I recently bought some flowers as Easter gifts. I didn’t leave it too late — there was still choice in the supermarket — but I noticed many of the bunches left were still buds, the opened-out flowers had all been bought first.
It got me thinking. When we’re buying flowers as a gift, we tend to buy the ones that are already opened-out, as it feels like more of a ‘gift’ that someone can enjoy here and now. And that’s ok…but would it actually be better to gift the bunch of buds, which will take their time to open, bloom and last for longer?
Is that a more meaningful gift?
An experiment I find fascinating is the Stanford University Marshmallow Experiment. A group of children aged four to five were brought in and sat down at a table. A marshmallow was placed in front of them along with a proposition. The researcher was going to leave the room. They could have one marshmallow now, or if they waited until the researcher came back, they would get two marshmallows.
Pleasure now, or more pleasure later? There are lots of other interesting outputs from that study, and the other long-term benefits of delayed gratification (see here: https://jamesclear.com/delayed-gratification).
I wonder if it is the same with flowers. Blooming now, or the promise of a future bloom, with a little bit of a wait.
Does it differ if you’re buying the flowers for yourself or someone else? Does the receiver’s expectation have an impact on your choice? Would they see equal value in either gift?
I’m not planning on doing a Flowers Experiment any time soon but the example provides a platform for reflection in the same way the Marshmallow Experiment does. Are you a one marshmallow person, or a two? A bud or a bloom buyer? And what might that say about you?
