This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is a sponsored post, but written by your usual friendly blogger, Kat Griffin.
I don't know about you ladies, but I've been disappointed in some of the online bouquets I've ordered for others recently. They all seem just kind of… middling. The bouquets are small, the flowers are boring, and the main way to pick something “better” is to get a fancier vase or a teddy bear or something. But what about better flowers? So I was thrilled when FTD reached out, because — for some reason — I had never really been to their site before, despite the fact that they've been in business since 1910, and I've never focused on the fact that they are known as the luxury flower provider. Not only do they partner with heavy hitters such as Vera Wang, Better Homes and Gardens, Bacarat, Godiva, Cristal and Dom Perignon, but — SO SMART! — they also let you “upgrade” your order four ways, all based on the flowers. “Good” is the first choice, which they stand behind — their whole site is backed by their 7-day satisfaction guarantee. Next is “Better,” which promises “full and lush” flowers; the next level is “Best,” which promises “bountiful blooms.” Some bouquets also offer a fourth option: “Exquisite,” which is “lavish and grand.” Here's how they show the flowers varying from one level to the next, using The FTD® Deep Emotions™ Bouquet by Better Homes and Gardens® as an example (which, by the way, is the Editors' Choice, and may be my favorite of the bunch as well). I'd be thrilled to get any of these hot pink and orange bouquets, and I certainly wouldn't be embarrassed to send one. The pictured bouquet starts at $54 (good) to $105 (exquisite), and includes the vase.
Some of my other favorites from FTD's site includes:
 This purple display is vibrant and sophisticated, and I love the combination of lisianthus, Oriental Lillies, and gilly flowers. The pricing for the bouquet starts at $59.99. The FTD® Loving Thoughts® Bouquet |
 More lillies! My mother has never been a suuuper girly girl, but I could really see her digging these — they just sing “Spring!” The bouquet starts at $59.99. The FTD® Perfect Impressions™ Bouquet |
| You ladies know I love a good purple-and-green pairing, and this bouquet illustrates why. I love the addition of more unusual flowers in this bouquet, like the Bells of Ireland. The bouquet starts at $49.99. The FTD® Garden Vista™ Bouquet by Better Homes and Gardens® |
 This bouquet is elegant yet modern, and looks perfect for the mom who is, well, elegant yet modern. I even like the vase! The bouquet starts at $69.99. The FTD® White Elegance™ Bouquet by Vera Wang |
Ladies, what are your favorite shops for flower deliveries? Which of the above bouquets is your favorite (either to give or to get)?
Psst: note that you can save up to 25% if you order early; prices start at $24.99.
Sydney Bristow
Just a reminder that if you collect frequent flier miles, most of the shopping portals for your program have amazing points amounts for ordering flowers around Mother’s Day. Sometimes up around 30 miles per dollar spent.
Ellen
Yay! you have to be very very careful when you buy from FTD because the flowers are only as good as the place that delivers them which could be good or could be terrible. When I was in college this guy bought me flowers from FTD but they came wilted and I had to call him to tell him. He was very mad. FOOEY on wilted flowers!
Anonymous
Also note that lilies in particular, and other flowers potentially, are very hazardous to cats. Please consider when sending indoor flowers to someone.
Anonymous
Ugh FTD is the worst. I ordered flowers from them for my mom’s bday last year and when they came they were wilted and the wrong kind. They say they have a money back guarantee, but after numerous phone calls they just offered me 20% back (off the sub-total, not including the hefty delivery fee). I had to go through the Better Business Bureau to get my money back. FWIW I’ve never had any problems with other online flower companies. I’m very disappointed you would shill for them, never having used their service.
Anonymous
Also all the major flower companies do that “good,” “better,” “best” bouquet size thing, so this post reads very fake and artificial.
SoCalAtty
Seconded. I’ve ordered flowers for delivery to my mom before, well before the holiday, and they waited until the day before to tell me they didn’t have those particular flowers (that were listed on their website!) and it was already too late to get her something from them. They refunded the order, but I ended up calling a local (to my mom) flower shop and paying a crazy amount for expedited processing and delivery.
I’ve also had orders arrive wilted or incorrect. Now I just find a local flower shop and pay over the phone.
SFBA
One of my good friends spent a small fortune on “exquisite” flowers from FTD for his anniversary gift to his fiance a couple months ago. They came looking like a dog’s breakfast (not even as nice as the basic level photo) and FTD fought him tooth and nail to get a refund, claiming they were supposed to look like that.
Always use a local florist – find a good one on Yelp, call them directly, make that personal connection, and be amazed at how much more beautiful the arrangement is and what a better value it is when you cut out the FTD middleman and all their gimicky expensive ads.
Anon
I thought FTD and similar companies had local florists fulfill their orders anyway, but maybe I am mistaken. My ex had also ordered bouquets for me from a local florist directly and they were FTD arrangements.
SFBA
Yes, FTD does have relationships with local florists and some arrangements come from there. FTD, just like 1800 and proflowers, dictates what the arrangement should look like (regardless of what is in season or a good value at the wholesale flower mart that day), takes a large cut of the price of the arrangement, and doesn’t work with the best quality florists.
You’re better off working directly with a quality local florist you can build a relationship with over time. My typical order with my great local florist is “I want to spend up to $x including tax and delivery, this is the general shape/size I’m looking for, these are the colors I do/do not want, do/do not use XYZ, yes/no fragrance. Please use your eye to put something together that looks good to you” and let the florist and his team work their magic. People work harder when they can express their individuality and creativity instead of the paint-by-numbers dictation of the big online flower arrangements.
Anonymous
To add to what SFBA said, even if the local florists FTD worked with were as good, if something does go wrong it will be much easier to remedy the situation if you can just call up your local florist and talk to them, whereas if you ordered with FTD and need to talk to them, you have to go through a call center in India.
DC Wonkette
Am I the only person who can’t really tell a difference with the different arrangements? Definitely not enough to justify $50 extra… This seems like a way to just justify charging more for an arrangement because it’s “exquisite.”
Sydney Bristow
I kept staring at the pictures trying to determine the difference.
I’ve never ordered from FTD before. I’ve used ProFlowers a couple of times and my stepmom always seemed really pleased. I’ve never seen the results in person though so it is hard to comment.
Cora
My husband has sent me flowers from ProFlowers many times and they are always fantastic quality. They generally last for ages–at least two weeks. But they do arrive in a box, so you have to cut them and place them in the vase yourself, which could be a turn-off for some who would prefer the flowers arrive already arranged.
greenie
I always send / receive Proflowers. Although there is some work involved, they last SO much longer and you can experience them blooming and becoming fuller day after day. I also had one bad bouquet delivered to my MIL and they were fantastic in refunding the money.
girl in the stix
I use ProFlowers as well and have never been disappointed (I live in a very small town, with no local florist–Safeway is as good as it gets here). My sister once sent me an FTD vase of roses and they wilted almost immediately, even after I recut and put into cold water.
la vie en bleu
I have been trying to figure out the difference, too, and I just realized the scale is off, which is extremely misleading. The first picture, “Good” is zoomed way in, see how the vase is bigger than the other pictures?? So, basically that one is much smaller, but the way they framed the pictures makes it look the same. UGH. So misleading, I’m definitely not interested in ordering from them now.
Must be Tuesday
Thank you for figuring that out! I was staring for quite a while too, trying to see the difference.
la vie en bleu
haha, no prob. That’s the kind of thing that drives me nuts and I *must* figure it out! ;)
Amy H.
I have had very good luck with cut flower bouquets from 1800flowers [dot] com. One orchid arrangement that DH sent to my office for an anniversary was outright stunning, and lasted a long time.
The one time I had terrible luck with them was when I tried to send my mother a “blooming gardenia” potted plant in December. It had no blooms whatsoever and died before it bloomed. At least partly my mistake for trying to send a live plant to New York State in December, but it definitely felt like misleading advertising. The company was excellent about trying to make up for it — they sent another gardenia plant out for no charge, but the poor thing got stuck at the post office during the polar vortex and arrived half dead — no blooms. They gave me a full refund and a $20 gift certificate toward another arrangement, which I let my mom pick out — it was gorgeous and she loved it. So I won’t hesitate to order from them again, but no gardenias! (The potted poinsettias I ordered the same December were very nice.)
My favorite method is using a local florist in my hometown that I already know . . . just not always available.
ANP
I just ordered from The Bouqs for the first time on a friend’s recommendation. We’ll see how it turns out!
First Year Anon
My first order with them was great. Second one they messed up- both the colour and size were wrong. I sent a photo and they gave me a credit for a whole new bouquet. So we will see what it’s like when I order the next one.
Baconpancakes
For anyone in DC or NYC, I recommend UrbanStems. No vase, but they’re way cheaper, much more interesting, and they do same-day deliveries (cost included). I have a sign-up code if anyone wants to get $10 off. https://www.urbanstems.com/join/dTVqdg (Full disclosure, it also gives me credits to use, but I do really recommend them, and have sent myself flowers using their service for when I was having a bad day.)
Also in DC, Little Acre Farms does beautiful arrangements with local flowers.
kelsey
why such a big increase in sponsored posts lately?
Anonymous
It doesn’t bother me when it’s something like the Dagne Dover bag. They gave Kat a bag, she liked it, she posted about it. That’s fine. But she admitted she’s never used FTD, and from the tone of the post it doesn’t really sound like she’s that familiar with other online flower delivery companies either (because all the things she pointed out as features of FTD are true of most companies). So it comes across as very unnatural and like a force-fed sponsorship. That’s what I don’t like. If she had actually tried FTD, and had a good experience, it would have been a more natural post.
kelsey
Yep I totally agree with you. This one made no sense – it’s not exactly relevant to a work fashion blog, especially since many are commenting that they’ve had bad experiences with FTD. If it’s something Kat has used and finds relevant then great! But an endless stream of sponsored content is what kills good blogs and comes across as money hungry and desperate.
My5Cents
I JUST had a really bad experience with FTD for ordering bouquets for our team’s administrative assistants. Went to great lengths to order similar but not identical bouquets, all in one order, and all to the same location. Ordered the “best,” at ~$90/bouquet (this was from our entire small team for each assistant). FTD didn’t write me this, but they divvied up the order to 3 different local florists, one bouquet arrived at 9ish a.m., and then the 2 others didn’t arrive until 3:30 p.m., so 2 out of 3 of our assistants were thinking that we had only gotten the one flowers (we ended up explaining to them once the delay was stretching out). Called FTD twice and they couldn’t give me an exact time for when it would arrive, and “soon” turned out to be 4 hours later. Then, when bouquets came, they weren’t even remotely like the pictures – one of the “bests” had maybe 2 lilies, unopened, and I know for certain I could buy the same bouquet locally for perhaps $30. Bad bad bad experience. customer service rep did return my furious e-mail though and refunded 2/3 of the money. that’s good. but I will never order from them again, only local.
AIMS
My FTD experience was also a fail. I ordered flowers that never arrived even though I got a confirmation email for the order and a charge on my CC. When I called to inquire they said that they have no way of confirming delivery and would need to reach out to the local florist. After that, it was total radio silence and it was only after 60 days that Amex finally agreed to close the matter and issue a refund. FTD still hasn’t “gotten back” to me.
I tend to look up a local florist, ask what’s good and then place the order by phone. I’ve heard Pro Flowers is good, but never tried them, and I have a sweet friend who always send my 1800flowers for my birthday and they’re not bad, but also don’t feel like they’re worth the money she spends on them.
Emily
This just strikes me as a “marketing fail” use of sponsoring a post. lol.
S in Chicago
Just want to say kudos to you, Kat, and FTD for supporting this open forum. Although some negative comments have been made and I’m sure some floral marketing experts somewhere are cringing a bit, I have to say to say that I really appreciate seeing this much more than some phony space where everything is only sponsor-positive. It actually makes me like the supporting company more (and the blog).
cc
Kat, this post is so dissapointing. How they heck can you do a sponsored post without even using the service? And its so crazy to me that you are like “SO SMART!” all in caps when every. single. flower delivery service has this feature. Honestly this reads just like a shill- and I have never had a problem with your other sponspored posts because at least you’ve used the product. Asking us which computer generated picture we like best? Obviously youd love receiving one of those but thats the whole problem- often you dont receive that. Honestly I am less likely to use FTD after this post, and I am certaintly less likely to think highly of your site.