You don't need to receive one of the gifted flowers in order to receive the special plant, you just need to gift something. But it's polite to take at least one (or more) as a favor to people that day, to make sure everyone has a chance at getting the special flower. 
It's a good opportunity for newcomers to get lots of flowers and not feel grabby, too.
I took it, LN. What a pretty lineage!
Just to clarify: There are some HoV variants that you can get in the wild, but others that are bred only, which is why you'll want the Bleeding Hearts. I don't know fur sure which ones, but I think at least this one is bred only: 
All of my others I have at least two that were found in the wild, although with one variant, my second one was gifted, so that variant might also be bred only. To clarify further: The first year a variant is out, you'll get the newest variant by gifting a plant to another user if you gift it ON the 14th. We all generally use the gifting thread, and there are generally no rules that day about taking any. (Since we all want to make certain what we offer gets taken so we can get the new plant.) Make sure Exterminans has actually turned on the event first; also make sure you're not late, by whatever time zone he is in. Which might be Germany, but might not.
Last year we actually got a completely different plant, the Be My Valentine plant. Whether or not that one will be available in the wild, whether that plant will have further variants, or whether it will be able to breed with anything else, is completely unknown at this point.
Sometimes the automatic code on a website can get a bit strange, just because of the site's coding. You can always double check it (at least once you post it, and see it looking strange), by clicking the "Source" button when you're in edit mode.
If you're not sure what I'm talking about (it's not obvious if you were never looking for it), click the "edit" button for your reply, then look at the icon options at the top. If you click "Source" you'll see the actual source code. Which isn't as complex as it may seem at first, once you get used to it.
I think you meant Valentine's Day 2016. 
Hurdreve: It's not really a problem, except that it may occasionally be confusing to people when they gift you or receive a gift from you. I think there's a way to show something about ourselves in our profile, and you might let people know your garden name there. Or perhaps put the garden name in your sig for a while.
For the most part, it won't matter. We can access your garden via links, and the links themselves use a garden number. It's only if someone gets a plant from you, they might thank thank your garden name instead out of confusion.
Welcome back!
Edit: Just tried to access the garden you have in your About Me profile, and it says that it doesn't exist. I don't know if you can fix that, but maybe you can change what the garden number is to match what yours actually is. Not sure how, though. 
Your garden number is actually 8391, not 7098.
Oh, I am so sorry! She will be missed.
Tru, don't you have all the variants already? If not, maybe ask for a trade for any missing variants.
ChaosBalance: We don't always know when a variant (especially a holiday plant) is bred-only until we actually do one of our experiments. With holiday variants, it's because sometimes a variant is released in the wild during its initial year, and then afterwards you can only get that variant by breeding. This was the case with the Angel wreaths, the burning Christmas tree, and the palm Christmas tree. I think it was also the case with at least one variant of jack-o-lantern. Yes, this can cause confusion, which is why those experiments have been run to verify which variants are CURRENTLY bred-only, and which are not.
And, as we can see from what has been done this year, occasionally one or more variants that USED to be bred-only may become available in the wild. This was done with at least one Christmas Star this year, although I don't think we know for sure which variants yet.
Ok, so this means that the parentless stars in the garden are a new variant? Since in the past, all stars could only be gotten by breeding, I mean; there were no wild star seeds in the garden before this year.
Or are some of the older variants available in the wild as well? That's what I feel uncomfortable about.
Huh. I just went there, wondering as well, and I can't figure it out either. I can mark a conversation by ticking the check box, but there's no option anywhere to actually delete anything, at least not that I can find. How odd.
Shely, I mean if suddenly ALL variants of Stars are available wild, then it doesn't seem right. If it's a new variant, that's one thing, but if all variants are now available in the wild, that will be just wrong. It would be like suddenly all of the stars we've had for years are valueless, because they aren't parentless. That's what I feel is wrong about it.
Chevalier: Then that's new. In the past, you always had to breed them. Every single one of the Christmas Stars in my garden have been bred.
That actually kind of disturbs me, that now they can be caught wild. It sort of destroys the whole idea of how they have always been, and in a way, it punishes those that have been in the game for years. I do not like it at all.
Trees are now breedable with trees, which means that we should be able to find the wild seeds for them in the garden right now.
Haven't really looked, though, as I currently have no pots for them.
Oh, and is anyone going to do the experiments to check for bred-only variants for Christmas trees and wreaths? Obviously that doesn't apply to Christmas Stars, as they all have to be bred.
Jedi: They aren't there yet. I guess you didn't see my post. The only seeds in the wild are the Christmas Star seeds, which are dropped by players who are breeding their trees with poinsettias. When wild tree seeds start dropping, we'll also have the option of breeding trees with trees; that's how we'll know when wild ones are available. (Those two things should be linked.)
Thank you for letting us know! 
Btw, Blueheart, the ones in the wild are ones people have dropped. Christmas Stars can only be bred (they cannot be found wild, you breed them by breeding a Christmas tree with a poinsettia, or a Christmas Star with a poinsettia). Those seem to be the only plants available right now. Which means that yes, we can currently breed our Christmas Trees with poinsettias to make Christmas Stars, but at the moment, we can't breed trees with each other (to try to get the two bred-only variants), or breed any of the wreaths yet (to get the bred-only variant of that).
If they give us an idea when the various breeding periods end, then some of us will deliberately drop a bunch of seeds into the wild right before the whole event ends. But they haven't the past couple of events, so it's hard to say if they will give us an idea this time.
It varies when it starts. There are so many different plants, and so many variants of each, that it's better to start early than late.
Maybe we need to remind them to turn it on? Or maybe they're working on something good for us!
I hope it might start today, it would fit the idea of "twelve days of Christmas" at least.
They are all grown up now. I guess it's safe to say the other variants are bred-only so far.
Thanks so much to everyone who has participated!
That would leave the pear-shaped one, and the witch hat one as bred-only. Good to have that confirmed!
I would like to request help with these. We need them to help confirm Shely's thread: Happy Halloween Raising Experiment - Jack-o'lantern
Thanks!
At the very least, from the ones that have grown up, I think we have a pretty good idea that there are three that are probably bred-only: The hat one, the pear-shaped one, and the round one that has the top slightly off. None of those have shown up thus far, and all of those in my own garden were from breeding.
I posted them on the Garden Helpers thread, but I hope I didn't miss any.
