while looking for a cut flower bouquet in alan's pet shop (squirrel hill, pgh) a few valentines ago, alan himself gave an impassioned & convincing argument for potted plants over cut flowers (which he'd "never sell") mainly because potted plants last longer. i don't think i've bought cut flowers since. here's a reminder of some other reasons to pass up cut flowers this year & beyond:

Cut-Flower Industry Relies on Heavy Pesticide Use

It's probably the last thing most people think about when buying roses.

But by the time the velvety, vibrant-colored flowers reach a Valentine's Day buyer, they will have been sprayed, rinsed and dipped in a battery of potentially lethal chemicals.

Most of the toxic assault takes place in the waterlogged savannah surrounding the capital of Colombia, which has the world's second-largest cut-flower industry after the Netherlands, producing 62 percent of all flowers sold in the United States.

With 110,000 employees -- many of them single mothers -- and annual exports of US$1 billion (euro771 million), the industry provides an important alternative to growing coca, source crop of the Andean nation's better known illegal export: cocaine.

But these economic gains come at a cost to workers' health and Colombia's environment, according to consumer advocates who complain of an over-reliance on chemical pesticides . . . 36 percent of the toxic chemicals applied by Florverde farms in 2005 were listed as "extremely" or "highly" toxic by the World Health Organization.

also, way to go harvard for fixing their former president's blunder,,,

and have fun CHINA measuring the entire great wall!