A lot of flowers will change hands this Valentine's Day. And whether you're on the buying or the receiving end, here's a bit of science you might want to know:

From a woman's perspective, a guy with flowers is hotter than a guy without flowers. This news flash come from recent studies at the University of South Brittany in France.

Women are much more likely to find a man attractive and accept a date with a stranger if they are in the presence of colorful flowers.

The guy doesn't even have to buy the flowers himself. Apparently the association between flowers and romance is so strong that all he has to do to spark female interest is be NEAR the flowers.

Here's how the studies worked: Female students watched video of a man talking about himself -- half in a room decorated with vases of flowers, half in an identical room without flowers. The women who watched the former rated the man as more attractive and were more willing to go on a date with him.

In a second study, the same experiment was repeated, only this time the women were led into a room and told to sit down where a man was waiting. They were told he was a fellow student taking part in the experiment, but in reality he was an actor. The man was instructed to talk for five minutes about the experiment, then to ask the woman on a date, using the exact same words.

Half the women who watched the video in the room wthout flowers accepted the man's proposition. But the figure rose to 81 percent for women who had recently been in contact with flowers.

Women under the influence of flowers are kinda like guys wearing beer goggles.

So if you're a guy, maybe you don't have to spring for the big overpriced bouquet of roses. Just bring your Valentine to the Como Park Conservatory.

What do you think -- are flowers the way to a woman's heart? How about a man's?