People Love. We Have the Receipts.
It's written on 7 out of 10 flower cards. Here's what else two years of card messages taught us.
By Nick, co-owner of Kvetka Flower
Key findings
- 7 out of 10 flower card messages include the word "love." Even sympathy cards: 69%.
- Birthdays come first, 1 in 3 cards. Sympathy is second at 13%, and almost 1 in 6 of those is for a pet.
- Friends get nearly twice as many cards as partners: 35% vs. 18.5%.
- 47% of orders come from people who live out of town. They write a card 87% of the time. Locals: 71%.
- The Valentine's paradox: on a regular day, 81% of deliveries include a card. On Valentine's Day, only 55%.
Data: all Kvetka Flower orders from October 2024 to October 2026. Anonymized, percentages only.
Why I counted, and how
Every card that goes into our bouquets is written by hand. No printers, no pre-printed cards. A customer sends us their words, we pick up a pen, copy them onto a card, and sometimes add a little heart. Then the card goes into an envelope and gets tucked into the bouquet.
When you write someone else's words in your own handwriting, they stay with you. "Happy birthday, Mom." "Thinking of you." "I'm so sorry." Over two years we've written a lot of these cards, and at some point I got curious about what people actually write. For which occasions? To whom?
I had my guesses, but a florist's guesses aren't great data. So I exported all of our orders and reread every card message, this time not as a florist but as someone looking for patterns.
What we counted
We took every Kvetka Flower order from October 2024 to October 2026 and removed test and internal orders. Then we tagged each card message:
- occasion: birthday, sympathy, anniversary and so on;
- recipient: a friend, a partner, a parent, a coworker;
- length: short (up to 5 words), medium (6 to 25) or long (more than 25);
- whether it says love or sorry, and whether it has emoji;
- sender: a person or a company.
Beyond the cards, we looked at order and delivery dates and at the billing address. That shows where the person sending the flowers lives. We don't keep or publish the addresses themselves, only the region.
What we didn't do
We don't publish names, addresses or any quotes that could identify someone. Now and then I use a short phrase that thousands of people write, like "Thinking of you," as an example. Everything else is shown only as percentages.
We also don't share order counts or revenue. This study is about people, not about our sales.
If a card didn't make it clear who it was for or what the occasion was, we marked it "unknown" instead of guessing. All percentages about card content are calculated from orders that had a card. That's 74% of all orders, by the way.
7 out of 10 cards say "love"
The first thing that jumped out: people write the word love a lot. "Love you." "Love, Mom." "Sending love." "I love you so much."
I counted: some form of the word love appears in 69% of card messages. Almost 7 out of 10.
You'd expect most of that love to show up on Valentine's Day and anniversaries. It does: 91% of Valentine's cards say love, and so do 74% of romantic cards sent for no particular reason. But then it gets interesting.
Sympathy cards say love 69% of the time, exactly as often as the average card. Support cards, the ones people send when someone is going through a hard time, say it even more often: 81%.
Birthday cards, on the other hand, say love less often than average, 61%. When the occasion is happy, people often stop at "Happy birthday!" When someone is hurting, they don't hold back.
One more detail: only 8% of cards include an emoji or a "<3." People say what they feel in words, not pictures. And when an emoji does show up, we turn it into a hand-drawn heart.
Why people send flowers, and to whom
The occasion
First place is no surprise: birthdays. That's 1 in 3 cards, 33%.
Second place surprised me. It isn't Valentine's Day or anniversaries. It's sympathy, at 13% of cards. Almost 1 in 6 of those is for a pet. People send flowers when a friend loses a dog or a cat, and those cards are some of the warmest we write.
After that comes a tight group of occasions, each around 5 to 7%:
- romantic flowers for no reason;
- congratulations on a new job, a graduation, a promotion;
- support when someone is going through a hard time;
- get well;
- Mother's Day;
- anniversaries.
Valentine's Day is only 4%, about the same as "just because" cards. That doesn't mean we get few Valentine's orders. People just write fewer cards that week. More on that below.
There are rare but touching occasions too. 1% of cards are apologies. Flowers as a way to say "I'm sorry" aren't just a movie thing.
Who gets them
Another surprise. Most flowers don't go to a partner. They go to friends: 35% of cards. Partners get almost half as many, 18.5%. Family (parents, kids, brothers and sisters) gets about 20%.
The single most common card in the whole dataset is a birthday card to a friend, 1 in 9.
Another 10% of cards go to coworkers and clients, and almost as many are sent from a company or a team: "From all of us at...", "Your team." Businesses congratulate their clients, and coworkers look out for each other when things get hard.
In 16% of cards there's no way to tell who the recipient is. For example, "Happy birthday! Enjoy your day." We left those as "unknown."
People in other cities
You'd think almost all of a local florist's customers live nearby. Not quite, though maybe that's just a Kvetka thing.
Almost half of our orders, 47%, come from people who don't live in our city or its suburbs. The biggest share of those comes from California, about 1 in 4. Next are other parts of our state and the neighboring one, then the Northeast and the South. 9% of out-of-town orders come from abroad: Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia.
Behind every one of those orders is someone who can't be there in person. A daughter on the other side of the country wishing her mom a happy birthday. A friend overseas checking in after hard news. Someone in another hemisphere sending anniversary flowers to the person they love.
Zoom out to the whole world and it's 13 countries people have sent flowers from through us, from Canada and Japan to Australia and South Africa.
They write more often
Comparing deliveries only, people from other cities include a card 87% of the time. Locals: 71%.
My guess is that distance makes being apart feel bigger. When you live in the same city, you can see each other any weekend, and a bouquet is simply a nice gesture. When there's half a country or an ocean between you, you want to say more, and the card becomes the main part of the gift.
Their occasions look almost the same as locals': birthdays first, about 1 in 3 cards. The difference isn't why they send flowers. It's that they almost always add words.
The Valentine's paradox
The most romantic day of the year, and what do people write? Most often, nothing.
On a regular day, 81% of deliveries include a card. During Valentine's week, only 55%. Almost half of the bouquets that go out on February 14 go without a word.
I don't have a definite answer, just a guess. On Valentine's Day, the bouquet speaks for itself. Red roses on February 14 don't need a signature; the recipient knows who they're from. But when you send flowers to support a friend, you need a card. Otherwise it isn't clear who they're from or why.
So people don't write a card when the occasion matters more. They write one when, without words, the flowers could be misread.
What to write on a flower card (and how much)
A typical flower card message is 6 to 25 words. That's what 69% of people write: a greeting, one or two warm sentences and a signature. Long notes of more than 25 words make up 20% of cards, and very short ones ("Love you!") 12%.
But the length depends a lot on the occasion.
Sympathy cards are almost never short. Only 1% fit into five words, and 27% are long, more than any other occasion. People want to find the right words, and "Sorry for your loss" alone doesn't feel like enough.
Love, on the other hand, often fits in a few words. 31% of romantic no-occasion cards are short. "Love you." "Thinking of you, always." When you're close, you don't need to explain.
Get well and congratulations cards look alike: 9 out of 10 are medium length, and none are short. Apparently "Get well!" or "Congrats!" on its own feels too dry.
A simple formula from our data
- The recipient's name. It makes the card feel personal right away.
- One sentence about the occasion. You don't need a poem. One honest thought is enough.
- The word love, if it fits. 7 out of 10 people use it, even in sympathy cards.
- Your name. Especially if you're far away or the flowers are a surprise.
Flower card message examples by occasion
These aren't our customers' cards. They're examples we wrote based on the patterns we saw.
Birthday flower card message
Happy birthday, Sam! So lucky to have you in my life. Love, Alex
Sympathy flower card message
Dear Anna, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm holding you close in my thoughts. With love, Kate
Pet sympathy flower card message
He was such a good boy, and he was so lucky to have you. Sending you so much love.
Get well flower card message
Get well soon! I hope these flowers brighten your day until you're back on your feet. Love, Mia
Thinking of you flower card message
Just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you. You're not alone in this.
Congratulations flower card message
Congratulations on the new job! Nobody deserves it more. So proud of you.
Anniversary flower card message
Five years and I'd choose you all over again. Happy anniversary, my love.
Valentine's Day flower card message
No card needed, you know who these are from. But just in case: I love you.
Mother's Day flower card message
Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thank you for everything, especially the things I never said thank you for.
Thank you flowers message
Thank you for being there when it mattered. These are just a small way of saying it.
Just because flower card message
No reason. Just love you.
Flower card message from a team
Thinking of you and your family. With love from all of us at the office.
Apology flowers message
I'm sorry. You deserved better from me. I hope we can talk soon.
Short messages for flowers
Almost a third of romantic cards are five words or fewer, and that's perfectly fine. If you'd like to keep it short:
- Just because.
- Thinking of you.
- You make every day better.
- Missing you. Love you more.
- For no reason at all.
- Hope these make you smile.
One last thing. People often ask whether the florist reads the card. Yes, we do, since we write it out by hand. But it stays between us, you and the person who gets the flowers. In two years we've seen all kinds of words, so write freely.
Limitations
I tried to count honestly, but this study has limits, and it's worth being upfront about them.
- This is one studio. Our customers aren't all of America. At another shop the percentages could look different.
- A person did the tagging. We decided the occasion and the recipient based on what each card said. Some calls could go either way: "Thinking of you" can mean support or sympathy. When we couldn't tell, we marked it "unknown." That's 16% of cards.
- Cards and instructions sometimes get mixed. Customers type both the card message and notes for the florist ("no lilies, please") into the same field. We separated them by hand and may have made mistakes.
- A billing address isn't always a home address. Sometimes someone else pays, and sometimes a card is tied to an old address. So the split between locals and out-of-town customers is approximate.
- We left out small groups. Occasions with too few cards aren't shown in the charts about love and length. The Valentine's findings are based on two seasons.
- Percentages only. We don't publish order counts on purpose. This study is about what people write, not about our sales.
Frequently asked questions
What do you write on a flower card?
The recipient's name, one honest sentence about the occasion and your name. If it fits, add love: 7 out of 10 people do.
How long should a flower card message be?
Most are 6 to 25 words, one or two sentences plus a signature. That's what 69% of people write. Sympathy cards can be longer, and a card for someone you love can be very short.
Does the florist read the card?
Yes, because the florist writes it out. At Kvetka, every card is handwritten. What it says stays between you, the recipient and us.
What do you write on sympathy flowers?
Briefly say you're sorry, let them know you're there for them, and sign your name. Don't be afraid of the word love: it appears in 69% of the sympathy cards we write.
In closing
I started out simply curious about what people write on flower cards. The answer turned out shorter than I expected.
People love. Their friends more often than their partners. Those in other cities especially. And they say it even when they're writing about a loss.
We've written every one of these cards by hand. Now, when I pick up a pen and see another "Love you," I know it isn't a template. It's what 7 out of 10 people write.
If there's someone you want to say something to, send them flowers. Order flower delivery with a handwritten note, and we'll copy your words by hand and tuck them into the bouquet.
