It's Valentine's Day this Thursday and there's no better way to say 'I love you' than with flowers. You'll find a wonderful selection of cut blooms in your favourite garden centre to choose from, whether it's the traditional dozen roses you're looking for, or something more unusual. Look out for seasonal flowers with a romantic meaning: they include camellias (pink for longing and white for adoration), forget-me-nots for true love, and if things aren't going so well, daffodils, a symbol of unrequited love.
If it's got to be roses, make the ultimate romantic gesture and declare your feelings every day of the year with a bare-root red rose to plant in the garden straight away. Here's a selection of the very best for you to choose from:
- Dublin Bay: a sturdy, reliable climbing rose with lightly fragrant blood red blooms over a long period.
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Mr Lincoln: richly scented shrub rose with large scarlet flowers: a classic red rose.
- Ena Harkness: A lovely large-flowered strongly-perfumed shrub rose in soft red.
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Ingrid Bergman: just as romantic as the name suggests, a sweetly-fragrant hybrid tea rose in velvety red.
- Will Scarlet: a fine scarlet shrub rose, lightly scented and with extravagant fully-double flowers.
