If you are serious about ordering flowers online or want to choose the best flower arrangements from local florists, you’re going to want to know EXACTLY how their businesses operate.
Unfortunately, there is a huge difference between how most people believe florists work and how they actually run their operations – and unless you know exactly what you’re getting into and how to find the best flowers available at the best possible prices, your results are going to be a less than ideal.
We are going to shed a little bit of light on this topic and provide you with the kind of inside information you need to move forward confidently.
Shall we dive right in?
Most online flower shops offer “anytime” ordering…
99.99% of all online flower shops and flower delivery services are going to promise the moon and stars when it comes to being able to order flowers from them any time you like.
In fact, some businesses (like 1-800 Flowers, FTD, or Teleflora) have built their entire operation on the back of this promise and guarantee.
You might be surprised to learn, however, that the overwhelming majority of those businesses aren’t handling any of the flower purchasing, flower stocking, or flower arranging. Instead, they have multiple reciprocal relationships with local flower shops and florists all over the world that are willing (most the time) to take on these projects and make sure that they are out the door in time for delivery.
These businesses will almost always charge a premium at the same time for this any time ordering service, when nothing is really happening until normal business hours, anyway!
Almost all flower shops and florists restock their entire supply on Monday morning
If you are interested in getting your hands on the freshest flowers available, or if you want to make sure that you are going to have the “pick of the litter” when it comes time to purchase floral gifts, you’re going to want to try and place your order on Sunday night or Monday morning.
This is when flower shops completely restock and overhaul their supply, and when they take delivery of all the flowers that they have ordered previously. You have the best chance at getting exactly the kind of arrangement that you were after when you place your orders in this window of time.
At the same time, if you want to be able to purchase discounted flowers – great flowers and 30% or more off of their original price – you’ll want to place your orders on Friday or Saturday. This is when flower shops are going to try and clear out there “old stock” to make room for the new flowers that will arrive on Monday morning.
Beware of putting your flowers in direct sunlight
Yes, fresh flowers look absolutely fantastic set up in a window, but the heat from the direct sunlight will almost always destroy and kill those flowers faster than you ever would have thought possible.
It usually only takes between 24 hours and 48 hours for the heat from the sun to absolutely destroy even the hardiest of flowers and you might want to think about going with a more indirect sunlight position to keep your flowers fresher longer.
It’s important to remember that this is really only true of flowers that have had their stems cut. Potted plants have the hardiness and the root structure necessary to survive direct sunlight, so you won’t have anything to worry about them there.
ALWAYS ask for a discount
The kind of people that run flower shops and offer flower delivery services are almost always willing to negotiate at least a little bit with their prices.
Unfortunately, you’ll never be able to take advantage of ridiculously low prices on your next flower purchase unless you ask specifically to have these flowers sold a little bit cheaper than the original asking price. It may be a bit uncomfortable at first to ask for a florist to discount their prices, but if you inquire about any discounts that may be available you might be surprised to find that you qualify for at least one (and maybe a handful).
It’s definitely worth doing, especially if you are serious about ordering flowers regularly. Most flower shops will report their long-term and loyal customers with significant savings from time to time, and if you have the opportunity to get more flowers at lower prices everybody wins!
At the end of the day, there’s nothing quite like having fresh flowers around your home. Obviously, you’re going to want to make sure that you are always working with professional florists and flower arrangers, and that you put forward with delivery services that you know you’re going to be able to trust.
Thanks to the Internet, this has become easier than it’s ever been before!