Any recent experiences of sending flowers?

[Pastachocolate]

I’ll be sending my mother flowers for Mothers Day and also separately May send some following a death.

What company do you recommend or not? (I did look for similar recent threads but didn’t find one but feel free to just link instead. I know it is quite a regular topic.)

I too always google a local florist and call them directly. I hate using the national ones like bloom/wild, interflora, prestige etc unless I have no choice.
As others said, I always recommend buying something in a box or vase. When my dad died, mum had flowers in coffee jars and even buckets, because she soon ran out of vases!
Another option is a potted plant- which hopefully won't died off as quickly as cut flowers.

That's what I go for. They have never disappointed, although once they contacted me and said they'd had feedback that some of the bunch I'd ordered had disappointed some of the recipients, so they were giving me a voucher to order a free bunch for anyone I liked.
I assured them the bunch had been beautiful, and they still let me order another for a totally different person, which was lovely.

As a former owner of a florist, I would urge you to use a local florist. You’re not only supporting a small business (and trust me, it’s not an easy one to be in - I would probably still be doing it if it was) but it means that you can talk to them directly, find out what’s fresh in and ensure that it’s actually what you want to send.

We have a lovely local florist but I won’t use them because the prices are just ridiculous. At Christmas she was charging £5 for one red rose. I went to Tesco and bought a whole bunch for £6.

I'm a florist

Call the florist local to the recipient. You will get more for your money I promise you. Interflora etc take about 50% of what you pay for your bouquet and the florist has to try and make the rest of your money look like the massively photoshopped picture online.

It's impossible and just leads to complaints. I've worked for plenty of Interflora/ Seronata types and they are mind crushingly disappointing.

Go for spring flowers, tulips, Iris, daffs, anemones. They all last well and can stand being out of water for a while, which can happen with deliveries. Lilies also a good choice for the same reason.

Ring your florist and ask them to give you a breakdown of roughly what will be in the bouquet. Ask them if there are any hidden charges for wrapping/ what their make up fee is. A good florist will internally roll their eyes but should be happy to tell you, so you can make a decision about whether you think the value is worth it.

Yes, independent florists are expensive. Relay flowers like Interflora/ Next/ M&S etc are made by people on minimum wage with no experience or understanding of flowers in a massive shed on an industrial estate. The quality is completely hit and miss. If you're lucky enough to get a bouquet delivered when they've just had a delivery of fresh flowers then great. Otherwise yours could have been sitting in a warehouse for a week or more before they're sent out.

Marks and Spencers. Some people prefer a plant rather than a bunch of flowers as it should last longer.

I've currently got Bloom & Wild ones going strong - they arrived about a week ago.

I usually use M&S or Waitrose.

@Pastachocolate surprised about the love for Bloom & Wild tbh.

Last three boxes received have been very poor quality, minimal stems and wilted flowers which did not revive.

Was refunded after complaining on behalf of sender.

As a pp suggested, google a local florist, to your recipient, someone with great reviews.

Contrary to the consensus here, I don’t rate Bloom and Wild. I’ve received some awful flowers from them (broken stems, squashed flowers) which, as the receiver, puts you in an awkward position. It feels ungrateful to complain to the sender and you have no way to complain to the company without the order details.

I usually google a florist local to the recipient with good reviews and order from them.

I get this, I really do.

However, the overheads of a local independent business are totally different to that of a National Supermarket chain , for whom flowers are often a loss leader to get people into the shop. Their buying power is absolutely immense

• M&S a couple of years ago cornered the market so spectacularly in Sarah Bernhardt peonies by buying virtually all of Europe's output that the prices of what was available shot through the roof for the rest of us due to scarcity. People coming to our shop couldn't believe the prices. So we gave up trying to sell peonies that year. Which was a real fucking shame. My brides went into a complete spiral at our prices.

It actually would have been cheaper to buy them from M&S and put 10% on, but that's not how our margins work.

We can't all afford independent retailer prices, I completely understand that. But when you CAN, please consider spending with us because otherwise we'll have nothing of interest in the high street and we'll have no-one but ourselves to blame ( well, apart from the government, Brexit and local councils)

Serenata Flowers were hopeless for us. M&S have been great.

@beetr00 crossed posts!!

I would support the comments made about Prestige Flowers.
Appalling flowers, appalling service and not prepared to refund. They even block people on their social media if they comment negatively.

I'm going back to using my mum's local florist.

I've had flowers from Eflorist, next, m and s and bloom and wild recently. Next and eflorist lasted longest/looked good. Bloom and wild were delivered late. Eflorist were delivered by amazon and looked lovely.

I've always had lovely bouquets from Bunches UK

I agree about searching for a local florist.
But Serenata are truly awful.

The local florist wanted £15 to deliver a bouquet to my late Mum. She lived 5 minutes walk from them. Conversely a florist in the next town sent a beautiful bouquet with free delivery.

I’ve sent quite a few flowers recently, the best are local florists by far. I would not recommend M and S, serenata or bunches as the flowers did not look fresh or last as long I had expected.

Waitrose have been good.

@Amaarlia wow! Makes you wonder how they carry on trading with those reviews!

I sent some via Waitrose to a very isolated place and they arrived.

Just remembered another thing about Prestige Flowers - the Mothers Day flowers arrived several days after Mothers Day!

I really rate Bloom and Wild. I have a monthly subscription and the flowers last very well. At Christmas I sent my mum a huge bouquet and she still had some of them well into new year.

This discount code will get you £10 off Bloom and Wild

Bloom and wild discount code

Local florist every time - in 30 years my local one has never let me down.

I order lots of flowers for work. I always google local businesses and support local. Check the reviews