Daniel ordered what’s called a “country bundle” from 1-800-Flowers for his girlfriend. When we have flowers delivered, we’re not buying dead plant stems. If that were the case, there wouldn’t be such a large industry built around flower delivery. What we’re buying is the experience of dazzling our partner when they see the flowers. Daniel’s girlfriend received this arrangement, but she wasn’t dazzled. Should she have been?

He was disappointed that he spent $50 and got what looks like a bunch of greenery and not the bucket of roses pictured on the site. Ah, but what are those? The flowers aren’t dead. They just haven’t bloomed yet.

Maybe not-quite-bloomed flowers are a metaphor for love itself: seeing the flower at its fullest requires patience and care. The more pragmatic explanation, though, is that if the roses shipped in full bloom, they’re more likely to become damaged and would die within days. His girlfriend will get to enjoy the flowers much longer this way…even if the initial presentation was a little disappointing.

Wait, did we just apologize for a national chain florist? I think we did!

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