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]
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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]
Does The Garden Of Discontent Still Bloom In The Off-Season?
By 9.3.13
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? [More]
I Ordered Directly From A Local Florist, And It Was Awesome
By 3.12.13 — Updated: 2.14.17
Why are we still yammering about Valentine’s Day flowers? The holiday itself is long gone, but as birthdays, funerals, hospitalizations, and other occasions come and go, the problems with using national Big Flower websites remain. As another major flower-sending holiday, Mother’s Day, approaches, we’re sharing this story from reader Josh about how wonderfully his order from a local florist turned out. [More]
How About A Very Good Sparkling Rosé For Only $8?
By 2.7.11
Consumer Reports recently dipped their snifters into a batch of sparkling rosés and found that you don’t have to spend much green to get one that will keep you in the pink. [More]
This Florist Has A Loose Grasp Of Geometry, Flower Arranging
By 4.10.09
Erik ordered an unusual flower arrangement for his wife earlier this week. [More]
By 2.14.09
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Thieves stole all the roses—400 of them—from an Ohio florist yesterday, as well as the vases, the decorations, and the computer. [Associated Press] (Photo: tillwe)
FTD.com: Sorry, We're All Out Of Roses
By 9.22.07
Online florist FTD.com, “the world’s oldest floral services organization,” told reader Sean that they were out of roses. Sean had ordered a flower arrangement for his wife to celebrate their sixth anniversary. When he presciently called on the day of the anniversary to verify that his order had been received and processed, Sean was told that his flowers were not available, but not to worry, since FTD still had five minutes to deliver his arrangement. Puzzled, Sean instead tried to order a simple bouquet of roses. He writes:
A Rose By Any Other Price…
By 1.30.07
Over at Judy’s Book they’ve put together a comprehensive price guide to that all but necessary Valentine’s Day bouquet of long-stemmed roses. They called 143 florists all over the nation asking the price of a dozen long-stemmed roses and some tips for ensuring delivery on the 14th. Some interesting findings:
