Flowers are thought of almost universally as the perfect present for any kind of social situation, and whether it's outside a train or bus station, or right next to your home, there are so many flower vendors about that you're almost always guaranteed to find one in no time at all.
If, however, we were to stop to consider where these flowers actually come from, we learn that each specimen making up a bunch has a unique past and a specific background behind it, in addition to quite a long distance between where it's being sold from and where it started life off.
When we think about the likelihood of all flowers that are traded in the UK as having been grown here, most people would conclude that the chances are pretty minimal. Our flower business would be a fraction of what it is if we were to only sell plants that had been grown in the limited space that Britain has to offer.
From the most elaborate and complex down to the more basic and prosaic, almost all of what you see on a stall will have been shipped in from abroad. Pot plants, for instance, often come from Belgium, Denmark or Holland, and indeed Holland can lay claim to supplying the world with pretty much any type of flower known to man.
If you're looking for foliage or something a bit more tropical, then you'll probably be getting your plant or flower from somewhere a warmer climate like the Caribbean, and indeed if you're tired of giving predictable roses or plain orchids, maybe a miniature palm from the West Indies would be a good alternative.
When they're going to a wedding or the kind of party which requires them to wear a serious suit, gentlemen might want just the right kind of flower to put in their lapels. For this purpose, nothing beats the carnation, which could come from any of Chile, Ecuador, Italy, or Spain, among others.
Of course, we do grow some species here in the UK. It may surprise some to hear that the UK is the world's biggest distributor of daffodils, even beating Holland in that respect, and the British countryside is absolutely the best place to find those small wild flowers that are so popular around this time of year.
Ultimately, though, whether our flowers come from the Bahamas or from your own garden, they are guaranteed to make people happy in a way that other gifts are not, and they can't fail to get across a message of goodwill and affection no matter how you get them to their recipient, either by mail or in person.
Maricruz Tennill is a horticulturalist and freelance writer based in the UK. They recommend Interflora for flowers Manchester.
