[Return of] National Forced Affection Day

After several incredibly informative posts from Jeff, Bert, and Linda, I’m going to give you a break as I veer off into Useless-land.

I’ve written posts previously regarding how important Valentine’s Day is for floriculture, most obviously the cut flower growers and florists.  In past posts, I’ve suggested alternatives to the boring/overpriced/under-fragranced/outsourced bouquet of red roses that folks seem to gravitate to.   The National Retail Federation predicts record-breaking sales in excess of $17 billion this year; $1.8 billion will be spent on cut flowers.  Fully two-thirds of that amount will be red roses. Bleah!

Other than Mother’s Day, there are very few holidays/events associated with cut flower sales; Valentine’s and the few days preceding is the make-or-break week for most florists. 

Here’s where I veer off…I was in the process of jotting down potential floral marketing opportunities for this post, when I opened the GrowerTalks industry newsletter/blog that coincidently featured thoughts along those lines for garden centers. Author Chris Beytes pointed readers to “Brownielocks’ Weird Holiday Calendar” for ideas.  I followed the link and proceeded to blow an entire hour and a half of what was supposed to be a very busy morning.

SO, in addition to this week leading up to Valentine’s Day, there are a few other things going on, including…

Freelance Writers Appreciation Week (Feb 5-11), Just Say No to PowerPoint Week (Feb 6- 10), Have a Heart for a Chained Dog Week (Feb 7-14 and always), National School Counseling Week (Feb 6-11), and Dump Your Significant Jerk Week (Feb 5-11) (to be followed by National Flirting Week Feb 13-19)

As for the entire month of February, you may already be aware of American Heart Month and National African-American History Month. There’s more limited exposure for National Pet Dental Health Month, National Hot Breakfast Month, International Hoof-care Month, Marijuana Awareness Month, Jobs in Golf Month, and Spunky Old Broads Month.

We’ve already missed National Work Naked Day (Feb 1), Crepe Day (Feb 2), Marmot Day (Feb 2), and World Nutella Day (Feb 5). 

But never fear, there’s still time to celebrate Lupercalia (Feb 15), Cow Milked While Flying in Airplane Day (Feb. 18) and National Margarita Day (Feb 22, count down calendar here).

Google any for more information. If I linked them all, you’d just waste more time.

6 thoughts on “[Return of] National Forced Affection Day”

  1. Seriously ?? It’s “Just Say No to PowerPoint Week” ? I have GOT to tell my boss (his use of PPTs borders on abusive). And it’s “Dump Your Significant Jerk Week” as well ? Will keep that in mind. I heard about Naked Day (eeewwwww!) & Nutella Day.

    Not sure any of these will make me want to buy more flowers or plants than I do now (or to wish someone would buy them for me). But the calendar is certainly diverting my attention away from Pinterest, so I guess that is a bonus of sorts.

  2. @ Charlie – Ha!!! That’s have to be some kind o’ dwarf. And an early bearer. Guess you’d decorate it with slices of toast. Get on that, won’t you? @Laura – I did not know what Pinterest was. Looked it up. Thanks just ever so much for THAT 😉 I did learn a new hair braid, though.

  3. Now I’m mad I missed World Nutella day having just purchased my first every jar of this yummy product last month.

    To me roses are for my gardens I went the low cost way and got some daffodils and tulips from Trader Joe’s for a fraction of the cost.

  4. Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Thank you for spending an hour and a half on that site so that you could share these with us! I’m particularly curious about “Marmot Day” and I wonder exactly what “Spunky Old Broads” do during their month…

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