you need this farm-to-table florist for Valentine’s Day

by Alison Green on February 2, 2017

And now a word from a sponsor…

I’m a big believer that you shouldn’t go out on Valentine’s Day – restaurants tend to be overcrowded and you can have a much more romantic evening if you stay at home. Of course, I also think that the height of romance is lounging on the couch together wrapped in thick blankets, eating something decadent and watching the Martian (really, that is my go-to romance suggestion). But there’s one thing that I like about traditional Valentine’s observances: the flowers.

I will swoon over beautiful flowers. And if you want swoon-worthy flowers yourself this Valentine’s day, the best source for you is the Bouqs Company.

After discovering Bouqs.com two years ago, I’ve used them to send flowers on all occasions, and they’ve never disappointed me. Unlike a lot of other flower delivery services, where the flowers that end up delivered bear little resemblance to the photos on their websites, flowers from the Bouqs Co. actually look like their photos. Better, even.

These aren’t ordinary flowers. Some of their flowers are grown on the side of an active volcano in Ecuador, where more sunshine and mineral-rich soil makes for better flowers.

And the bouquets they put together are beautiful. You can get something traditional like a dozen roses if you want, but they also have a bunch of other really stunning bouquets too, the kind that I probably wouldn’t succeed in putting together on my own and which can feel more special and personal.

Because their flowers are cut the same day you order and shipped the next day, they last longer. You’re getting them 2-4 days after they were cut, versus 10-14 days after being cut if you order from most other flower services. And in my experience, you really see the difference; my flowers from the Bouqs Co. always stay fresh for a ridiculously long amount of time – like two weeks or more. (They also have super fast, on-demand, same-day delivery in some locations.)

All of their flowers are grown on sustainable, eco-friendly farms that follow strict responsible farming practices and are third-party certified by The Rainforest Alliance.

You’d expect flowers this good to be expensive, but they’re actually much more affordable than most! Lots of their bouquets start at $50 and you can usually double the number of flowers for $10 or $15 more. (The bouquet of two dozen roses in the photo  was only $65.) That’s unusually affordable, as flower delivery goes (and shipping is free Tuesdays through Fridays.)

If you’d like to try Bouqs.com – and you should! – you can get 20% off for Valentine’s Day by using the code AAM.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by The Bouqs Company. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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{ 67 comments }

{ 67 comments… read them below }

  1. Namast'ay In Bed*

    I love Bouqs! I’ve received a bunch of flowers from them and they’re always gorgeous and last a lot longer than expected. I might have to pass this code along! :-)

  2. Anon13*

    I also love Bouqs! I began using them strictly to send gifts to others, but recently started getting regular deliveries myself, as well – I’ve been satisfied with all but one bouquet, and the company quickly apologized and made it right! Highly recommended!

  3. chilleh*

    These are gorgeous. Do they have a strong scent? I could really use some flowers in the house right now but my partner is quite sensitive (scentsitive?) to floral smells.

    1. fposte*

      I haven’t ordered from them (though this might tempt me), but florist’s roses tend to be low to no scent; they also have several lovely rose-less bouquets if you want to be sure.

    2. Moonsaults*

      Ecuadorian roses have never had much of a scent in my experience. My very first job was actually working with them, this post made me smile tbh.

    3. SJ*

      I actually ordered some flowers from Bouqs for my mother for Mother’s Day last year (thanks to AAM’s recommendation!), and I did research beforehand on flowers that have little to no scent, since she’s very sensitive to smells as well. You can shop by flower type on the site, so my brother and I each ordered a bouquet with those scentless flowers. (I think we did a bouquet of calla lillies, and I forget the second.) My mom’s not a flowers person, but she took a photo of the flowers after she got them and sent it to us and completely raved about how fresh and gorgeous the bouquets were. They WERE gorgeous and didn’t smell! Highly recommended.

    4. Spills*

      I actually just received an order of 2 dozen roses from Bouqs 3 days ago…they are exceptionally fragrant. I thought it was wonderful, but if you have someone sensitive to the smell, that may be something to keep in mind. Maybe because they are so fresh?

      1. fposte*

        Oh, that’s interesting! Freshness matters, but cultivar matters more; most flowers bred for cutting don’t prioritize fragrance, but there are a few good for both, and maybe these growers are having better luck with it. So it sounds like it’s worth inquiring before you order–it may vary from bouquet to bouquet since the sources and cultivars will vary.

    5. Serenity*

      Steer clear of lilies if scents are an issue. I love to look at them, but the heavy fragrance is a huge migraine trigger.

  5. bunniferous*

    Chilleh, I used to work for a florist. Most of the time if you stay away from stargazer lillies you should be fine as far as scent goes. The smaller Asiatic lillies are ok but a bit more fragile in bouquets. Stargazers are awesome but boy does their scent fill a room!

    1. Spoonie*

      I worked for a church for a bit, and lilies were my BANE. If you cut off the stamens (the part with the brown, dusty pollen on it) as soon as possible, it makes it much more tolerable. I really enjoyed when the volunteers left flowers at my desk, but ANYTHING but lilies…

      1. fposte*

        Another tip for the pollen, from somebody who grows lots of fragrant lilies: if you get it on your clothing, leave the article out in the sun. It’s near-magical.

        1. Me2*

          Really? I’ve never heard that, I’ll definitely try it. I ruined a white blouse with pollen and never even thought to look to see if there was a cleaning method. Thanks!

        2. JB (not in Houston)*

          I learned that trick when I carried some flowers in for my secretary on her birthday. She loves lilies! And I, unfortunately, was wearing a white shirt, and I had no idea about their little habit. I was worried about dropping them, so I held them close to my chest. That was a fun day.

          And then I had a headache the whole day from the smell, even though her office isn’t anywhere close to mine. But she loved them, so I didn’t regret it.

          1. bunniferous*

            Florists are supposed to be removing those stamens before delivery. We used to call it “deboogering”….

    2. chilleh*

      Thank you for the advice! From what you and fposte have said, the roses sound fine. I just looked up the stargazer lily and wow yes, I recognize them. Whenever they are in a bouquet they pretty much make everyone I know sneeze so I think that’s a good reason to avoid them.

      1. bunniferous*

        I went to a funeral once where the deceased worked in the floral industry and was known to love stargazers. The viewing at the funeral home was filled with bouquets containing them…you could literally smell them outside in the roadway driving past! I love them, but a little goes a long way!

    3. AvonLady Barksdale*

      Those are the only flowers I’m allergic to. I sat down at a bar last week and realized 5 minutes later that I was in front of a vase of stargazer lilies. I asked the very kind bartender if he would move them, and he did. Every time I order flowers, I include a request to leave them out.

    4. Feline*

      Adding a PSA that lilies are gorgeous but to be avoided if the recipient has cats at their location. Unlikely in offices, but I used to have an office cat! Many varieties of lilies are toxic, even just the pollen or even the water they were in. Not all florists will think about this, even when you ask for cat-safe flowers.

    5. SarahKay*

      One thing to bear in mind with lilies – many varieties are poisonous to cats. Eating the leaves or even just licking their fur clean after pollen from lilies falling on them can be fatal in the worst case.

  6. applesauce*

    LOVE Bouqs, have been sending them for years – I find coupons online for $35 for a deluxe bouquet (2 dozen roses). Beautiful, long-lasting, great customer service, I don’t send any other flowers!

  8. anonderella*

    so.. during a prank war with the SO (this was actually the coup d’etat that ended it) I put hot sauce in a bunch of my botaniphile-SO’s plants, during a devilish drinky moment (our prank war was dangerously dancing on that seam between BadFight and GoodFun). He only figured it out after throwing half of them away – I promised to buy him new plants in the spring when there are more options, but hopefully he can settle with a couple of these bouquets in the meantime.

    lessons learned –
    DON’T pick the one thing your SO loves and smother it in hot sauce, unless he asks for it that way;
    DO shop at bouqs.com.

  9. Brogrammer*

    The flowers look very nice, but the real gem of this post is the “You may also like” section at the bottom.

  10. Kittymommy*

    I’ve wanted to try these, they always look so pretty! Maybe I’ll have to break down and send myself some!

  11. Allison*

    This sounds like a neat company. I’ll admit, I’ve never had a guy send me flowers at work, but I wish my boyfriend would. Doesn’t have to be a constant thing, just for like Valentine’s Day and/or my birthday. While I’m normally a fan of speaking up if I want something, this kind of thing doesn’t seem like something I can directly ask for. Is there anything I could say to plant the idea in his head without sounding obvious? Is it bad that I want this?

    2. fposte*

      Hey, beautiful flowers are a wonderful thing to look at; as I said, I’m considering splurging for myself this year.

      I think it probably works better to be direct about what you want, though, and a lot of people would be very relieved to get specifics about a Valentine’s Day plan. “We haven’t talked about Valentine’s Day, and since it can get tricky I thought it would be easier for both of us if we said rather than hinting! I know it might sound corny, but I would really love to get flowers at work; I don’t care about going out, but seeing flowers there in February would just make me smile all week. What about you–what would you like?”

      (It’s not forbidden to both go out and get flowers, but that can get expensive, so factor that in, especially if you wouldn’t be paying for “out.”)

      1. LPBB*

        I did something similar with my husband early on in our relationship. He kept pestering me about what I wanted gift wise for my birthday, so I told him: “I just want you to make me dinner and buy me flowers.” He didn’t actually believe me (I think he thought I was being gracious because money was tight at the time) until I told him that none of my previous boyfriends had ever bought me flowers and I really wanted it.

        Now he regularly buys me flowers for my birthday, Valentine’s Day, and just because!

    3. Parfait*

      It’s not bad to want it, and it’s not bad to ask for it! Don’t just assume that “he should just know.”

      1. Allison*

        I certainly wouldn’t expect him to somehow know what I want! Did you read my comment? I do want to communicate this to him I’m just not sure how.

        1. fposte*

          I think what Parfait is saying is that trying to plant it in his head without directly asking is a recipe for frustration on both sides.

    4. Mel*

      I was a theater major in college, and no one ever got me flowers. My last semester I had a lead role, and I told my boyfriend I wanted him there on opening night (if he could be), with flowers. I’d even pay for flowers if he didn’t have the flow, but I wanted a damn bouquet of flowers.

      I got them. Although he always forgets that my favorite flowers are sunflowers.

      Moral of the story: Ask! :)

      1. SL #2*

        Haha, for my graduation, I was very specific to my parents and all my invited guests: I wanted flowers. I did not care if they each got me a bouquet or if they pooled it together for 1 big one, but I wanted flowers and I was going to have them. And I told my parents I wanted one of those orchid leis and I was going to pre-order one from one of the florists near campus and we would pick it up the night before. Which we did. I also went with them when they got the bouquet the night before and I got to pick my own. :)

        I ended up with 3 very large bouquets from parents/assorted guests, and then my old roommates came by with more. My current roommates were graduating at the same time, so our kitchen counter literally looked like it could’ve been a florist’s shop.

      1. Delta Delta*

        Yes! This works! I sent my husband a big bunch of tulips for Valentine’s Day a couple years ago and it turned out he liked having fresh flowers so much that now he gets them for me to have at our house from time to time.

  12. AMT*

    They’re the only online florist I don’t hate! (Seriously, I hate online florists. They’re basically bait-and-switch scams. But Bouqs is nice.)

    1. bunniferous*

      Yes. If you want something delivered that is not Bouqs, call a brick and mortar florist. They all take cards over the phone pretty much. Beware of the scammers. Sometimes they even advertise under the brick and mortar florists names. It is a floral jungle out there!

    2. Lily Evans*

      My parents and I both send flowers to my grandmother around the holidays and I always use the bouqs while my mom uses other sites, and I always have the satisfaction of my grandmother telling me how much nicer the flowers I sent her were compared to the other ones.

  13. Vic*

    I’ve ordered from here a few times, the first based on Alison’s recommendation. Some of the bouquets say they’ll come as buds to last longer, which is fine. However, I once specifically ordered a bouquet that *didn’t* say this because I didn’t want buds for that occasion, yet they still arrived that way. Otherwise, have been happy.

  15. Curmudgeon*

    I don’t like being picky, but there is nothing special about using the AAM code to get 20% off your order right now (besides probably boosting the commission to Alison) when they have a site-wide promo code for the same 20% off that cannot be combined. It seems like if you’re going to advertise something on someone’s site you should have something legitimately special for that site.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Eh, I’m okay with that! Lots of ads (most ads, I think) don’t contain anything that’s just for readers of that site. But it does make it easier for them to track who is buying from them as a result of this post, which I think is probably the intent. (There’s no commission for me, by the way.)

    2. Mela*

      It’s probably just a way to track where customers came from. Not a big deal…

      I also really like the use of neutral pronouns instead of female ones on the home page!

    3. JB (not in Houston)*

      I totally disagree. I’m glad she posted the ad because I wouldn’t know about them otherwise. I kinda hate sending flowers because the industry isn’t great from an environmental standpoint. So I was happy to learn about a company that’s more eco-friendly. I don’t care about the discount, I’m just glad to know about the company.

    4. LBK*

      It’s not inaccurate to say that you can get 20% off if you use code AAM. It does raise an eyebrow for me sometimes when people phrase it as a “special discount only available to Teapot Vogue subscribers” or whatever and it’s just a standard new user discount that anyone can get if they sign up for the site, but that’s not how Alison’s post is worded.

  16. Jillociraptor*

    Bouqs is the go-to florist in my family now! I sent some to my mom for Mother’s Day last year (I think because of the post on AAM!) and since then we’ve probably sent four or five bouquets back and forth for various holidays and celebrations. They are always SO beautiful and hearty!

  17. Taylor*

    I just emailed my husband with the subject line “hint, hint” and the link to this page in the body of the email. Thanks!

  18. SL #2*

    We’ve received flowers from them at our office and they were gorgeous, and used them to send flowers to other offices as well. A coworker also used them last year to send flowers to his wife’s workplace. Haven’t had a bad experience yet!

  19. Collie*

    Any advice on sending flowers to an office? I’ve sent flowers to my boyfriend’s apartment before and I’m throwing around the idea of sending to his office, but I have no idea what floor he works on or anything. (And we’ve been together for five years and lived together for two, so I know he’d be cool with it.)

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      You could call and ask the receptionist (and explain why); often they’ll be happy to help, and other times they won’t. (When they won’t, it’s usually for some of the reasons that have come up in letters here — they don’t know who you really are, etc. But you have nothing to lose by trying.)

      Or you could just ask your boyfriend, “If I wanted to have something delivered to you at work, what directions would I need to include?”

    2. Judy*

      If it’s a large place with receptionist or security, generally you just send to the right address, and include the name and phone number.

      I’ve always worked at places where someone couldn’t just walk in. Any deliveries would require someone to phone me to come get the item. (Except mail that had its own mechanism.)

    1. Newlywed*

      I just read that post and thought that I had written it! Because my office is EXACTLY that way. Women saying “I love you” to each other, sitting on one another’s laps during meetings (yes this happens), calling each other “love”…I can’t handle it. I don’t understand wtf is going on.

  21. Katie the Fed*

    I was a big Bouqs customer, but the last 3 bouquets I ordered from there were in terrible shape. Unfortunately two of them were for our grandmothers and we didn’t find out until weeks later when they VERY politely mentioned that there were a lot of dead flowers in there.

    It’s been bad enough that I’m no longer ordering from them :(

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Oh no! That’s not their usual standard, from what I’ve seen. If you feel like contacting them, I’d bet they’d make it right and try to figure out what happened.

    2. gabrielle*

      I had a similar experience my first time ordering from them – the bouquet was *tiny* to begin with, too. I left feedback and never heard a thing from them. :(

    3. Sarianna*

      I just ordered for the first time for Mothers’ Day and my mom called me, all disappointed, that most of the flowers were dead and she needed the tracking number (it was on the part of the label she cut through to open the box) for customer service to do something. I also shared the image of the bouquet I ordered with her friend who is visiting, and her comments while comparing the photo to the physical bouquet were, “Much smaller than in the picture. No yellow flowers at all. They were replaced by red and pink of the same variety. The purple with pink centers were very small pink flowers most of which were falling off the stems. The two succulents were both there. All in all the flowers were just in such sad shape that they look nothing like the vibrant colors and blooms in the picture.”

      I’m so disappointed and I hope the customer service folks can fix things. It’s a huge hassle for my non-tech-savvy mom to contact them and send pictures, and I feel bad that she’s having to deal with this!

  23. Sarah G.*

    Alison – I love that your “sponsored” posts are always really cool recommendations that come across sincerely, like a friend just casually saying, “Check out this awesome company I discovered!”

  25. Robbenmel*

    My husband saw them on “Shark Tank” and started ordering from them then. Every bouquet he’s ordered has been lovely!

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