I don't know about you, but flowers always but a smile on a my face. How about you? And, with Valentine's Day right around the corner I know many husbands and boyfriends will be visiting the many online floral website to browse the available selections and place and order -- to show how much they love...and stay out of the dog house. :-) With a house of all girls, my husband now has to get a larger bouquet so that everyone can enjoy them. The more colorful, the better!
In addition to my husband, and many others visiting these online flower ordering sites, I know many ladies also visit these sites to order flowers for themselves, or to send to those near and dear to them. Every year, my father has me order a floral arrangement and have it delivered to my mom's work, to surprise her, as he is not tech savvy. After years of ordering flowers online I have narrowed my search to a few floral websites. But, over the years I have found the customer service or overall quality of the flowers sent or received lacking. Maybe it is because so many people are ordering during these peak holiday seasons. I don't know. But, when it comes to spending $50+ on flowers for that special special, you expect the flowers to come looking just like the photo you chose. On a few occasions, I have had to contact the online floral company's website to complain about the bouquet received, as it looked nothing like the photo, was missing flowers, etc. I was told on each occasion that if I read the teeny tiny fine print that arrangements are subject to availability and that if not available they will substitute with something comparable. Well, none of the arrangements I received were comparable with what I had paid for. Just last year, I surprised my mom for her birthday with a bouquet of lillies...her favorite. She didn't get this. Instead, she received 25 white carnations that were died different colors. The vase looked chinsey, and the flowers were about to die. I don't know how floral companies can send something like this to a person, especially on a special occasion.
So, when it came to ordering flowers this year for Valentine's Day, I decided to browse around and see if there were new online floral companies available. As a result of my search, I stumbled across BloomNation.com.
BloomNation is disrupting the flower industry by allowing you to shop directly with top local artisan florists throughout the country. There are already over 2,000 of the top local florists who hand deliver to more than 3,000 cities nationwide on BloomNation. The site only displays real photos of the florists’ work and includes no stock photos. In addition, all customers receive a “BloomSnap,” which is a photo of the completed arrangement before it’s delivered so the customer knows that what he or she ordered is what his or her recipient will get."
I was excited when the folks at BloomNation agreed to work with me on a review of their service. They let me choose a floral arrangement of my choice to have sent for review. Navigating the BloomNation is easy. You are first prompted to add your zip code on the main page, so that they can list florists in your area that you can choose hand delivered arrangements from. I was disappointed as my location currently doesn't have florists participating. I then tried my parents area, and they have a handful of florists. And, for the next half hour, I browsed different floral arrangements available for purchase. You can search flowers by occasion, theme or specific flower choice. I can't tell you how beautiful each and every arrangement one.
The hard part was choosing just one to have sent for review. In the end, I ended up going with this arrangement:
What do you think? Lovely, huh? This arrangement was arranged and hand delivered by the folk at Cricket Flowers, out of Lexington, MA this afternoon to my parents' house, for my mom to enjoy.
"Established in 1983 We are a locally owned, 2nd generation family florist., ( formerly The Lexington Flower Shop). Crickets Flowers is celebrating it's 30th year under the current owners Frank & June and daughter Anne. We truly enjoy helping clients with all their floral needs: anything from a simple arrangement to an elaborate event such as a wedding. What ever you need, we will do our best to accommodate you or suggest creative alternatives. Located convenient on Mass. Ave in historic Lexington, Massachusetts. We are proud members of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce. Crickets Flowers takes pride in being active in our community. Crickets Flowers has an active recycling program, We compost our floral and green waste. We use rain barrels in the spring & summer. We have an organic cutting garden that we utilize for different foliages in floral arrangements during the summer and fall months. This is just a small part of what we do."
I loved learning about this florist, as with previous online orders from floral companies, I never really knew where the flowers were coming from. The concept from BloomNation is great, as not only will I and the flower recipient be pleased with the arrangement hand delivered (great personal touch), but knowing that I am helping a local business is great. It is always nice to shop locally, and be able to recommend a particular business to family and friends when they are looking to purchase things like flowers.
Like I said, BloomNation's florists hand deliver their creations to you. So, I gave my dad a head's up this afternoon that flowers would be arriving. Shortly after they were delivered, he called to chat about the experience. He said the gentleman that hand delivered the flowers was very personable and gracious. As he set the flower arrangement out on the dining room table to take photos for me, he couldn't help but notice how healthy the flowers looked and that each and every flower was in bloom. My dad has received and set up arrangements that I had ordered for him to surprise my mom with in the past, and hated to see that the flowers weren't blooming, or that the petals were falling off. This particular arrangement was "stunning!" If only there was smellavision, I would have been able to smell just how wonderful this arrangement smelled.
My dad ended up moving the flower arrangement to the kitchen island so that they could enjoy when he walked in and out of the kitchen this afternoon. Each and every time he walked into the kitchen, he couldn't help but stop and admire the flowers, and is eagerly waiting for my mom to arrive home from work to see her smile, once she sees this amazing flower arrangement created just for her for Valentine's Day. "Happy Valentine's Day, Mom!"
I am crossing my fingers that in the coming months that BloomNation will be adding florists in my area so that I can order flowers, or hint to my husband which arrangements I would love for Mother's Day, my birthday, etc. :-) But, in the meantime, I happy to know I have a list of respectable florists locally to my parents, so that I can continue to surprise my mom with flowers for special occasions or just because. Like I said earlier, flowers always make me smile, and I know my mom feels the same way. I can't wait to see what she thinks when she arrives home tonight from work and sees the special arrangement I chose for her from Cricket Flowers out of Lexington, MA (Click here to visit this florist's website now -- http://www.bloomnation.com/lexington-ma-cricketsflowers.html.
With only days left to pick up a gift for that someone special, or you still need to drop hints to your honey on what you would like (besides the same old box of chocolates), why not check out the BloomNation website and see if there are florists in your area who are offering up their amazing "BloomSnap" arrangements ready to be hand delivered in time for Valentine's Day. Just look at some of the current arrangements available from florists participating the BloomNation network -- If I could, I would each and every one, as they are all so beautiful, and would smell amazing in my house:
And, I just had to included this puppy dog arrangement, which is only $17.99 and available from Crescent Flower Market out of Brockton, MA.
My girls would go crazy for this cute floral arrangement. Wouldn't you? :-)
Disclosure: I was sent a sample from the vendor in order to write up an honest review. All views shared are mine and mine alone.
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