Valentine’s Day isn’t the biggest flower-sending holiday on the calendar. That would be Mothers’ Day. It remains an important flower-giving holiday, though, and one during which florists need to obtain massive quantities of red roses. Here’s one flower delivery that went terribly wrong, and one that turned out beautifully.

Here’s what E’s husband ordered for her from FTD’s catalog. Pretty, isn’t it?

The flowers arrived while she was taking her child to school, and was out of the house for no more than ten minutes. While she lives in the Northeast where it’s cold and chilly outside right now, if the cold destroys flowers this quickly, then no one should be leaving any deliveries outside at all.

Here’s what was on her doorstep.

E. contacted FTD, and they did make things right. They’re giving a full refund, as well as re-delivering some replacement flowers.

It’s not all bad news. Reader Michael remains delighted with his purchase. He went directly to his local florist instead of ordering through a national wire service site.

“Here’s an example of why a local florist is good idea. A dozen roses bought on Thursday night,” he wrote, having taken the photo today. They’re still looking fresh and… not dead.

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