Instead of a Bouquet for Your Sweetie, Donate Live Flowers in Their Honor!

I've personally never understood the allure of cut flowers. Aside from epitomizing the veritable sin of cutting down beauty in its prime, they last at best about a week before decay sets in and they get tossed in the trash bin (or, hopefully, the compost heap).

Don't you think that giving a gift of living plant life is more romantic than recently deceased plant life? Me too!

 Photo credit: New Yorkers for Parks

That's why I hope that this Valentine's Day, you'll skip the overpriced corpse flowers and invest in a living, breathing, carbon dioxide-eating floral array that you can visit time and again in your local park or greenspace!

The superb group New Yorkers for Parks has been a champion of public parks and other open spaces for more than a century, and one of their most recognizable programs is the Daffodil Project, which has planted more than six million bulbs throughout the five boroughs since 2001 (500,000 last year alone).

I'll bet your sweetie would be thrilled if you added to that number in their honor this Valentine's Day. Click here to sponsor a set of bulbs for your loved one (or for yourself, if you're a swinging single).

 Photo credit: New Yorkers for Parks

Plus, daffodils are perennials, so instead of flowers that will wilt and fade in a few days' time, these beauties will sprout year after year in public spaces all around New York City: a proper expression of your everlasting love!

I hope you all have a terrific Valentine's Day, and as always, I thank you for all the little things you do to change the world.