roses before valentine's day?
January 24, 2005 8:18 AM   Subscribe

How long before Valentine's Day can I buy roses and hope for them to still be decent? Are all the flower vendors hip to this tactic?
posted by kyle to Shopping (6 answers total)
 
well, i used to work in a florist shop--no expert, but i'd say you can order them well in advance and get beautiful ones delivered on the 14th, but if you buy them more than 12 hours before you give them, they really will be past perfection, unless properly transferred to the display vase and transported at room temperature. mishandling will leave them really droopy, very fast. (we have a lot of problem in chicago with valentine's flowers arriving frozen)

if, however, you choose to buy a small rosebush (many florists do this, and i cannot recommend calyx and corolla enough, by the way), you can send them about a week in advance and have them bloom more or less on the right day.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:24 AM on January 24, 2005


Variant: How can i get the best deal around the VDay robbies?
posted by omidius at 8:24 AM on January 24, 2005


800flowers.com has a sale on Valentine's Day flowers ending on Jan. 31st. (They're delivered on Valentine's Day)
posted by null terminated at 8:39 AM on January 24, 2005


What kind of 'tactic' are you referring to? Market price increasing?

Wholesalers bump up the prices of roses for the whole week before Valentine's Day, which really makes florists go insane with anger, but there's nothing that they can do about it, except pass the increase along to the customers, who, for the most part, seem to understand. The usual increase is about 50 cents a rose, from the wholesalers, which is quite a lot, if you're ordering them by the dozen or two. I wish florists would boycott their rose wholesalers for the week of Valentine's Day.

So anyway, no matter what they say, no florist gets fresh roses every single day - they get them twice a week at most. Just call them and ask them what day they get their roses - if they have any integrity at all, they'll share that info with you.

You should expect them to be more than "decent" - you should expect them to be damn near exquisite, for the 80 or so dollars it's going to set you back to get first quality long stemmed roses. So remind them to include a care card, which will show the recipient what do do to make them last as long as possible. If you decide to go with someone like 1-800-flowers, or you find someone selling a dozen roses for 29.95, you're going to get 3rd rate roses that will die quickly.

If you'd like to send something other than roses, I'll be happy to offer some good suggestions. You could look into the language of flowers a little bit, and send something unique and personal, and come out smelling like roses, without actually sending them. [/rose hater]
posted by iconomy at 8:47 AM on January 24, 2005


Roses are passe - consider other flowers!
posted by agregoli at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2005


If you've got your heart set on giving roses, more power to ya, but I agree - roses are pretty "typical" for Valentine's Day. If I had someone giving me flowers (which I don't, whine whine whine), I'd much prefer a cheerful bunch of Gerbera Daisies or Sunflowers. If I were to get roses, I'd probably feel guilty because I know how ridiculously expensive they are (especially for V's day), and all they do is hang around for a little while and then die. Such a waste of money! (In my eyes.)

But this is coming from a girl who really doesn't want a diamond ring when she gets engaged either (sure, they're nice, but again, such a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere IMHO), so depending on the recipient, roses might be the way to go :) If you're not sure, ask her friends.
posted by AlisonM at 11:12 AM on January 24, 2005


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