1. Pesticides – Unless you’re standing in front of a pampered organic darling, there’s a good chance that the rose in question has been doused with pesticides to keep garden pests from munching away at leaves and petals. These chemicals can be harmful to humans as well, and may not be completely washed away by rain or watering.
2. Allergies – The sweetest smell in the world isn’t worth the sneezing fits, itchy eyes and scratchy throat of an allergy attack. For those who are allergy prone, stopping to smell the roses is just not a good idea.
3. Bugs – There are dozens of species of insects that gardeners and greenhouse workers douse their blooms in pesticides to guard against. If you happen to find a rose that hasn’t been slathered in poison, you could very easily end up inhaling the insect colony that thrives in its absence.
4. Exhaust Fumes – In urban areas, exhaust fumes and residues coat the plant life that lines even minor thoroughfares. Sticking your nose in that blossom might be tantamount to sticking in a tailpipe, depending on where you are.
5. Most Don’t Smell Like They Used To – While carefully tended heirloom varieties have held their scents, the genetically modified roses grown commercially almost never smell as sweet as those we remember from our youth.
6. Water Pollutants – The groundwater that feeds the roses of many areas can be contaminated with any number of harmful substances, which are then excreted by the flower itself.
7. Herbicides – Some specially designed herbicides only kill “weeds,” leaving flowers and shrubs mostly intact. However, these chemicals are still incredibly toxic. In addition to contributing to groundwater contamination, they can linger on surrounding surfaces to be picked up by your skin when it comes into contact.
8. Fertilizers – No matter how you slice it, fertilizers are no fun. Synthetic, chemical-based varieties can be toxic to humans, and some composting materials or manure can harbor bacterial growth.
9. Preservatives – For commercially distributed cut roses to maintain their integrity through a long shipping process and still have a viable shelf-life, growers coat the flowers with a blend of preservatives that can be harmful in high concentrations.
10. Dangerous Working Conditions For Tenders – Most of the commercially sold roses in the United States come from Ecuadorian growers. The conditions of these greenhouses, while ideal for rose growth, is terrible for the health and well-being of tenders. Constant exposure to the chemicals has resulted in chronic health complaints, ranging from blurred vision and headaches to stillbirths and birth defects among female workers.

While there are plentiful organically-grown and safe options on the market, it’s important to make informed decisions about the purchase of roses from big-box florists.

1. Costume: Now you can either hire someone to dress up in a costume or you can dress up yourself and deliver the flowers.  The costume choice should be something that holds some significance for your wife.  For example, she collects monkeys so you dress up like a monkey or she loves banana splits so you dress up like a banana.  I’d include a gift certificate for a banana split for 2 with this flower delivery as a nice tie in.
2. Cool vase: One of the big draw backs in giving flowers for a special occasion is that flowers don’t last very long.  To increase the wow factor you can find and buy a really cool vase that would appeal to your wife and then take it to the florist and have them put the arrangement into your chosen vase.  Then deliver it that way.  She’ll have a nice reminder every time she uses the vase.
3. Treasure hunt: You can send your wife a text with her first clue.  Then going off that clue you can hide other clues around the house and then she finally finds the flowers.  Make sure to put the flowers somewhere that she won’t accidentally see them while she is walking around following the other clues.  Like your guest shower or the trunk of your car. 
4. Flowers in a gift: Has your wife had her eye on a nice pair of knee high boots?  Maybe she likes to dress up to go to a country western bar and she needs a nice cowboy hat?  What about a new cabinet or lingerie chest?  Whatever she is into can be incorporated into the gift.  The boots and hat can be filled with flowers.  Florists are used to using strange vessels for flowers so they will have ideas on how it can be done without damaging the gift.  With the new cabinet you can put the flowers inside the cabinet and put a bow on top.  You can either leave the doors open or you can tie a tag to the door that says, “Open me”.
5. Leave a trail: Does your wife always come in through the garage door into the house?  Start a trail of rose petals just inside the door and trail them around the rooms in your house and lead her to wherever you have hidden the flowers.  It’s probably best to give her roses in this case since you’ve had her following rose petals, but I’m sure she would like any bouquet at the end of the search.
6. Money tree: Does your wife like to garden and shop?  This is a good option for those women that think that cut flowers are a waste of money.  Buy her a rose bush and tie bills around the stems so that she can go shopping once she plants the rose bush.  Of course it would be nice if you would offer to help dig the hole.
7. Gamblers delight: Does your wife like to gamble?  Or scratch lottery tickets?  You can take the scratch off tickets to the florist and they will tie the lottery tickets to wires or stakes and intersperse them throughout the arrangement.  Not only does this make a fun and playful arrangement, she also gets the fun of doing the scratch off tickets and the excitement of potentially winning some money.
8. Wedding tie-in: A really cool thing to do is give your wife a bouquet of flowers just like the ones that were in her wedding bouquet and include a copy of your vows for the card.  She will be swept away at the gesture.  Having these delivered to her work would be great, but delivering them home will be special too.
9. Victorian flower delivery: Go old school and romantic.  Buy her a copy of a flower dictionary that tells the meaning of flowers.  Make sure you have a copy too so that you are both on the same page.  Then send her a bouquet of flowers whose meanings you have researched.  Include the dictionary with the flowers and have them both delivered to her office.  A mixed bouquet works best for this.  She will have a wonderful time figuring out the meaning by herself or with her girlfriends at the office.  You will be the talk of the office and everyone will be jealous of her for having a super guy like you.
10. Super Romantic: Okay, this is for the guy that wants to go over the top romantic.  This will take some forethought and work so be prepared.  Before the big day, make sure that you order a dozen of her favorite kind of flower.  If you aren’t sure, you can’t go wrong with red roses that symbolize romantic love.  Look up eleven different ways to say “I Love You” in other languages other than your own.  Make up 12 tags to tie on the roses.  Each of the eleven tags will have a different way to say “I Love You”.  The twelfth tag will say, “There aren’t enough ways to say I Love You!”  Now, the day of you will need to set the stage by lighting candles and making dinner.  If you don’t cook that’s okay, but the take-out you buy had better not be McDonalds.  Send the first flower and tag to her at work.  Make sure that your name is on the tag so she doesn’t think she got someone else’s flower.  Then leave another on her car at work.  Then throughout the evening give her more flowers until you give her the last one.  She will melt and the experience will have lasted all day instead of just a few minutes.

1. She Loves Me – There isn’t any “she-loves-me-not” involved when a guy is presented with flowers by his honey. Guys like getting their “strokes” and flowers fill the bill nicely.
2. Renaissance Guy – When a man receives flowers, you can bet they’ll be from someone who thinks that he is capable of appreciating them. Occasionally men do like to be thought of as something other than knuckle dragging cave dwellers.
3. Acknowledgement – Men, in general, may not be comfortable receiving flowers from the boss if it’s another man, but if the boss is a woman, she should be able to dispense flowers or plants as acknowledgements for good job performance.
4. The Office – A fella might redden if he were presented with a bunch of flowers in the office place, but inside he’d probably be beaming, especially if the flowers came from someone he cared about.
5. Neener Neener – “I got flowers and you didn’t”. That’s right, the old “neener neener”. Guys never outgrow it, and if they get flowers while the rest of the group received none, it is food for the ego. One side effect is that men who receive flowers on a regular basis generally cannot fit their heads through standard doorways.
6. Metrosexuals – In Europe there is no special name for a guy who can work on a car while discussing art and classical music, but in urban America the term “metrosexual” has been coined for the fellow who can make a perfect lobster soufflé from scratch, goes to a stylist rather than a barber and can still tell you how the local football team is doing. The modern urban male is a good choice for a gift of flowers.
7. No Reason – If your guy is in the habit of sending you flowers because it was Tuesday it means he’d probably be a good one to send flowers to for no particular reason as well.
8. Just Likes Flowers – Lots of men just like flowers, which is one reason so many are involved in the production and sales of plants and flowers. A gift of flowers, particularly a special arrangement, will be enjoyed.
9. Special Feeling – Sometimes men are just like other human beings in that they like to feel “special”. A nice bouquet or plant is a good way to evoke that “special” feeling, and the reminder can be there for days or weeks or even longer depending on the gift.
10. She Loves Me – This one topped the list, and stills deserves an extra mention. Ladies, guys just love knowing you love them. Keep the flowers coming.

Now, when you want to say it with flowers, you can tell the menfolk as well.