Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Heads always pop up from cubicles when flowers arrive for a co-worker on Valentine's Day.
But don't be surprised this year if the recipient is wearing pleated Dockers, a sweater vest and is named Steve, Bob or Justin.
More and more these days, Cupid is bringing flowers to men. Bouquets also arrive for guys on birthdays, anniversaries or following a job promotion.
Don't get us wrong. We're not talking a dozen pink roses in a crystal vase.
Men are receiving arrangements with a guy theme, like football. The flowers are in bright, bold colors like red and orange, not pastels. And even the shape of the varieties tend to be those with strong lines, like the angular bird of paradise.
Wives are buying flowers for husbands and girlfriends are getting them for boyfriends. Children are sending them for Father's Day. Employers are buying them for men who hit sales goals and for other achievements.
"Men are loving the attention as much as women," said Rose McCormick, owner of Beyond the Vine, a flower and home decor store in Omaha.
In response to the trend, the floral industry is designing arrangements and containers for guys, said Damon Samuel, a spokesman for the Society of American Florists.
Flowers are arriving in containers shaped like an old Ford pickup, a baseball or football. Arrangements with a Husker or Hawkeye theme are popular. So are golf arrangements decorated with a couple Titleists and tees. Fishing arrangements are decked out with lures, hooks and line.
New dads are receiving arrangements with cigars poking out.
You can even get flowers in that guy shrine of summer: a barbecue grill.
Who knows? There may be an arrangement out there that somehow includes hot wings, ranch dip and a TV remote control.
A national online survey indicated that 36 percent of women bought Valentine's Day flowers for their husband last year, up from 32 percent the year before, according to the Society of American Florists.
So what's going on? Men getting flowers?
What's next? Guys getting facials and pedicures? Or helping with wedding plans?
Wait a second. Men already do that stuff.
Dan Hawkins, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the flower trend is another sign of the increasing flexibility in gender roles. Research supports it.
For example, the amount of time dads who live with their kids spend caring for them each week has more than doubled since the 1960s, according to the Pew Research Center.
Men these days, he said, are less worried about what role they play.
"Men just have fewer hangups,'' said Hawkins, who specializes in family and fatherhood. "So why not get flowers for Valentine's Day?"
Debbie Bond of Bellevue has sent flowers to husband Kevin for Valentine's Day.
She's also bought him flowers for his birthday and their anniversary. They've been married for 33 years.
Bond said her husband isn't worried about what kind of arrangement he gets, but she does try to find ones that look masculine. One time she gave him bold red gerbera daisies, which have sturdy-looking, compact petals. Another time she sent him mums in a copper planter with twigs as a handle.
Kevin Bond, a computer network engineer who retired from the Air Force, said the flowers usually arrive at his office. His co-workers are mostly men and he said he doesn't get any needling. Sometimes the other guys will even say the flowers look nice or ask about the occasion.
Bond, 53, said even if they gave him a hard time, it wouldn't bother him.
"Who's more important to you — the guys you work with or the person you married?"
He said he doesn't consider flowers more of a gift for a woman than a man. It's simply a gift — one he really appreciates.
"It's just a way of her letting me know how she feels about me," he said.
Debi Walker, owner of Stems at Countryside in Omaha, said women get creative. Women buying a Husker arrangement with red and white flowers bring game ticket stubs to add.
Robyn Sloan, owner of Doherty's Flowers in Des Moines, said one woman wanted to give her husband birthday flowers but didn't want a regular vase. So she brought in one of his old cowboy boots. Sloan lined the boot with plastic and filled it with flowers.
For some guys, however, the bloom's definitely not on the trend.
Colin Ricci, a manager at an Omaha motorcycle dealership, said his wife has never sent him flowers and doesn't expect he'll get any.
He understands why some men appreciate flowers. He also knows that guys at the dealership would give him heck if flowers arrived for him, but that's not why he wouldn't want them.
"It's not my thing,'' he said.
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