Sending get well soon flowers starts with a decision on what kind of flowers to send; flowers to say get well soon, or flowers to say I’m sorry you’re sick? Choosing the best get well soon flowers will let the recipient know that you’re thinking of them, and will cheer them up every time they look at them. In a 2005 paper published in Evolutionary Psychology, entitled An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotion: Flowers, Professor Jeannette Haviland-Jones of Rutgers University presents compelling evidence to support what we humans already anecdotally know: that flowers make us feel better. In her words, they are “a powerful positive emotion inducer.” In a separate study, researchers at Kansas State University followed patients recovering from an appendectomy; those with plants in their rooms used less pain medication, had less pain and anxiety, lower blood pressure and heart rate and a higher overall satisfaction with their experience than patients who were not given plants.

The conclusion I draw from this is that sending get well soon plants and flowers a) makes people happier, b) makes their recovery easier, and c) could go a long way to making their recovery faster.

So how do we go about picking the best get well soon flowers?

Firstly, let’s go for cheery flowers, in bold shapes and bright colors (we’ll write about sunny and serene get well soon flowers in a later article). Vibrant golden yellows, as in sunflowers, daisies, or roses, light up the room and lift the spirits of the recipient. Our favorite online florist offers a wide variety of get well soon flowers; two of our particular favorites are the sunset bouquet, that includes sunflowers and other blossoms complementary in shape and color, and the all is bright bouquet, offering big yellow lilies and orange tulips. You could also choose a long-lasting basket of chrysanthemums in a favorite color.

Maybe you’d like to strike a whimsical note with the Chicken Soup for the Soul bouquet, which pairs bright yellow and white daisies with a copy of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book, to wish a full and fast recovery.

Originally posted 2010-03-16 21:39:52.