emptynest

I want to send some Xmas flowers to my son's in laws in N Carolina. Does anyone know if there is an US equivalent of Waitrose / Marks and Spencer flower delivery service? I have found lots of online US florists doing the equivalent of Interflora, but my experience of that is the quality and service varies tremendously according to which florist actually does the flowers.

And apologies if this isn't the right forum for this question

Mr Weeze

I have used www.bestflowers.com and never been disappointed. However, that is delivering to Texas. Hopefully someone with some more local experience will be along.

coastieexpat

BTW ..... It is far cheaper to find a local florist and just have them deliver it.

Bob

This....and you'll know who's doing it.

Rete

Use FTD you order online and the local floral will delivery on the date specified. If the flowers are not as plentiful or fresh as pictured, they will replace them at no charge.

You will have to gently ask the recipient to be honest with you about the product delivered, however.

emptynest

Thanks for all your replies. I researched local florists but all had mixed reviews apart from one that was too expensive. In the end, I used 1800 flowers because they had the widest choice of Xmas arrangements, and able to add chocolates with the order. I used a 25% discount coupon as well.The arrangement was made up and delivered by a local florist. Have seen photo of arrangement. Not quite same as picture but still look good and in laws were thrilled.

Pulaski

..... that's what I used to do when sending flowers to the future Mrs P. ... I firmly believe in putting the money in the hands of the flower shop, not a broker-webshite operator!
All businesses have "mixed reviews" on line. There's always a few bitchers and moaners who are never satisfied!

Duncan Roberts

I've always found that local florists around us charge double to triple the price of a place like proflowers.com or 1800flowers.com. Last valentines day the local places were charging $90+ for 1 dozen red roses. Plus based on family experience, I can be relatively confident that the flowers from local florists are not as fresh and will not last as long as buying from one of the online stores. In the middle of winter there aren't any local growers around here, and even in the summer there aren't enough to cover demand or selection, so in essence the local florist is just a middleman between a grower and a middleman. I do like to keep my money in small, local businesses where possible but with flowers you seem to get better quality and at a much better price going through one of the big, online stores.

Pulaski

(i) the on-line stores contract out all their deliveries to local florists, who get a cut of the fee paid to the website operator, and
(ii) three quarters of cut flowers sold in the US are imported from Colombia (08/2012 McClatchy article), and more come from Ecuador and neighboring countries, so it is unlikely that where the flowers are grown has anything to do with how fresh they are.