Gifts from the heart

Valentine's Day is not a red-hot holiday. It's more of a steady simmer.

According to a copyrighted Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey by Dan Jones & Associates, only 15 percent of the Utahns who were polled consider it to be very important, while 12 percent don't think it's important at all. The majority, 64 percent, weigh in somewhere in the middle.

When it comes to shopping for a valentine gift for their spouse or significant other, Utahns seem to be thinking ahead. A majority of those polled, 81 percent, purchase their gift at least two days before Feb. 14. Only 4 percent are slackers, buying their gifts on Valentine's Day itself. None of those polled admitted to buying their gift after the holiday.

A majority, 76 percent, will purchase a gift for their spouse or significant other. And many of those polled, 60 percent, plan on dining out.

Here are other tidbits for your holiday consumption:

Flowers

The rose is still the queen of hearts.

Even with the wide variety of flowers available at local florists, the red rose, simple in all its splendor, is the flower of choice to celebrate the holiday of romance.

"It's red roses, usually a dozen or two," said Jennifer Holley of Huddart Floral.

If you're game to try something else, she suggests an arrangement of tropical flowers. Or wildflowers. "People like clear-vase arrangements," she said.

Having a bouquet delivered to your sweetheart's place of work adds to the impact. "The guys like to send it to the office because so many people get to see the flowers they send," she said.

At Mildred's Flowers, arrangements with tulips and other kinds of spring flowers are second in popularity behind roses.

Procrastinators may run into a snag as far as office delivery goes. By the time you're reading this, a florist's delivery van may already be booked, so you could end up doing the office delivery yourself.

All that glitters