How to Make a Living Valentine

Every year, February 14 leads to trashcans filled with mounds of discarded candy, dying rose bouquets, and credit card statements also bearing the load of the commercial holiday. This year, celebrate your love and friendship while still maintaining a green lifestyle and wallet. Make and send a "living Valentine" to remind your Valentine of your love after the glut of the commercialization is long gone.

Live plants still allow you to send beautiful blooming flowers without losing money on bouquets that will droop and die within a week of February 14. However, the living Valentine brings a longer-lasting touch of nature into your home as a decoration or your Valentine's office, dorm or home as well.

Pick one of these three living Valentine ideas or create your own special design with a variety of living plants and recyclable materials.

Valentine Bulb Garden

Choose a transparent glass container such as a trifle bowl or cake display top. Check local thrift stores and Goodwill stores instead of buying new. Remember, this is a green Valentine! Colored glasses like red and pink are festive for Valentine's Day, but clear glass will also show off the beauty of the natural layers you will be creating.

Dig up sections of deep green or sage green moss from your yard. Keep the soil intact on the bottom of the moss. Place it moss-side down in the glass container so the moss will show through the glass. Add a layer of rich compost from your green compost pile (or use potting soil) on top of the moss. Aim for several inches, depending on how large of a bulb you want to send your Valentine.

Choose a variety of large spring bulbs like tulips or hyacinths in bold, bright colors to be the focal point of your bulb garden living Valentine. Add three to five large flower bulbs, with the stems and flowers attached, to the center of the bowl. (You can find force-bloomed bulbs at grocery stores or local green houses if tulips and hyacinths are not blooming outside in your area.) Add texture with smaller spring flower bulbs around the focal flowers. Grape hyacinths, snow crocuses, and violets add pops of color at smaller heights to be seen through the glass container.

Add enough soil to cover the large bulbs at least halfway. For texture and style, you may leave the tops of the bulbs visible through the soil.

Handprint a card with care tips for your living Valentine. Instruct your recipient to keep the soil damp, but not soaking wet, and replant within two weeks into an outdoor garden or draining pot.

Living Love

Tell your Valentine how fresh and alive your feelings are with a symbol of living love this Valentine's Day. Look for unique heart-shaped containers at your local craft store or Goodwill/thrift shop. Heart-shaped craft boxes, baskets, jewelry containers, or wooden trays can all be filled with live plants to make a heart-shaped garden. Try to find a container with draining capabilities, like baskets and wooden boxes. Poke holes throughout the bottom of the container. Line with a plastic bag (think garbage bags or freezer bags) and poke holes in the bag. Fill with a layer of soil or compost. Transplant your choice of spring flowers: snow crocuses, primroses, wild violets, or pansies. Keep the color palette in pinks and reds for an obvious Valentine theme or use bold colors like purple, yellow or even green foliage.

Living Orchids

Nothing captures exotic sophistication like a live orchid. If your Valentine is truly unique and beautiful, send an orchid plant in a stylish container. Choose a potted orchid at a quality store or greenhouse, but avoid chain retailers and grocery stores without specialists in flowers employed. Orchids are fragile and need to come from a stable environment. If you purchase from a chain grocery or retail store, you may get a plant that was force-bloomed and trucked in the day before. While it may be pretty in the store, the stress will easily begin to show and could kill the plant within a few days.

Next, find a unique container for your orchid plant. Square shaped bowls (check the clearance rack at Pier 1) and vases give this living Valentine an edgy style. Place a layer of gardening gravel on the bottom of the square bowl. Sit the entire potted orchid inside the square bowl on top of the gravel. Fill the areas around the pot with compost or potting soil or with colored gardening stone. Add a thin layer of gardening stone across the top of the square container's surface to disguise the orchid's pot.

Make sure the orchid is staked before you move it around for the Valentine's Day delivery. It will probably come staked, but if not, insert a thin floral stick next to the main stem. Use small sections of floral wire to secure it to the stem, especially near the heavy-laden head with blooms.