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For the past five years, Molly Culver, owner of Molly Oliver Flowers in Brooklyn, has mounted a quiet battle against the goliath of Valentine’s Day flowers: the rose. Classically red, multilayered, prickly and velvety, millions of roses, most imported from overseas, will be sold for the annual day of love. But Ms. Culver is among the growing number of florists and flower enthusiasts who want to know: Would you consider tulips instead?

Consumers in the United States are expected to spend nearly $3 billion on flowers for the holiday this year, according to the National Retail Federation. Most of that will be spent on roses, but there are signs that the tulip, more commonly associated with spring and Mother’s Day, has emerged in recent years as a surprising and more sustainable alternative.

At UrbanStems, an online flower retailer, the choice of tulips in February is “catching on really fast,” said Meenakshi Lala, the chief executive.

UrbanStems, which began offering tulips for Valentine’s Day in 2021, expects to sell twice as many tulips this Valentine’s Day as it did last year.

“We are expecting to reach upwards of 4,000 tulip orders this Valentine’s Day cycle,” she said, noting that the cycle is “typically six to seven days.”

And while that number is dwarfed by how many roses the company expects to sell (1.8 million stems), it’s not exactly a fair comparison. UrbanStems uses roses of various prices and arrangements, almost the way a painter would use a shade of blue. But the tulip bouquets are just that — premium tulips.