How much would you pay for this bouquet?

I think it's also worth getting a vase that suits that hand-tied shape - I've got a big fishbowl type vase for bunches like that, so once you've trimmed the stems to the right length, the narrow opening keeps the arrangement in the right place.

This, its not a fair question when a lot of it has been removed.

Green is really "in" at the minute in horticulture/gardening/flowers so it's not a surprise there was plenty of foliage. We'd also need to see the hydrangea to see whether or not it looked right in the bunch.

It looks to me as though she's dissected it and rearranged it significantly including cutting things to funny lengths (as well as removing too much of it) so my feeling is she may have ruined a stunning modern arrangement and made it look like something a bit dated that you could have bought at a supermarket.

If you ever buy your dp’s mum flowers again, I’d pay for them to be delivered in a hat box so they’re pre arranged and don’t need a vase. They look terrible because the vase is way too small and she’s removed half the bouquet. Presuming they arrived in cellophane with a bulb of water at the bottom and a cardboard carrier, she’d have been better to have left them in that.

I think £70.

I think 70 was about right. They look pretty, bet they are nice in the vase.

This
I'd say up to £50?
I was thinking that anyway before twigging that she's farted about with it taking bits out moaning about hydrangea heads and foliage.
Then again if you're going to message her with negativity, in my experience that only invites whinging back lol so no sympathy 😁

sixty quid

I can take a £60 bouquet and make it look like it cost £8 in Aldi. Some people are crap at flower arranging and I'm sadly one of them.
DH does amazing things with wildflowers from the garden and a few roses.

Lilies really are toxic to cats- and unlike dogs, cats can reach flowers up high and nibble on them.

Many garden plants are toxic to dogs and cats, too...Wolfsbane, henbane, anything with ''Bane'' in the name...poppies, foxgloves - be careful with these.

That's a beautiful display-{Pic in post I am quoting} the ''foliage'' that was chucked would probably have made everything look much better - the vase and flowers absolutely look wrong in OP's pic- - but live and learn- Flowers by post are never going to be good.

Are Tesco selling long stemmed bouquets with delphiniums and hydrangea where you are?!

I wouldn’t pay more than £35 for that. Would cost maybe £25 in Tesco. When I’ve received flowers I try to pick the most appropriate vase I’ve got and follow any instructions. It annoys me if there is more foliage than flowers though. I do try to maintain them over the course of their life. Warning - I got some beautiful lilies recently and they nearly killed our cat. Didn’t know they were poisonous to cats and she spent 2 days at vet hospital on drip and medication for breathing probs!

If it was put together nicely it would have looked like a bigger version of this.

I don't think it's fair to try to value a bouquet that's had the centrepiece and the foliage taken out. I always try to put the bouquet in the vase as close to the original tied arrangement as possible. I also wouldn't value it on the first day when the buds haven't opened - lots of buds are what you want for longevity but it's hardly going to look its best on the first day.

You’ve just said yourself, half the bouquet was removed?

Cheap because you've got short cheap flowers in there like spray carnations, spray chrysanthemums, alstro and bullet roses. Pull that apart and there won't be many stems of each but because they're tied in a certain way and packaged it gives the illusion of looking like more.

Take half of foliage out, remove the lily, rearrange it yourself and stick it in a short vase and everyone will be telling you they could get that bunch in ALDI for £1.50.....

@letthem those are pretty and good value

Florist here....

In all fairness, those flowers would have come as a handtied and your Mum has cut the string and re-arranged them herself taking stuff out in the process. The vase is too short and the wrong shape for the height of those flowers. If you hold a long stemmed bunch at the bottom, the flowers will splay out widely at the top, which gives the illusion of being sparse. Hold the stems too near the top and they will bunch together tightly which will make it look smaller.

In floristry, you pay more per stem for quality and length. The price differential can be substantial. It's why supermarket flowers are so cheap because they are generally short and low grade flowers plus the supermarkets have huge buying power. Some farms will sell all of their stock to a supermarket which will hammer the price down even further. It's like comparing Tesco Value Sausages with Waitrose fillet steak.

Those flowers look like good quality. I would hazard a guess that the fireplace is around the two foot mark so they are also long stemmed. The flower list is...
Hydrangea x 1
Roses x 3
Lisianthus x 3
Delphiniums x 3
Chrysanthemum x 2
Foliage

They're all expensive flowers. I'm not working at the moment so a bit out of the loop on prices but let's just say I wouldn't be putting a hydrangea in a £35 handtied unless it was a few simple stems in brown paper because hydrangeas are £££.

Florist choice is generally the best option because a good florist will choose the best combination available for the budget. The difficulty is £70 can look very different depending on the flowers you use and the person who is making it. In the shop, some customers want quality (i.e. the Neptune ladies who lunch brigade) and some customers want size (generally most blokes who don't care if you use the cheaper stems). It's easier to gauge this face to face but unless someone specifically asks for a compact handtied, I try to make things as large as possible because people don't want to feel short changed.

Flower prices are insane at the moment thanks to Brexit and cost of living. It's a bloody hard way to earn a living and most florists earn either minimum wage or not much more. Lots of shops have gone in the last year or so because a lot of people just can't make the numbers work.

A really good florist an absolute joy to walk into but sadly the majority of the public have no idea what quality looks like in terms of flowers because they've been hypnotised by the car crash that is the supermarket flower stand.

In future try Freddie's Flowers - they show you how to arrange them and you get a lovely selection that lasts a couple of weeks for £25

These cost me £20 each recently (including delivery)

£30 max you were ripped off

Sorry to hear about your mum. Brexit was the biggest con around.

My Mum is a florist and Brexit has nearly destroyed their trade. It's a nightmare getting the flowers in from Holland and prices have trebled. Even foliage is £3/£4 a stem for a lot of it and is often more expensive than flowers. Roses can be anything up to £4 a stem, lilies up to £6. Wholesale prices. Add in the preparation, storage, arranging into a bouquet, then delivering - she is barely scraping by.

I would have got your Mum a hand tied bouquet then she could have just put it on display.

£70!
I always wonder if I could bung a bunch from a nice independent flower shop in a box and post it myself! Might try one day soon.
had similar with a birthday cake, mil. Wanted to get posh from a delivery place, it was a agin, a million pounds, dry and yuk. Much better off with a chocolate birthday cake from lidl with extra smarties/ fruit on the top. And she’d have about 30.

I can't understand anyone saying £60!

That would be £25-£30 where I live.