How to get the best deal on your Valentines Day flowers

One of the most popular gifts on Valentines Day is a bouquet or arrangement of cut flowers. Valentines Day is one of the busiest holidays for florists, both local florists and online florists. Getting the most value for your money in the world of cut flowers involves more than a simple sale or coupon though. Follow our easy steps to get the best Valentines bouquet for your buck!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• yellow pages or telephone directory
• telephone
• internet connection
• time

1. Have all of your information ready. When is the best time to deliver flowers to your recipient? Is the person getting the flowers employed out of the house? If so, have the address of their employer in case you'd like to send flowers to their work. Have all of your information ready.
2. Determine if you want to use an online florist with a large delivery network (FTD, Teleflora, 1800FLOWERS, etc...) or if you will use a local florist.
3. Choose your florist. Take care to make sure the local florist you're phoning is actually local (see our warnings below). Check out this article's resources for an overview of the major online florists if you're choosing to send your flowers online with one of the major networks.
4. View the online florist's website or visit your local florist to make your selection. Your local florist will be able to give you advice on seasonal, locally-grown flowers that are more environmentally-conscious as well as more affordable. Visiting the local florist also makes it more likely that your flowers will arrive on time!
5. If using an online florist, quickly search for coupon or promo codes for that florist. A few quick searches could save you a specific dollar amount, get you some free roses (often you'll find offers to buy 1 dozen roses and get half a dozen free) or get a percentage taken off your order's subtotal!

Tips & Warnings

• Check out this article's resources for an image gallery of different seasonal flowers.
• Check out this article's resources for a summary of online florists, their network affiliation, and handy links to coupon codes, special offers and delivery options.
• Order as far in advance as possible (especially if using an online florist). Floral delivery networks are not aware of the existing workload at the order-fulfilling florist. This means that the floral delivery network may send your last-minute order to a florist that is already running behind due to demand.
• Many online advertisements for "local florists" are not what they say. Often, these are companies buying ads from the search engines and inserting whatever city you search for into their title. Thus, your search for a local florist in Cleveland produces a result of "Cleveland Local Florist" and someone's else search for a local florist in Boston produces a result of "Boston Local Florist". Both results display phone numbers for the same office in Nashville, that will then charge you a fee for "their service" and outsource your order to a genuine local florist in your selected city. How to avoid this? Ask questions (What is their address? What are they located next to? Can you visit their shop to view samples of their work?)!
• If buying your flowers at the supermarket, note the location of where the flowers are being stored and displayed. Flowers being stored near a heat source (even the cash registers), near apples (they give off a chemical that shortens the life of your flowers) or without proper refrigeration will not stay fresh for very long!
• Remember that the photos of floral arrangements posted on florists' websites and in catalogues should be viewed as examples and will not be exactly how your arrangement will arrive. Substitutions are often made for certain blooms. Also, the flowers in a photo may all be pushed to the front of the arrangement in order to make it appear fuller. (Tip - Count the flowers in the photo. Many pictures of a "dozen" blooms are actually photographs of 15 or more flowers!)
• As with any industry, the floral industry is ruled by supply and demand. Prices do increase around the major holidays.