Super-long roses cost $260 a dozen

Valentine's Day has been super-sized. 

A variety of rose that reaches six feet in height is gaining in popularity this Valentine's Day, with some romantics betting that the most effective way to show their love is with gigantic flowers. 

The super-long rose won't come cheap -- that is, if you can find it. FTD has sold out of the five-foot variety, although a shorter four-foot variety is still available. If your heart is set on sending your sweetie the longest rose on the market, then The Ultimate Rose website is offering a dozen of the flowers for about $260.

That means a dozen of the super-sized roses are more than quadruple the price of a bouquet of regular long-stem roses. 

"They're shocking, and that's the point," Kit Yarrow, a consumer research psychologist, tells USA Today. 

Paying more for the super-sized roses doesn't just deliver more length: The blossoms also have twice as many petals, according to USA Today. 

It takes special conditions to grow these giant flowers. The roses grow in Ecuador's volcanic soil, at 10,000 feet above sea level, and are left on the stem for about four months. That's twice as long as the typical rose, FTD vice president of design Michael Skaff told the newspaper. 

While the roses have been available on FTD for the past few years, demand has continued to spike, with sales jumping 50% year over year, according to FTD.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that sales of the super-long roses have picked up along with the economy. If shelling out $300 for roses that are probably taller than your Valentine seems, well, over the top, there are other slightly shorter choices, like the single-stem four-foot rose sold by FTD. It'll only set you back $70. 

More on moneyNOW

• Burger King brews up fancy coffee
  

• Obamacare even reaches the Navajo nation

• Bin Laden's shooter gets no pension or protection