Revealed: Do women really like flowers?

Women receiving flowers from their romantic partners is a tale as old as time. Well, almost. 

The history of gifting flowers goes back as far as the Ancient Greeks, where floriography - the language of flowers - played a key part in their relationships with the Gods. The Greeks often associated the Gods with a different type of flower, such as Eros (popularised as Cupid in Roman mythology) with roses or Zeus with carnations. 

And although we can’t pinpoint the exact date humans began gifting flowers romantically, it’s thought that Greek men would give women roses when they asked for their hand in marriage. 

However, as we have progressed from praying to Eros to strike out beloved’s heart to simply swiping left and right, so have the associations between love and flowers. 

But the question remains - do women really like flowers? Or is it just an unwritten rule of romance going out of fashion?

To find out, we surveyed* over 1,000 women from across the UK. Check out what they said below:

Dating in 2024 can be hard, especially in the Age of the “Ick”. But should you give flowers on the first date? 

While our research found that over a third (36%) of British women would be disappointed if their new love interest didn’t buy them flowers in the early stages, the average woman said the perfect time to get flowers when dating is around date 3 or 4. 

However, we found that only around 1 in 6 (14%) women would expect their new love interest to bring flowers on the first date. 

Our research shows that the desire for first date flowers or flowers in the early stages of dating decreases with age:

Interestingly, where 31% of 18-24-year-old women would expect first date flowers, just 4% of women over the age of 65 would. Similarly, where almost half (47%) of women aged 18-24 years old would be disappointed if a new love interest didn’t buy them flowers in the early stages of dating, around half the amount of women over 65 said the same (25%).

Our study shows that the average woman in the UK hasn’t received a bouquet of flowers in around 10 months. 

However, we found that the time in between bouquets gets longer with age, with women under 50 receiving flowers an average of every 8 months, and women over the age of 50 roughly every 11 months.

The exact age the frequency women receive flowers starts to decline is the age of 45, but why is this? 

Our research found that while women consistently receive flowers from their friends throughout their lives, flowers from romantic partners decrease quite significantly as they age. 

Where almost half (47%) of women under the age of 50 say they often receive flowers from their partner, just 30% of women over the age of 50 say the same. 

Women over 50 are also around 10% less likely to receive anniversary flowers or Valentine’s Day flowers from their partner than women under 50. 

Coincidental or not, despite our research showing that once women reach 45 they begin to receive fewer flowers, older women in the UK don’t necessarily wish they received them more. 

In fact, the desire to receive flowers is actually strongest in women under 50 (65%) vs 48% in women aged 50+. Similarly, our research found that younger women are around 2 times more likely than older women to wish that their partner would buy them flowers more without them asking (56% vs 26%).

“Invisible Woman Syndrome” is a phenomenon used to describe how many older women find themselves overlooked in social situations, the media and the workplace. 

Melanie Joosten, a researcher at the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) in Australia, hypothesises a gender imbalance between men and women when it comes to ageing. She believes where men become more highly respected with age, women become less relevant. 

And while there are undeniably different standards for women when it comes to ageing in Western society’s ‘youth-obsessed’ culture, a new generation of older women is redefining ageing from what society tells them they should be. 

Our research found that while 29% of women over 50 feel they are treated worse in society due to their age, and another 1 in 3 (35%) feel invisible in today’s society, more women reported feeling more confident with age (46%). 

Similarly, a resounding 8 in 10 (79%) women over 50 in the UK said they’ve become more confident about speaking their minds with age. 

 

Whether women desire flowers less simply because they receive them less is still up for debate, but a resounding 4 in 5 (84%) women told us that receiving flowers makes them feel ‘special and appreciated’. 

So don’t waste any time making a special woman in your life feel special and appreciated, check out our same day delivery flowers.

 

Methodology 

*All data from a survey conducted for Eflorist via 3Gem amongst 1,000 UK women (aged 18+) between 1st and 5th August 2024.