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4 Steps for Selecting the Perfect Valentine's Day Roses

© Amy Cunningham, Editor

There are few things that are more resonant with love and caring as Valentines roses. They are beautiful and absolutely timeless, warming the hearts of young and old alike.

Valentines Day roses come in a variety of colors, each color having a distinct and touching meaning. So, how do the clueless find the right ones? This guide will help provide those clues and make it a little easier.

Find beautiful Valentine's Day roses at ProFlowers.

The first step to selecting the perfect valentine's day roses is to choose the color or colors. The color of rose that you choose makes all the difference in what your bouquet symbolizes and expresses to your partner. While traditional red roses express deep love and intense passion, each rose color has its own special meaning and expression to share. In fact, different shades of the same colors even have different meanings! Here are some of the more popular Valentine's Day rose colors:

Red Roses
The epitome of Valentines Day, the red rose means romantic love. These are the roses with which most people are familiar. However, red roses can be quite expensive, particularly around the Valentine's Day. It's important to shop around.

Purple Roses
Purple roses are becoming the new & trendy pick for Valentines roses. While the purple color symbolizes regal love, lighter shades also represents the idea that you fell in love with the recipient at first sight.

Orange Roses
Orange or coral roses symbolize desire. Think of orange as one shade lighter than red. While red represents passionate love, orange shows a strong desire, intense attraction, and urgent longing for the recipient that has not quite reached that final step, but is headed in that direction.

Yellow Roses
While yellow roses, and in fact yellow flowers in general, tend to represent lasting friendship, we see this as a great Valentine's Day choice. If you asked yourself who your best friend is, would you answer with your partner's name? All great relationships are built with a solid friendship and yellow roses represent this most basic, but vital building block in your relationship. If you want to make it really unique and special, give your partner a bouquet of 11 yellow roses and 1 red rose symbolizing your passionate friendship and love this Valentines Day.

Pink Roses
Pink roses are great for newer relationships especially. Grace, gentility, and sweet thoughts are expressed through pink Valentines Day roses. By giving your partner a bouquet of pink roses, you're expressing a sweet, gentle love and perfect happiness in your relationship. If you want to symbolize the idea that you're ready to take the next step, give a bouquet of pink and red roses combined.

White Roses
The pure, sweet white rose conveys the meaning of innocence, worthiness, and virtue. These are the perfect choice for brand new relationships or to represent a relationship that has grown and matured when mixed with pink and red roses.

Check out our complete guide to rose color meanings for more colors, along with explanations on the different shades of each color and ideas for using the various colors in romantic bouquets.

If you want to be traditional, select a bouquet of a dozen roses as this represents a classic romance. It can, however, symbolize more if you wish, such as as dozen ways that you love your partner.

If you want to go bigger, move up to two dozen roses, which moves beyond tradition and represents a deeper attraction. There are actually bouquets that go even larger to three and four dozen roses, which represent a unique, undying love. While it's traditional to give bouquets of roses as a dozen, the number of roses you give at a time actually hold certain meanings.

Sometimes, saying "I Love You" needs simplicity. In this case, give your beloved a single rose in full bloom, which traditionally symbolizes those three important words: "I Love You".

Find beautiful Valentine's Day roses at ProFlowers.

If you are purchasing and delivering your roses yourself, you want to select roses that are not too old or too "green".

Old roses are identified by very little "bud" that remains in the center. They generally also have many petals that are loose and near ready to fall off. Inspect carefully as you want to avoid these roses.

"Green" roses are roses that have been cut too "tight". The sepals, or green portion that is under the petals, have not pulled away, or have fallen. These roses, while they may be beautiful buds, will probably never open. Again, inspect carefully as you want to avoid these roses.

When you receive roses, or you create your own arrangement, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that they stay fresher longer. First, you must remove any leaves, buds or stems that will be in water. Next, under running water, cut about one inch of the stem and immediately place them in a solution that is specifically for floral preservation.

When you create your own arrangement, make sure that you have a floral preservative in the vase. This way, your Valentines roses will remain fresh and beautiful, a lovely reminder to that special someone that you care.