Fresh Cut Flowers Delivered for Christmas

Readers of this blog know I am ambivalent about buying cut flowers. On the one hand, you’re paying money for something that won’t last. On the other hand, they are psychologically beneficial and can last pretty long for what you pay for them. So, when I was contacted over a week ago by someone from Sunflowerguy.com, asking if I’d like to review their bouquets, I thought, why not? It is getting dreary around here and I could use a pick me up.

According to my contact,

We are a flower grower in Southern California and also ship fresh cut flower bouquets directly to consumers through our website. We are actually the largest grower of ornamental sunflowers in the world and have developed an innovative packaging that allows our bouquets to be shipped without drying out or being compressed. You might say it’s a fresher way to send flowers.

They do offer sunflowers at this time of the year, but I chose the “Simply Stylish” arrangement. The fresh flowers were delivered on Friday, December 10th. They came in a box:

I tried to follow directions exactly so I could give a fair review. I tried to imagine what it would be like if an elderly person received these flowers. The card that came with the flowers said to remove the green foam and rinse the stems. I wondered if I was supposed to put the stems back into the green foam. The instructions didn’t say, but I asked my contact and he said the green foam could be thrown away. I was relieved to hear that, as it crumbled in my hands.

Then the card said to cut stems about one inch from the bottom. The stems were quite thick; I finally gave up on kitchen scissors and dug my pruners out of my garden bag. I don’t know how an elderly person or anyone without weak hands would manage it. My contact said it wasn’t absolutely necessary to cut the stems, but I know from my own past experience it does help make the flowers last longer.

The final instructions were to add the provided flower food and water to the vase and put the flowers back in. No mention was made of the rubber band, so I asked my contact about that. He said the rubber band, like the green foam, was only to help keep the flowers together in transit. I guess a lot of people wouldn’t worry about any of that, and just do whatever seemed best to them, but I wanted to give these flowers a fair chance. They say that every bouquet is guaranteed for eight days, and I wanted to see if they indeed lasted that long.

About the third or fourth day I could see the edges of the rose petals blackening:

I think this was damage from the cold. My husband says he noticed it the first day, but I didn’t notice it until later. I have no idea where the flowers were in the twelve hours before they were delivered, but I do know it got down to 0F around here. Of course, no one can guarantee the weather, but if your winter temperatures tend to be more reasonable, your flowers will likely arrive undamaged.

Here’s what they looked like eight days later:

I am not a real picky person; at this point I would say it wouldn’t be suitable for a fancy dinner party but is good enough for “every day.” Perhaps if I had paid my own hard cash for it I would feel differently, I don’t know.

If you go to Sunflowerguy.com you will see there are many different arrangements to choose from. Some have sunflowers in them, and some do not. Many are very much in the holiday spirit. Right now you can get $5 off any bouquet if you use the coupon code winter2010 when you check out. And they have an ongoing contest where you can get flower delivery for an entire year.