Whether your friend or a family member has purchased a new home or is moving into a recently rented abode, it is an occasion to celebrate, and you can make their new place feel like home with a thoughtful housewarming gift such as a floral arrangement, living plant, or flowers to start their garden.
Do Flowers and Plants Make Good Housewarming Gifts?
Flowers and plants make excellent housewarming gifts because they’re always appropriate. Floral arrangements and living plants are appreciated by everyone, no one can have too many of them, and they will complement any style of decor. Plus, flowers and plants make interior spaces feel warmer and more inviting, which is the exact goal of giving a housewarming present.
When Should I gift Flowers or Plants for Housewarming Gifts?
Flowers or plants can be gifted anytime someone you know is moving into a new home. Whether they’ve purchased their house or are renting a new place, a housewarming gift is a perfect way to congratulate the achievement, celebrate their new home, offer your best wishes, and help their house feel more like home.
Both flowers and houseplants are always appropriate and will be well-received. When choosing between a floral arrangement or a houseplant, consider your recipient, how much time they have, and which option you think they would prefer. While floral arrangements are low-maintenance, houseplants are long-lasting.
The Best Types of Flowers to Give for Housewarming Gifts
Which types of flowers and plants make an excellent choice for a housewarming gift? In the Victorian language of flowers, also known as floriography, the following blossoms are synonymous with housewarming gestures. Consider these flowers when giving a gift for a housewarming celebration:
1. Daffodils
With their sunny white-and-yellow trumpet faces, Daffodils are the perfect choice for a floral housewarming gift. Since they’re among the first flowers to bloom in springtime, they represent the end of winter and symbolize new beginnings and rebirth. To celebrate the new beginning of the homeowners in your life, give them cut stems in a bouquet or a pot of daffodil bulbs to help start their garden with a splash of sunshine.
2. Chrysanthemums
Generally, chrysanthemums symbolize happiness, love, and longevity, which are perfect sentiments for celebrating a housewarming. Chrysanthemums bloom in just about every color of the rainbow, and each different color also has its own, more specific symbolic meaning. For example, green button chrysanthemums also represent good luck and prosperity.
You can either gift a live chrysanthemum in full bloom or choose a floral arrangement featuring these cheerful blossoms in all different shapes, sizes, and colors.
3. Tulips
Another bulb plant, the tulip, is one of the most popular and has been popularly cultivated for centuries. As a result, there are countless varieties available. Generally, tulips symbolize love, and red tulips take on this symbolic meaning even more strongly. A gift of red tulips might symbolize the wish for the new home to be filled with love. Choose pink tulips for happiness, yellow tulips for cheerful thoughts, or a multicolored bouquet to capture all your best wishes.
4. Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are shrub-growing plants that produce globe-shaped clusters of small, delicate flowers in shades of white, pink, blue, and purple, depending on the soil’s acidity in which they are grown. Pink and purple hydrangeas symbolize appreciation and achievement – perfect sentiments for a new homeowner. Like other popular housewarming flowers, hydrangeas can be gifted as cut flowers in an arrangement or as a living plant that can be grown in the new garden in growing zones 3 to 7.
5. Roses
Roses have incomparable beauty and are universally loved, making them a good choice for just about any occasion. Like other flowers, different colors and different shades of roses (of which there are many) have different symbolic meanings. Some of the most appropriate for a housewarming might be yellow, which symbolizes friendship, lavender for love at first sight (which is probably what the homeowner felt when they first saw their new house), and orange for excitement.
6. Stargazer Lilies
Stargazer lilies have a wonderful, exotic beauty. They’re beautiful on their own or showcased with other flowers in a bouquet. They come in white, pink, and yellow. Pink and yellow are the most appropriate choices for housewarming gifts.
Pink stargazers symbolize abundance and prosperity, while yellow stargazers represent joy. White stargazer lilies are beautiful, but their symbolic meaning of innocence and purity are notably less relevant to homeownership.
However, you should note that lilies are not appropriate if your recipients have pet cats because lilies are highly toxic and can be fatal for felines.
7. Peonies
Peonies in any color make an excellent gift for celebrating a housewarming. They are adorable with their many ruffled petals and unique shapes and hues, but they also hold a variety of appropriate symbolic meanings. Traditionally, peonies symbolize love, good fortune, a happy marriage, wealth, and honor. Given to mark a special occasion, they often represent joy, best wishes, and goodwill.
8. Orchids
Like other flowers, orchids have different symbolic meanings that depend on the color of their flowers. Pink orchids represent femininity, grace, and joy; white orchids symbolize purity and innocence; orange orchids represent boldness and enthusiasm; and yellow orchids, symbolizing new beginnings and friendship, are probably the best choice for a housewarming gift. In feng shui, orchids are thought to represent energies of abundance and fruitfulness.
9. Sunflowers
Sunflowers are a quintessentially joyful plant, and their sunny faces are an excellent choice for warming a new home with happiness. Traditionally, sunflowers represent happiness, optimism, peace, longevity, devotion, and admiration, all nice sentiments to pass to a new homeowner. Sunflowers can be gifted alone in rustic-looking bouquets, paired with other blossoms, or even given as seeds to grow in the garden, along with a message that you hope the new homeowners follow the sunshine just like the sunflowers do.
10. Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria flowers are commonly found in professional floral arrangements because they blossom in countless colors and combinations of hues. The symbolic meanings of alstroemeria flowers vary slightly depending on the color of the blooms. Still, generally, they are a spectacular choice for any close friend or relative who is celebrating a housewarming. They represent close friendship, love, devotion, support, and strength. Given to friends, they symbolize a bond in which both parties mutually support each other through the ups and downs of life.
What Are the Best Plants to Gift for Housewarmings?
1. Jade Plants
In feng shui, jade plants are thought to attract positive energy and represent good luck, wealth, prosperity, and abundance. Jade plants are also hardy and incredibly long-lasting. In fact, when properly cared for, jade plants often outlive their original owners and turn into heirloom plants that are passed down through generations in families. As a result, these are a favorite for celebrating the beginning of a new life in a new home.
2. Fiddle Leaf Figs
Fiddle leaf figs are another popular houseplant in feng shui practices. Their large, round, and glossy leaves are said to draw in positive, nourishing energy and attract abundance, wealth, good luck, and prosperity. They make an excellent addition to a new home. In addition to their positive attributes in feng shui, they are also currently a highly fashionable houseplant. They aren’t too challenging to grow and keep healthy with the right care.
3. Monstera Plants
Monstera plants have different symbolic meanings, depending on whether you’re considering eastern or western traditions. In the east, they have positive connotations, symbolizing longevity, honor, and respect. In the west, however, their fast-growing shoots and aerial roots symbolize suffocation.
Regardless of symbolic meaning, monstera plants (especially the Monstera deliciosa, the Monstera adonsonii, and variegated cultivars) are currently en vogue in all styles of interior design and decorating. No matter what, a monstera plant is sure to be well-received as a housewarming present.
4. Peace Lilies
With their lush foliage and creamy-white, lily-like blossoms, peace lily plants exude elegant beauty and emit a pleasant aura of positive symbolic meanings, including peace, harmony, calmness, prosperity, healing, and hope. They’re a lovely choice and relatively easy to grow requiring minimal light exposure, moderate humidity, and are largely pest and disease resistant, making them a nice gift for beginner green thumbs that are just moving into a new home.
5. Pothos Plants
Pothos plants are another excellent choice for celebrating the achievements of a new homeowner. They symbolize perseverance and determination, two necessary qualities for buying a house to call one’s own.
Additionally, pothos plants (especially the golden pothos species) are popular good feng shui plants that neutralize negative energy and attract positive energy. They are also straightforward to grow, as they are hardy, fast-growing, and can tolerate most light and moisture conditions.
6. Snake Plants
The snake plant is another low-maintenance, easy-to-grow houseplant that’s perfect for beginners. Snake plants are good air purifiers and are also popular feng shui plants, as their upright-growing leaves generate upward, uplifting energy.
They also have some very appropriate symbolic meanings as housewarming gifts. They represent tenacity, persistence, cleanliness, and happiness – all qualities that everyone hopes for in a new homeowner and a new home.
7. Money Trees
If the name of this popular houseplant doesn’t give it away, the money tree (Pachira aquatica) is a symbol of wealth, prosperity, and abundance in feng shui and in other traditions, too.
They also represent good luck and are thought to draw positive energy into a home. Additionally, money trees are popular to grow and have a fun silhouette with trunks that are often braided with a burst of deep-green, ovate leaves at the top.
8. Areca Palms
Areca palms are another good feng shui plant, attracting positive energy into a home in addition to generating wealth, abundance, prosperity, and good luck.
These palms can be auspiciously placed near the entrance of a home or in the southeast corner of the house or home office to encourage productivity. If the new homeowners aren’t into symbolism and the principles of feng shui, areca palms still make great gifts.
They have attractive, large, soft, split-leave fronds and are relatively easy to grow, given enough sunlight and the proper moisture.
9. Cacti and Succulents
In feng shui, cacti and succulents generally don’t have a positive connotation because their pointy stems, leaves, and spines are thought to generate negative energy. These plants, however, are attractive and, most importantly, they’re the most low-maintenance plants of them all because they rarely need to be watered. If your new homeowner has a busy schedule, choosing a cactus or succulent is the best way to go.
Popular Online Florists and Plant Shops for Housewarming Gifts
Whether you can’t be there on the day or looking to send flowers ahead of the housewarming, these popular online flower delivery specialists curate a wide variety of flower arrangements and houseplants suitable for housewarming gifts:
FLOWERBX ($$$)
FLOWERBX is a luxury floral design company and brand. Their floral designs are distinguished and modern, offering a world-class, high-caliber look with floral arrangements of single flower types creating clean, exciting designs.
While this company does not offer a specific collection of housewarming gifts, they do have a variety of floral arrangements, houseplants, and home goods gifts such as vases and home fragrances that would be perfect for any housewarming celebration.
Prices range from $70 to $280. FLOWERBX offers same-day and next-day deliveries nationwide.
UrbanStems ($$)
UrbanStems offers modern, seasonal designs by sourcing the most on-trend flowers from their select flower farms to create unique, one-of-a-kind arrangements entirely in-house.
Floral bouquets, fresh floral wreaths, plants, and gifts for housewarming feature a range of styles, colors, and stems in a flexible price range, with smaller arrangements starting at around $45 and going up in price with size, complexity, and rarity of the stems included.
They provide seamless delivery and shipping experiences available from coast-to-coast.
From You Flowers ($)
From You Flowers has a fun variety of floral arrangements that feature classic and more modern designs. For housewarming, they suggest a wide variety of floral bouquets and live plants in addition to baskets of edible goodies to help fill your friend’s new pantry or cupboard.
Their wide selection of plants, gifts, and floral arrangements curated specifically for housewarming occasions range in price from about $30 to $150. They offer same-day and next-day delivery options with every order. However, the same-day selection of gifts is slightly more limited.
The Bouqs Co. ($$)
The Bouqs Co. has a variety of modern and playful floral designs featuring a variety of seasonal and out-of-season specialty flowers. They uniquely offer floral subscription services, and subscribers enjoy 30% off their bouquets.
For housewarming, they have a large selection of suggested floral designs, houseplants, and fruit baskets that range from about $50 to $80. The Bouqs Co. provides same-day and next-day delivery options nationwide. With the Bouqs Co., you can gift a single arrangement or subscribe to continue warming your friend’s new home for months.
Ode à la Rose ($$$)
Ode à la Rose is a playful, modern floral company that prides itself on creating unique floral designs and consistently delivering the freshest, most high-quality stems in its fun, signature delivery box. Ode à la Rose does offer a wide variety of designs, including everlasting roses, with bouquets ranging in price from under $75 to over $150.
This florist offers next-day delivery nationwide and same-day delivery in major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Teleflora ($$)
Teleflora has a wide selection of everyday, creative and beautiful floral designs available for ordering nationwide. With Teleflora, you can expect the same quality of arrangement you requested to be delivered to your recipient without any surprises.
Teleflora offers same-day and scheduled delivery by working with local florists who produce beautiful, high-quality flower arrangements in your recipient’s town. Their specially curated selection of housewarming gifts, including plants and bouquets, range from around $40 to under $150.
Floom ($$$)
Floom has whimsical and modern floral designs featuring the freshest flowers and artful, unique looks. Their collection of housewarming gifts features a variety of carefully curated gift baskets. However, they also have a wide selection of floral designs to choose from as well.
Gifts are available at a range of price points. Prices, however, shift, depending on where you’re sending your flowers. So be sure to enter your zip code before you begin shopping. Partnered with countless thoroughly vetted local florists, Floom makes same-day delivery available to several major cities around the United States. A next-day or scheduled delivery is available everywhere else.
Terrain ($$$)
Terrain is an online home and garden store offering a wide selection of fresh and dried flowers, floral arrangements, floral wreaths, houseplants, garden tools, furniture, decor, and gifts for the home.
Any choice from Terrain would make a wonderful housewarming gift. Prices vary greatly depending on your selection, with flower bunches starting at $12 and artfully mounted live plants running up to almost $500. Delivery times vary depending on the recipient’s location.
The Sill ($$)
The Sill specializes in delivering high-quality, healthy houseplants right to your recipient’s door. However, they also offer a wide selection of flowers and botanicals, dried flowers, fake plants, home decor, other potential housewarming gifts.
You can select various designs, containers, and houseplant sizes or shop by growing difficulty. Their curated selection of housewarming presents ranges from $28 to $115. Delivery times vary depending on the recipient’s location.
Bloomscape ($$)
Bloomscape is an online indoor houseplant shop. They have a wide selection of green and blooming houseplants in several sizes, different planters and curated into other choices by growing difficulty, air purification properties, pet safety, and more.
Additionally, they have a selection of houseplant care tools and gift sets that come with a plant and everything your recipient needs to keep it healthy.
Prices range from just under $50 to more than $200, and delivery times vary depending on your recipient’s location.
Choosing the Perfect Flowers or Plants for Housewarming Gifts
Any of the flowers or plants on this list would make wonderful housewarming gifts. When marking the occasion of a friend or family member moving into a new home, be sure to keep their own preferences in mind. Pick a favorite color or choose a plant that they’ll easily be able to care for, and you can’t go wrong.
