News South Africa

Come on guys, step out in style

Myrtle Ryan|Published

Your man might have said he loved you on Saturday, but, jislaaik guys, it wouldn't hurt to show a little more panache and imagination when it comes to declaring your passion.

The truth is, you are unlikely to sweep your woman off her feet with a ho-hum bunch of red roses and a card with the bland message, "Be My Valentine".

Yet, Durban florists said this was as creative as most men got when ordering a bouquet for the women in their lives.

Diane Nightingale, of florists Boston Ivy in Durban North, has this message to the women on the receiving end of such faded blooms of non-poetic love: "We really have to try to educate them".

Of course, not every suitor played the dullard. Anton Louw, who was picking up white-and-green blossoms for his wife, Paula, said, "You have to be innovative", especially when you are not newly-wed and have a couple of kids.

Louw had clearly taken a tip or two from Mother Nature. Last year, when he could not get to a florist, he gave his wife a bunch of dried grasses.

Scott Kimble breezed in to pick up a floral offering and, when pressed, confessed he was taking his gesture of love to Tayla Glover seriously.

So on Saturday she would have been treated to a surprise dinner, rustled up by Kimble himself, and presented with flowers and a huge teddy bear card. And what were his words of choice?

He looked sheepish but, having heard the comments about lack of imagination, said he would have to up his game.

Fripperies

Most of the florist shop assistants said that while they worked with blooms and romance, they did not expect to be on the receiving end of such grand gestures.

The men in their lives simply did not bother with such fripperies, said Nightingale, Floey Vanderplank, Thandi Zulu and Sindy Khanyile.

However, Happiness Tshehlana said she unfailingly received flowers on Valentine's Day.

Nightingale said that while they sold plenty of traditional red roses, they preferred to offer other flowers and colours that expressed love just as eloquently, but cost less.

Still, our men might not be particularly innovative, but if the men visiting the Boston Ivy during the Sunday Tribune's visit are anything to go by, at least they're not cheapskates.

If they cost R8 or R10 a stem, who cared - they got the message across, even if they came with little cards with words that were anything but Shakespearean in their declarations of undying love.