You might walk past a grave and see a beautiful bouquet of flowers and think “Those would look good in my living room,” but (we’re hoping) you don’t follow through on the impulse for free flora. However, one florist has been accused of repeatedly stealing plants and flowers from local grave sites. [More]
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Direct Flights From Kenya Means Direct Shipments From Flower Farms
By 2.24.17
Until now, airlines couldn’t have direct flights from Kenya to the United States: Travelers had to change planes in a third country because Kenya’s biggest airport didn’t meet the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s safety and security standards to send planes here directly. Now non-stop flights are beginning, and that means direct shipments of fresh vegetables and flowers. [More]
Here’s How Colombia Is Trying To Keep Cocaine Out Of Your Valentine’s Day Flowers
By 2.14.17
When you stick your face into a fresh bouquet of Valentine’s Day flowers and take a deep whiff, you’re not expecting to inhale a bunch of cocaine. That would be a huge problem, and one that flower exporters in South America are working hard to prevent in order to protect their business (and your noses). [More]
Kenya Is Now The World’s 4th Largest Flower Grower
By 2.12.16
If you give or receive any flowers this Valentine’s Day, they were most likely imported from somewhere with a much warmer climate and lower wages than the United States. On Valentine’s Day, when tradition demands that massive amounts of roses be ready all at once, many of the flowers delivered or aavailable for sale may have come from Kenya, which has a great climate for delivering roses in mid-February, and has less demand from its recent biggest customers. [More]
4 Things We’ve Learned About Getting The Best Valentine’s Day Flowers For Your Money
By 2.8.16
Every year, after the major flower-giving holidays, readers send us photos of what they ordered and what they actually received. It’s a dismaying scene, and what we really want is to never publish another of these features again. That’s why we’re sharing what we’ve learned about the flower business from readers and from florists in the 10 years that Consumerist has been around. [More]
Customs Officials In Miami Keep Finding Cocaine, Heroin Hidden In Flower Shipments
By 8.21.15
Stopping to smell the roses takes on a whole new meaning down in Miami, where federal officials say they’ve found several shipments of flowers going through the airport with cocaine and heroin hidden in them. [More]
Americans Plan To Spend Slightly More On Moms This Year
By 4.28.15
Mother’s Day is our nation’s greatest guilt holiday: mothers brought us into the world, raised us, or even both, and we can at least buy them brunch and a handful of tulips, right? Of course! Stuff isn’t a proxy for love, but the National Retail Federation tells us that Americans plan to spend an average of $172.63 each on Mother’ Day festivities this year. [More]
Valentine’s Day Aftermath: Floral Disaster And Floral Delight
By 2.17.15
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. [More]
Florist Wire Services Try To Sort Out Frozen Flowers Disaster Via Twitter
By 2.16.15
Earlier today, we highlighted the feat of globalization that brings millions of red roses to our doorsteps on one specific date. Unfortunately, mid-February this year is a time of bitterly cold temperatures in much of the country. Cool temperatures preserve cut flowers, but cold temperatures can destroy cut flowers and kill live plants. That’s why this Valentine’s Day hasn’t been so great for the national flower-delivery brands. [More]
How Millions Of Roses Are Ready Just In Time For Valentine’s Day
By 2.16.15 — Updated: 2.13.17
It would make a lot of people in the flower business very happy if we would just reschedule Valentine’s Day to sometime in July. If we would do that, they wouldn’t have to rush to transport millions of roses from warm climates to colder ones before the very firm deadline of February 14. We’re stuck with that date, and that’s why farmers and wholesalers need to use plant hormones, heaters, fans, and passenger jets to get roses ready at just the right time. [More]
How To Amaze Your Valentine Without Screwing Over Your Local Florist
By 2.9.15
Shopping online is simple: you see a picture of the thing that you want to buy, click on it, type in your credit card, and then that thing arrives on your doorstep or the doorstep of your gift recipient. This simplicity falls apart when it comes to ordering flowers online, which leads to plenty of disappointment. Here’s how to avoid that. [More]
1800Flowers Sends Grandma Small, Non-Seasonal Christmas Bouquet
By 1.15.15
Reader Philip likes to send people flowers, and that includes his grandmother. He used the 1800Flowers.com website to send her a very festive arrangement for Christmas, and she was pleased enough to post it on Facebook. Philip wasn’t pleased, though. What he saw online wasn’t what he had paid for. He tried to get 1800Flowers to explain what went wrong. They gave him a refund, but no explanation. [More]
Bad Transcription Means 1-800-Flowers Card Implies Dead Grandma Had Diarrhea
By 9.30.14 — Updated: 2.14.17
Douglas, a reader of the New York Times’ “Haggler” column, decided to send flowers with a lighthearted message to his grandmother’s funeral instead of attending. He sent them through 1-800-Flowers, dictating his message for the card to the customer service representative who took his order over the phone: “FAR WELL GRANDMY YOU HAD A GOOD RUNS.” Wait, that doesn’t sound right. [More]
1-800-Flowers Will Shell Out $143M To Buy Harry & David
By 9.2.14
Love is in the air, and in this case the couple-to-be has plenty of gift options to choose from to celebrate the occasion — 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. says it’ll be buying Harry & David for $143 million in cash, in an effort to take on the gift-giving world and fill it with its wares. [More]
Flower Power: FTD Buys ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries And More For $430M
By 7.30.14
Maybe someone should send FTD a bouquet of flowers to celebrate its recent expansion. Then again, the company probably has enough flowers now that it’s agreed to buy Provide Commerce, the company behind ProFlowers. [More]
Do You Have Questions Only A Florist Can Answer?
By 6.9.14
A few weeks ago, we shared with you some insider tips from a former florist who explained that the real arrangements we receive look meager compared to website photos because the arrangements in photos are designed for two-dimensional photographs. We wondered whether our readers had other questions about the flower business that she could answer, and she has agreed to answer your questions. [More]
Here’s Why Florists’ Websites And Reality Will Never Match Up
By 5.16.14
A common consumer complaint about flower deliveries is that the arrangements that show up on our loved ones’ doorsteps isn’t as tall or full as the pictures we saw of the arrangement online. A former florist wrote to Consumerist to explain why this is. The photos from FTD, Teleflora, and other Big Flower companies are staged to look nice for the camera, but real-life is three-dimensional. [More]
In National Florist Tournament, FTD’s Tiny Bouquets Win Slightly
By 5.8.14
We post pictures of floral horrors and call them the Garden of Discontent, but our petal-pushing colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports took a more scientific approach to the question of which flowers are best in advance of Mother’s Day. They ordered their own flowers, then evaluated what showed up. Which bouquet was good enough for even the finest mothers? [More]
