Twin Cities Consumers’ Checkbook: Find quality flowers for less this Valentine’s Day

Friendly reminder: Valentine’s Day is coming.

If you’re planning to buy flowers for someone special Wednesday, make sure you pick a good seller, and don’t overpay. There are a lot of petal peddlers out there. And according to ratings nonprofit Twin Cities Consumers’ Checkbook receives from area consumers, many floral vendors disappoint with delayed deliveries, wilted flowers, broken promises and arrangements much different than shown online.

Because floral customers often place orders for a product that’s delivered sight unseen, it’s no surprise that problems occur. Florists must somehow interpret customers’ tastes and build a work of art fitting those needs. The best floral shops make this happen with fresh products, prompt delivery and low prices.

It pays to shop around. For one dozen long-stem red roses, Checkbook’s undercover price shoppers found prices among local florist shops ranging from $15 to $72. For stargazer lilies, prices ranged from $3 to $12 per stem.

Through a special arrangement, Star Tribune readers can access Checkbook’s ratings of local florists for quality and price free of charge until March 10 via Checkbook.org/StarTribune/Florists.

Keep in mind flowers are a product of supply and demand, so you will pay more for popular blooms. Red roses are the flower of choice for Valentine’s Day, and they are often marked up extra for the holiday. A good florist should be able to advise you on alternatives, like tulips or dahlias. And go for the greens; they add a lot of volume for not a lot of money. Ask for ferns, maple leaves or even hostas to boost your arrangement. Using a vase from home also cuts costs.

If you want an arrangement delivered, seek exotic or unusual flowers or need advice, your best bet is a retail florist. But if you need a typical bouquet, want to arrange the flowers yourself or would like to save money, you have other options.

Supermarkets and big-box stores offer one big plus — price. Checkbook’s shoppers found supermarket prices averaged about 60 percent lower than those at traditional florists.

Good retail florists can help with any flower-oriented need, including delivery, wire services and helping with big events like weddings. Their business models and styles range from wire-service-only (with that standard Florists’ Transworld Delivery, or FTD, look) to custom shops creating original designs arranged with unusual or exotic flowers in vintage or artistic vases.

Many florists Checkbook evaluated received high ratings from their surveyed customers, but the ratings for some shops prove a rose is not a rose: Consumers often lodged complaints about late or missing deliveries, wrong items, poor-quality products, lousy employee attitudes and wire-service arrangements with fewer (or lower-quality) flowers than ordered.

To send flowers to someone outside the area, you have a few choices. You can order directly through a florist in that city, ask a local florist to coordinate things or turn to a national floral network.

Checkbook’s take: Work directly with a retail florist — either located here or where the recipient lives — rather than relying on a national outfit. The best florists keep track of their experiences with florists elsewhere and will follow up to make sure your blooms make it to their destination.

Because using a national service or an order-taking company means customers have little control of the final product, there are many unhappy flower-buyers out there. Here is a very common situation: An order-taking service charges a customer too little for an arrangement and sends the order to a participating florist, which rejects it. The service then sends the order to a different florist, and again, after several hours, no one accepts the job. Sometimes this continues for days, even weeks. Just as bad, a florist chooses to fill the underpriced order but skimps on flowers. This often happens when a disreputable florist accepts an underpriced order and uses it as a chance to receive a little money while ridding themselves of old flowers.

No matter whom you hire to create your arrangements, pay by credit card. If a florist leaves you unhappy and is unwilling to make it right, you can contest the charge with your credit card company and take back your money.