My dilemma (warning - it is definitely a 1st world thing)

I won't buy imported flowers on principle. I have a neighbour who has her own (very small) business selling cut flowers from her own garden and they are absolutely gorgeous. I often dry flowers from my garden (lavender, seedheads etc) and they can last for a couple of years. I absolutely love a bunch of wild flowers (weeds to some) stuffed into a jam jar, to me, so much prettier than the imported stuff!

When we moved I decided that I was going to try and change the garden into a cottage garden like some of the National Trust houses have. I found a great woman who understood what I wanted and for the first time today I realised how brilliantly she has achieved the aim - it is so wonderful to be able to look out at full flower beds in random colours…..

Tesco. Cheaper than Waitrose, have a good choice & they last ages. Their roses are fantastic.

PenJK50

When we moved I decided that I was going to try and change the garden into a cottage garden like some of the National Trust houses have. I found a great woman who understood what I wanted and for the first time today I realised how brilliantly she has achieved the aim - it is so wonderful to be able to look out at full flower beds in random colours…..

I forgot to say that of course i hardly ever have to buy flowers now because of the wide selection in my flower beds.

Sorry but I’d go with Waitrose if it’s better value

BOTH! Some weeks do Waitrose, some weeks do local as their inventory may change due to the season too and you may find something you like that you may not find at the store.

Coolgran65

I told my dh years ago no more flowers from the florist. The supermarket flowers, as you say, last so much longer. As long as 3 weeks. Much as I do like to support the smaller shops in our little town. For something special as a gift I go to the florist and for £20 he will make me up ..... a Hydranga or a Bird of Paradise bloom with a couple of large green glossy stems in a small water container and presented beautifully in brown paper and finished with raffia/eucalyptus..

That sounds like a lovely little gift of flowers 🌷

LucyAnna2

Germanshepherdsmum

I must be alone in not buying flowers. Neither do I cut those in the garden except sweet peas to keep them flowering.

It’s interesting that we’re all different, isn’t it? I would find it hard to never have flowers in the house. I find them cheerful, uplifting, and more so if scented.

I agree, I love a vase of flowers, but sadly hardly ever scented now.I think the scent has gone due to making flowers more hardy and healthy.

Tesco do good flower bunches which are cheaper and really last well.
To the OP you can’t keep a local business going if they’re charging huge amounts.
I stopped going to a local hairdresser salon as the prices were just going up and up.

Mt61

A friend bought me expensive flowers online, whilst I was looking for my glasses, noticed little beasties on the worktop around the base of the vase, turns out that they were carpet beetles Since then I haven’t bought flowers & just have expensive silk flowers instead.

I buy silk flowers and similar now but I don’t consider them to be expensive given how long they last compared with fresh.
Years ago, when my late husband and I were first married, we had no money to spare for flowers. He used to stop along a country lane on his way home from work and pick wild flowers for me (we hadn’t been warned about the ethics of this in the 60s and there were always plenty around in those days). Those little bunches of flowers meant more to me than any expensive bouquets because he had gone to the trouble of picking them himself. Now, I buy flowers for his grave. 😥

Could you plant an area of your garden for simple cut flowers OP?

Sorry, Kittylester. I realise this doesn’t help you at all! Luckily, you have had great advice from other posters!

We have an excellent small florists shop in our village and if I want something special, I will go there. Also I think they are helped to continue with providing funeral arrangements (which are excellent). I usually use the supermarket flowers which do last quite well. Luckily we have a lady in our church team who provides an abundance of foliage from her garden, to help bulk out the arrangements. I am trying to grow shrubs in pots to cut as and when. I also have a eucalyptus tree which is great for cutting.

Supermarket flowers are definitely cheap and last a long time but I struggle with the concept of air miles. I would love to have enough space to grown my own. I visited Mum's grave last week having planned to buy flowers on the way but the shop was closed. Her headstone is near the hedge which was full of wildflowers so I picked some and put them in the grave vase. They looked very pretty - a mixture of umbellifers, campions and mallow. A week later I passed the cemetery and popped in with the intention of throwing away the flowers as I thought they would be dead but, to my surprise, they still looked quite good so I picked a few more to top up the vase.

Why not alternate?
One week supermarket flowers, the next time, the florist ones.

Or, supermarket ones usually, but florist ones (if they are prettier?) for times when you have visitors, or "a bit of a do*.

It rarely occurs to me to buy flowers. It just isn’t in my DNA. I live very near an Aldi so I walk there and never have a trolley, just a basket, and when I pass the flowers just inside the entrance sometimes I think I must come back for a bunch when I’ve done the rest of my shopping, but then I forget. I must check their origin as I don’t want to rack up air miles.
Kittylester, if I were you I would alternate, maybe 3 from Waitrose, one from your florist.

My daughter often brings me flowers from her garden. The last bunch was a mixture of garden and wild flowers which were lovely. Yesterday a friend brought me a little posy of sweet peas.

On Friday, in Tesco, I happened to spot a lovely mixed bunch with a yellow label. £3.30, reduced from £8. It's always worth looking. They are still fresh and most of them will last another week.