Frozen Roses

Real florists have taken a verbal beating from paid radio personalities telling listeners that our flowers are inferior and urging shoppers to purchase the cheap blooms from companies like ProFlowers.com. Last week we discussed how flowers from a box take the professional presentation and the romance out of receiving Valentine’s Day flowers, especially at the office. 

It’s not just florists that think the ‘fresh from the box’ experience is unromantic and disappointing and projects ‘when you care enough to spend the very least’.      

At that time, none of us could have anticipated the extreme cold across much of the US so it’s time to talk about the effect of sub-freezing temperatures on Valentine’s Day roses and compare what local florists do vs the boxes shipped by ProFlowers, Hallmark, FTD and 1-800-Flowers.

Professional Local Florists

• Deliver flowers in water so the blooms don’t dehydrate.
• Wrap and even double wrap your entire arrangement to protect it from being frozen. 
• Protect your arrangements in their stores until just the moment they are placed into heated trucks for delivery.
• Hand deliver your flowers to your office or home.
• Never leave your roses or other flowers to freeze on the doorstep if no one’s there. 

Boxes shipped from ProFlowers, Hallmark, FTD and 1-800-Flowers

• May be shipped with little or no water to sustain the flowers
• Pass from warehouses/distribution centers to trucks to FedEx or UPS planes to airport hangars to more trucks to another set of distribution centers and finally into unheated delivery vans.
• Can and will be left at front doors, on doorsteps and porches if no one is home or the office is closed. It’s part of box shipper agreements negotiated with overnight delivery companies to cut corners and keep prices as cheap as possible.  

Watch this video of unboxing ProFlowers.com frozen roses that had been left on a porch for a couple hours in freezing temperatures. They’re not exactly fresh from the fields. And it’s not just ProFlowers roses getting frozen during delivery – WTAE Channel4 of Pittsburgh had similar damaged flower results with a box from Hallmark.

So to avoid getting frozen flowers and a chilly response from your Valentine, remember to order from a real Pro Florist, your local full-service flower shop, that won’t sacrifice quality, presentation power and service when delivering your love.