If you’re thinking about ordering Valentine’s Day flowers online this week, you’re not alone. According to the National Retail Foundation, Americans will spend a whopping $2.3bn on flowers this year – that’s more than ever before.
But buying Valentine's Day flowers online can be tricky. While there are a ton of flower delivery services to choose from, only a few are worth your money. Even when you think you’ve found the right service, it can be tough navigating the ordering process: why is there a small and large version of this bouquet? How do these sizes compare to elsewhere? What if I want my bouquet delivered on the weekend instead?
We wanted to find out who’s offering the biggest, freshest Valentine’s Day flowers this week, so we tested eight of the most prominent online flower delivery services. We mixed older players (1800-Flowers.com; FTD; ProFlowers) with newer competitors (The Bouqs Co; UrbanStems), which gave us a wide range of arrangement aesthetics and styles.
We also capped the price around $50 per service, so all the bouquets you see here are $50, or as close to $50 as we could get. This doesn’t include taxes and fees, though, so if you’re on a tighter budget, be wary of these extra costs. Here’s what happened…
(Want to send flowers in the UK? Our sister site T3 tested the best Valentine's Day flowers over the pond.)
1. The Bouqs – the best Valentine's Day flowers
Bouquet: Sierra Sunset (original size) $49
What’s in it? 15 lily blooms | Delivery cost: $18 | Tax: $5.95 | Total cost: $72.95 | Freshness guarantee: None | How many days did the flowers last? 7 days+ | Recyclable packaging? Yes
What happened: Ordering from The Bouqs Company was relatively easy. There’s a large selection of bouquets, ranging in price from around $30 up to $99. You can filter by flower or occasion; or if you need inspiration, you can browse handy sections like Bestsellers or Under $50. We chose a selection of bright pink lilies – a rather unconventional choice for Valentine’s Day flowers, but we think it was well worth the price.
We won't lie. At first, we weren’t very impressed with our bouquet from Bouqs. The website warns that lilies are sent in bud form (so that they’ll last for longer), but we were still a little underwhelmed when ours arrived with only four lilies in bloom. Eleven buds had yet to open, making the rest of the bouquet seem somewhat sparse.
The lilies that had bloomed on arrival, though, looked absolutely stunning, and the arrangement became increasingly beautiful throughout the week as more buds opened. In fact, our bouquet from The Bouqs lasted the longest of all those on test, making it excellent value for money.
Bear in mind that The Bouqs doesn’t offer same-day or next-day delivery for much of its selection. It also doesn’t deliver on Sundays or Mondays for some of its bouquets, which is why we’ve marked it down in that section – the delivery service itself was fine. If you want to order Valentine’s Day flowers from The Bouqs, we'd recommend placing your order by Wednesday, 12 February, latest.
VERDICT: The Sierra Sunset was the best-value bouquet we tested, and is definitely worth the price. What it lacked in instant impact, it more than made up for in freshness and longevity. We loved watching the lilies bloom throughout the week. You can upgrade the size of the bouquet for an extra $15, or add a vase to your order for $10.
2. UrbanStems
Bouquet: The Amour, $55
What’s in it? Carnations, Solomio, Eucalyptus, Spray Roses | Delivery cost: $10 | Tax: $5.78 | Total cost: $70.78 | Freshness guarantee: None | How many days did they actually last? 7 days+| Recyclable packaging? Yes | Last orders: 2pm February 13, 2020
What happened: As one of the newer services in the flower delivery space, UrbanStems is carving out a niche for itself thanks to its promise of super fresh flowers and fast delivery. Ordering online was easy: there are plenty of Valentine’s Day bouquets to choose between (we picked The Amour, an elegant-looking mixed bouquet), and the site was easy to use. We found ourselves checking out in no time.
Our bouquet arrived beautifully presented – it was one of the best looking arrangements on test – with pleasingly bright and vibrant flowers. Most of the flowers were relatively intact, although a few had suffered some wear and tear in transit. We felt a little let down by the size of the bouquet, though: it felt a little sparse, even for the relatively low price of $55.
UrbanStems has a specific selection that can only be delivered on Valentine’s Day, while other bouquets have more variable delivery dates. We recommend ordering as early as possible from UrbanStems, but if you order before 2 pm the day before Valentine’s Day, you should have no problems.
VERDICT: Fresh flowers are hard to get right, especially if they’re being delivered in a box. We think UrbanStems is one of the better services on the market and would buy The Amour bouquet again – we’d choose the double size, though, rather than single.
3. 1800 Flowers
Bouquet: 24 Pink Petal Roses, $49.99 ($54.99)
What’s in it? 24 pink roses | Delivery cost: $14.99 | Tax: $6.21 | Total cost: $76.19 | Freshness guarantee: 7 days | How many days did they actually last? 7 days+| Recyclable packaging? Yes | Last orders: 2pm February 14, 2020
What happened: Roses are notoriously expensive, and we were pleasantly surprised by the relatively low price of our 24 pink roses at 1800 Flowers – until we saw the cost of shipping. Add to this the fact that we found the 1800 Flowers website to be very busy and a little difficult to navigate, and it's fair to say we didn't especially enjoy ordering these Valentine's Day flowers.
Nevertheless, the bouquet arrived looking good. The roses we received were near full bloom and, with relatively few exceptions, in great condition. They lasted around a week, which we were pleased with.
A word to the wise: 1800 Flowers says it offers same-day delivery, but we'd still order any Valentine's Day flowers earlier than this, to be sure they arrive in time.
VERDICT: 1800 Flowers has a very extensive selection of bouquets, and we think it's a safe choice for Valentine's Day flowers. We were pleased with the price and quality of our 24 Pink Petal Roses bouquet and would order it again. If you’re looking for originality and creativity in presentation, though, we'd recommend The Bouqs instead.
4. ProFlowers
Bouquet: Two Dozen Assorted Roses, $45
What’s in it? Four different colors of roses | Delivery cost: $15.99 | Care charge: $2.99 | Tax: $6.57 | Total cost: $70.55 | Freshness guarantee: 7 days | How many days did they actually last? 5 days+| Recyclable packaging? Yes | Last orders: 1pm February 13, 2020
What happened: Our choice of two dozen assorted roses from ProFlowers was a bit of a gamble: the colors of the roses you get depend on the florist assigned to your order, so you're unlikely to receive precisely what's pictured. We didn't get any red roses in ours, for example. (If we wanted a particular color next time, we would order that specifically.)
ProFlowers offers a rather seamless ordering experience, but we weren't impressed by the payment process. We were shocked by the $80 total, which wasn't shown to us until we'd input our credit card information.
The arrangement was simple – it would have been hard to mess up the presentation of this bouquet – and from a distance, our bouquet looked fresh and pleasant. On closer inspection, some of the roses were bruised, but the majority arrived in excellent condition.
Bear in mind that if you’re looking for same-day or next-day delivery, you’re probably better off ordering your Valentine's Day flowers from elsewhere. ProFlowers’ selection is significantly reduced if you need a bouquet in a pinch.
VERDICT: The quality of this bouquet was mid-range: you could do better by choosing Valentine's Day flowers from others on this list, but you could also do much, much worse. Overall, ProFlowers was a safe option for our Valentine's Day bouquet – but was our arrangement worth the final price? Probably not.
5. Amazon Flowers
Bouquet: Fresh Flowers bouquet, $52
What’s in it? Roses, Scabiosa, Calla Llily, Hypericum | Delivery cost: $19.99 | Tax: $6.39 | Total cost: $78.38 | Freshness guarantee: None | How many days did they actually last? 7 days+| Recyclable packaging? Yes
What happened: We’ll be honest: we weren’t expecting amazing fresh-cut flowers from Amazon. There’s an immense range of prices, flowers, and vendors to muddle through, and we picked a rather safe choice to keep things simple: a bouquet that contained roses.
We were pleasantly surprised by the results. Our bouquet from Amazon was one of the biggest arrangements we tested. For $52, we received a beautiful bouquet of roses and filler flowers. There were a lot of stems, too, but given the various marketplace, we could have easily chosen a worse option.
A word on purchasing flowers at Amazon: we found ordering to be as easy as it is to order anything from Amazon, but searching for the right bouquet was a different story: we trawled through a lot of customer reviews first. Also, if you don’t have Amazon Prime, you’ll need to account for the shipping charge, which could add a significant amount to your total bill.
Browse carefully in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, too. You can't pick your delivery date with the same precision as you can with other flower delivery services.
VERDICT: Don’t overlook Amazon as a flower delivery service – the delivery giant has tons of options for fresh-cut flower vendors with relatively varied bouquet aesthetics and sizes. Did our bouquet blow us away? No. Could we have done worse? Absolutely. Would we order Valentine's Day flowers from Amazon again? Cautiously, yes: our bouquet was a good buy for the price – but you never know what you’ll get from a different vendor.
6. Teleflora
Bouquet: Full of Love (standard), $49
What’s in it? Pink roses, tulips, carnations and waxflower, pitta negra, variegated pittosporum, and complimentary vase | Service fee: $15.99 | Total cost: $65.98 | Freshness guarantee: None | How many days did they actually last? 7 days+| Recyclable packaging? Yes | Last orders: 3pm, February 14, 2020
What happened: Teleflora is known for quality bouquets, but it’s safe to say that we were a tad disappointed with our test experience. Navigating the Teleflora website was pleasant enough, but although we ordered our Valentine’s Day bouquet a few days in advance, it arrived a day late.
The bouquet itself was not the most eye-pleasing, either, when it arrived. Some of the roses looked a little worn out, and the bouquet was arranged in such a way that it looked as though flowers were missing. Also, although the description of the arrangement stated that the flowers were not meant to face any specific direction, one side was mostly composed of stems and leaves, while the flowers were all bunched up on the other.
Verdict: While Teleflora provides some quality flower arrangements, our Full of Love bouquet was not one of them. Admittedly, given the total price of $65 (which includes taxes and fees, as well as the cost of the vase), we did get a lot for our money, but this wasn’t the most impressive bouquet of the test.
7. FTD
Bouquet: Purple Presence (Better size), $44 (was $55)
What’s in it? Lavender roses, purple stock, lavender Peruvian Lilies, purple statice and more, plus complimentary vase | Shipping fee: $17.99 | Tax: $5.50 | Total cost: $67.49 | Freshness guarantee: 7 days | How many days did they actually last? 5 days+ | Recyclable packaging? Yes | Last orders: 2pm, February 14, 2020
What happened: We had high expectations for our FTD Valentine’s Day flowers. Ordering was an easy step-by-step process that took less than five minutes, and the flowers looked stunning on the site. However, the bouquet we received fell well short of our expectations. It was surprisingly small for the price and just looked sad. The flowers had definitely seen better days, and the petals looked a little worse for wear – we suspect transit wasn’t kind to this arrangement.
Aesthetically, the photo on the site didn’t quite match reality, either. Our bouquet had much less variation, with fewer shades of pinks and purples. We were also dismayed by the $19 service fee. It isn’t unheard of to be charged that much, but for such a low-quality arrangement, it was almost an insult. Our bouquet wasn’t worth the near-$70 price tag.
VERDICT: To put it bluntly, we wouldn’t order this bouquet again. FTD may have better-quality Valentines’ Day flowers for a higher price, but if your budget is around the $50 mark, you’re better off looking elsewhere. Though not the worst of our test bouquets, it does rank near the bottom.
7. Harry & David
Bouquet: Vibrant Brassic Bouquet, $44.99
What’s in it? Purple brassica, purple matsumoto, purple pom, purple waxflower, plus complimentary vase | Shipping fee: $32.49 | Tax: $6.87 | Total cost: $84.35 | Freshness guarantee: None | How many days did they actually last? 5 days+ | Recyclable packaging? Yes
What happened: Harry & David might be known for its quality gift baskets, but there's a reason why the company isn't known for its flower delivery. Not only is the selection minimal, but it's also very expensive. In fact, this was the most costly bouquet we ordered, and that was only because of the frankly ridiculous shipping charge, which was over $30.
The flowers were disappointing too. Not only did our bouquet arrive looking a little sparse, but the flowers were simply ugly and worn. Our arrangement was nowhere near as vibrant as the one pictured online, and the flowers weren't nearly as large.
To make matters worse, we thought that ordering on the Harry & David website was nothing short of a pain – and forget about same-day or next-day delivery. With an uncertain delivery date and a less than stellar bouquet, you're better off looking at another one of the services higher up this list.
VERDICT: Our Harry & David arrangement was, simply, not a very good-looking bouquet. It was probably the worst-looking bouquet we received on test, and we wouldn't recommend it to anyone. However, if you're looking for an alternate gift, such as plants or gift baskets, Harry & David may offer better value.
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