Ordering flowers from out of town

[Scarlett]

Who do you use?

[clementine]

I always call a florist local to where the flowers will be delivered.  I explain my price-point & colors/flowers wanted.  Never had a problem.  

[Garga]

Call a local florist. If you go through (what do they call it...) where you call some nation-wide place (?), they just call the local florist and then charge you extra for the call they made. I learned that when I sent flowers to my mother and it turned out the business that was called was right next door to where she worked. She said how surprised she was to see the store owner next door pop into her restaurant and give her the flowers. I realized it's cheaper to look for a local person and just call them directly. These nationwide places don't do anything beyond that, as far as I can tell.

[bettyandbob]

I read reviews of local florists on yelp or other sites, pick one and order by phone.

[Seasider]

I always use a local florist but don't do it blindly. When the need is for a funeral/memorial service, I call them (the funeral home mgmt) and ask which local florist does the nicest, most reliable work. It's always been a good referral and I think even if you weren't sending something for a funeral, you could still call a local funeral home for the reference.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Seasider

[Artichoke]

I'm in the minority here, but I use 1-800-flowers. We send flowers about 6-8 times a year so I joined their club for $29. It does away with the delivery fees for an entire year. When you take away delivery fees their prices are comparable. Flowers are always delivered within two days and are beautiful.

[Artichoke]

Dp

Edited April 18, 2016 by Artichoke

[plansrme]

Be careful googling to find a local florist in that town, though--a lot of the places that pop up as local are really just FTD under another name. I have had the same thing happen when I google "hospital name florist." It is pretty frustrating to have such a hard time trying to do business with a mom and pop store (not that is mom and pop's fault).

[zoobie]

I read reviews of local florists on yelp or other sites, pick one and order by phone.

This.

[SKL]

I think I've used FTD and 1-800-flowers.  So far so good.

[VeteranMom]

I worked for a flower shop at one time.  For Teleflora and FTD orders, my boss would take the order for the $50 arrangement and reduce it to a $40 arrangement in order to pay the fees she had to pay to those companies.  These days, I always call a florist directly to place and order.  I agree with the idea of calling the funeral home directly or looking at reviews online.

[Sara in AZ]

I always use ProFlowers. We've never had a problem with them, and the flowers last a really long time.

[Scarlett]

Ok I called a local shop. I found one after wading through pages of 'local' shops that were really fed or 1 800.