Yeah, it was a long time ago, and I fear those days are long gone. . .
As someone who doesn’t get flowers at work, has no SO and would like to have one, I don’t feel jealous or envious that someone else received flowers. And the flower-recipient likes the little extra excitement in the office. Plus, as others have noted, most working women spend most of their waking hours at their job. WHy not have the flowers where she can enjoy them.
On a side note, it’s not only women who get excited at romantic gestures. One year, my father bought my mother a mink jacket for Christmas. Since it was a month before when he bought it, he kept it hanging on the back of his office door, so she wouldn’t get wind of it. Guys from all over the building would duck into his office and peek at the present. I wouldn’t be surprised if some women who normally didn’t receive fancy gifts got something special that year. My father was always one for romance. Cards with special love notes, unexpected roses, buying her antiques that she liked but wouldn’t buy for herself. When he died, my mother found every card she’d ever given him in a bundle.
StG