10 Things Your Florist Won't Tell You

1. "Price gouging on Valentine's Day? You betcha!"

If you're among the estimated one-third of Americans who send flowers on Valentine's Day, then we don't have to tell you that a dozen roses cost more in early February than at any other time. While florists blame it on growers and growers blame it on demand and the weather, retail prices spike roughly 30% in the weeks prior to Valentine's Day. At New York City floral shop Shields Warendorff, for example, a dozen red roses that sold for $85 normally were marked up to $125 in early February last year.

How to get the best deal this year? While there's no way of avoiding inflated holiday prices completely, it helps to place your order at least a week in advance. That's because prices can creep even higher for those who wait until the last minute; florists receive more than 50% of their Valentine's Day orders on Feb. 13 and 14. And think outside the box: A dozen shorter-stem roses, for example, will be less expensive, says Jennifer Sparks, spokesperson for the Society of American Florists. And mixed bouquets, such as a few roses interspersed with some imported orchids or an assortment of California mixed flowers, are also better deals.

2. "The Internet makes it easy to order the crappiest, overpriced bouquets..."

Cameron Barrett wanted to send a bouquet to his wife, so he typed "NYC Flowers" into a Google search window. He found a listing for "Urban Florist" and chose a $30 bouquet. His "same-day delivery" arrived four days later; the flowers were nearly dead. To add insult to injury, the fiasco cost Barrett $45.35, including a miscellaneous charge of $4.17 and a $1.36 "foreign transaction fee," since his order was processed in Canada.

What gives? Third-party "order gatherers" with little experience in the floral industry are posing as local florists online. They purchase pay-per-click Google or Yahoo ads that automatically insert whatever city is being searched to make themselves appear local, then pass orders through a wire service and on to florists for a kickback: a 20% commission fee, plus a $6 to $8 rebate from the wire service. For every $70 bouquet ordered this way, roughly $45 makes it into the hands of the florist filling the order.

How to spot these poseurs? Never believe claims like "family owned and operated" and "we have a branch in that city" without checking, says a FloristDetective.com spokesperson.

3. "...even from the big-name flower sites."

When ordering flowers online, if you think sticking with familiar names will, um, nip the added-fee problem in the bud, think again. Even some floral giants like Teleflora, FTD and 1-800-Flowers.com tack on an additional "service charge," since they, too, pass on their orders to local florists. And that's not the only cut being taken as your order runs the gauntlet of helping hands.

For example, while Teleflora's $12 fee includes service, delivery and wire-service charges, as much as 27% of the list price of your arrangement never makes it to the florist. It means that even with some of the biggest names in the industry, ordering online "may reduce the quantity of flowers, and the quality will only be as good as the florist that's filling your order," a FloristDetective.com spokesperson says.

Does that mean there's no good way to order a bouquet online? Of course not. But be prepared to spend more on an Internet order than you would for a comparable bouquet at a flower shop. And stick to the top-rated vendors, such as Calyx & Corolla and Hallmark.

4. "Our arrangements look nothing like these photos."

They say A picture's worth a thousand words, but the photos of arrangements shown to customers by networked florists are often meaningless. Indeed, the canned images online and in catalogs aren't always accurate representations of what you're getting for your money. For one thing, they often aren't relayed to the florist filling the order, and when they are, substitutions are more the norm than the exception.

With long-distance orders, some retailers may take advantage of the fact that their customers rarely see the final product, and the recipients hardly ever complain. "But if you sent yourself flowers and they arrived looking different than the pictures you ordered from, you would blow the whistle," says George Staby, of the Perishables Research Organization.

Indeed, even when you visit a local shop and choose a bouquet from, say, an FTD guide, the translation won't always be note perfect. "If for some reason they were out of red roses, a florist might replace them with a dark pink," says FTD floral designer Michael Skaff. "We do like-substitutions for color and value."

5. "Our delivery times are, um, flexible."

When Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, ordered flowers for his wife and mother two days before Mother's Day, he received e-mail confirmation from FTD almost immediately. On the morning of Mother's Day, he got a gracious call from his mom in Florida thanking him. But by noon Meckler's wife in New York still hadn't gotten her flowers. He called FTD and reached a rep who promised delivery by day's end. But the holiday came and passed without his wife's ever receiving flowers.

Late flower delivery is the No. 1 complaint about the floral industry, and not getting the delivery at all is No. 2, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Although some florists hire extra drivers and trucks for the heavy-traffic holidays, timely delivery isn't always guaranteed. It helps to call a local florist at least a week in advance instead of ordering online. While a small shop may stop taking orders once it reaches maximum capacity — generally two to three days before a big holiday — online brokers often don't know how much the various florists they tap can handle, says Gary Reed of the Independent Florists' Association.