Cut flowers reach this country twice a week by air. Everything about how this shop buys, prices and promises follows from that.
Nothing we sell is grown here. Cut flowers come into the country by air, in boxes, twice a week, and everything about the way this shop works follows from that one fact.
What that means in practice. On the two mornings after a flight the shop is at its best and the choice is widest. By the fourth day the selection has narrowed to whatever keeps well. That is not a shop that has run down, it is a shop being honest: we would rather sell you carnations that will last than roses that have already had their week.
It also means that what is ordered from the grower and what comes off the aircraft are not always the same thing. Boxes get bumped, flights are full, a consignment is held. Once or twice a year something arrives cooked because it sat on a hot apron somewhere. So we describe our arrangements by shape, size and colour rather than by a fixed list of stems, and where we substitute we substitute for the same value or better.
This is also why a dated order placed early genuinely gets better flowers. When we buy for a flight we buy for the dated orders first and the shop second. An order for a birthday in three weeks is already spoken for when that box is opened. An order placed the afternoon before takes what is left after everybody else's date has been filled.
One more thing worth knowing. Prices move through the year and they move most before the days when everybody wants the same flower at the same time. We do not put the price up on this site for those weeks, which means those are the weeks we are most likely to tell you honestly that a different flower is the better buy.
If the exact flower matters to you, ask us before you order rather than after. A fortnight of notice turns most maybes into yes.