Ok, so it doesn’t have to be sunflowers, but you should absolutely be sending dad flowers for Father’s Day. The research is in! And it turns out that men love flowers too! Recently, UrbanStems polled our audience and got some very interesting replies from the men who voted.

• 69% of men who responded had received flowers, and 63% said they’d like to get flowers again! 



• The majority of guys who responded (51%) would feel comfortable displaying flowers both at home and at work.

So the demand is there! Men want to be given their flowers, and that’s exciting for a couple of reasons. First, because flowers are just beautiful - neither of us would be here if we couldn’t agree on that, right? But more importantly, we talk a lot about toxic masculinity and flowers can be a gorgeous opportunity to finally put it to bed! Imagine a world where men gave and received flowers more often than they do now, where they were just a touch more sensitive to softness and beauty. It sounds lovely to me, anyway.

Now, I hear you asking: “Justin, if Men love flowers so much, which flowers should I choose? There are so many kinds!” And the good news is that I have answers for you! 

• Begin with brights! The most popular colorway from the men who responded to our poll (49%) was “bright and cheerful.”  

With that in mind, I love bouquets like The Heat Wave or The Rosette for a man! The Heat Wave is a stunning array of orange roses with red and yellow ranunculus and textural accent stems, while our Rosette focuses on the understated elegance of an all rose (or, single-variety) arrangement in shades of orange and sand. I don’t, honestly, know what it is about mens’ psychology that draws them to those brighter tones but it’s like magic frankly. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d wager that it's because contrast is eye-catching (think a yellow school bus glowing against the green and gray backdrop of a cul-de-sac), and because men are socialized via sport to appreciate bright color combos. I mean, think of the colors of any major football team! It’s always orange and blue, purple and yellow, green and gold, etc.

“Justin, that’s all well and good but you mentioned Sunflowers in the title of this post, and I haven’t seen any sunflowers so far. What’s up with that?” Well, dear reader, you ask very incisive questions. So far, I’ve eluded this point because I’m going to have to introduce some controversy here; insert gasping sound effect. 

• We also polled women, and found that the most popular flower to send to men among women was Sunflowers (with 29% of respondents saying they’d send those to a man). However! The most popular selection among our male voters was roses! 41% of men who responded said that they would prefer to receive roses! 

Now, you might be thinking “well, that’s the only flower men know by name,” which is objectively funny but let’s give our boys the benefit of the doubt today. Sunflowers are absolutely a wonderful flower - their bright yellow petals are often thought of as symbolizing joy and hope. Plus, the way that they always turn toward the sun reminds us to find the light in our lives every day. But, if men want roses and women want to send men sunflowers, what do we do? 

Fortunately for all of us, we live in a world where so much is possible including having both Sunflowers and Roses in an arrangement. We’re so excited to introduce The GOAT for this Father’s Day, a shining golden bouquet of roses, sunflowers, and ranunculus. So, when you’re ready to give dad his literal flowers and his metaphorical gold medal for being The Greatest of All Time (this is what GOAT stands for when young people say it, for anyone else not immediately in the know), this bouquet is a stunner. If monochrome color stories aren’t dad’s thing and you really want to send a bouquet that feels like a colorful celebration, I recommend The Neon Lights. This is another sunflower/rose combo (nudge nudge) with sweet anemone floating above the colorful crowd. 

The long and short of it is that, as long as you’re thoughtful about the bouquet, there’s not a wrong choice. Despite our audience being very engaged with florals, most men (almost 80%) don’t receive flowers for the first time until their funerals. Let’s put it plainly: that’s awful. Living without flowers would be borderline physically painful for me, and obviously the men of the world are feeling the same ache; they just don’t have a name for it yet. If we really want to run with this line of thinking, maybe this is why men are so hard to shop for, right? When we buy him the socks, or the meat of the month subscription, or whatever, it always kind of falls flat because we’re trying to solve a yearning that we can’t name. But, what men yearn for is the beauty, the delicacy, and the sweetness of flowers. Whether we’re breaking the mold by sending dad flowers for the first time, or he’s used to it by now (but still loves his bouquets), think about what might make him smile - a bright rose, a playful anemone, bold delphinium, and go for it. You’ll probably surprise him and make his day.