When we first heard about the existence of the world's tallest roses, with lush blooms sitting on stems that tower well over five feet above the ground, we immediately knew that they would be an in-demand item for Valentine's day. It turns out that the Washington Post thinks so, too. According to their latest article on the subject, "extreme roses" are growing in popularity faster than the flowers are blooming. They are turning up in celebrity homes and some were featured in the Rose Bowl Parade earlier this year.

Be warned, though: as with most excessively large things (SUVs, for example), these roses aren't inexpensive. Organic Bouquet, a company that specializes in the larger than life roses, charges $250 per dozen. On the plus side, they'll make a huge impact on your Valentine and, because the breed of rose is known as "Forever Young," one dozen should last quite a while.

A bouquet of roses on Valentine's Day sends a message, but that message could be anything from "let's be friends" to "I love you." The only sure way to make the message clear is by directly including it with the roses. And in this case, you can actually put the message directly on the long-stemmed Colombian roses directly. From Hammacher Schlemmer, these Personalized Roses are each embossed in gold with your choice of "I love you," "Happy Birthday," and "Happy Valentine's Day." They are sold by the dozen and packed with baby's breath and greens, in your choice of red, white, pink or yellow roses. Price: $80.

Flowers seem to be a fairly standard Valentine's Day gift, one that is so expected that it is actually quite difficult to impress your Valentine with them without going to extremes. Filling up a room with roses could be prohibitively expensive, but the World's Tallest Roses, while still pricey, might make even more of an impression. Just look at how pleased the woman in the picture is to see the roses!

The roses are over five feet tall and are carried exclusively by Organic Bouquet. The roses are imported from Equador, where the combination of sun and volcanic soil allows them to reach such impressive heights. Price for 1 dozen: $250.

[via growabrain]

Nothing says "I love you" like a big bouquet of roses - especially if you ask the florist's opinion before Valentine's Day. Instead of flowers with a relatively short shelf-life, Steuben's Everlasting Bouquet offers roses that will never stop blooming. Only 24 of the limited edition pieces have been created and all feature a pair of roses at the center of the multifaceted Steuben crystal. The crystal is cut in such away as to allow the roses to seem to multiply before your eyes as you gaze into it, as well. A small hidden compartment is included in the base. Price: $5,000..

After finding a forgotten bottle of body spray in the bottom of a long-unused suitcase, I popped open the lid to check out the scent. Not only did it bring back memories of the the beach, the harbor and good friends - it was from a trip to Sydney - but it smelled wonderful. It was fresh and flowery, with definite fruity overtones. Very feminine and very springy.

I'll be the first to admit that this bottle of Evoke Surf Chic body spray was a drugstore purchase, probably bought out of necessity at the time, but I was glad to have found it. The problem was that I didn't know how to get more. A brief search turned up no sites that would ship overseas to the US, though the company still makes it. I wrote down all the fragrance notes and, in the hope of finding something similar, I turned to Sephora's Fragrance Finder.

Floral was my first selection, followed by floral, again. Looking at the options on the very first page, I was completely astounded to find that Yves St Laurent's Baby Doll perfume contains the exact same fragrance notes. I drove out to the nearest Sephora to compare the scents and, except for the slightly more alcoholic note of the perfume, it was nearly identical. Twenty minutes later, I was home and reliving the memories of a great trip via my new perfume. Price, 1.6-oz.: $54.