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

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.

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.

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*.

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.

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.

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

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

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. 😥

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.

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.

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 🌷

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.

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

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.

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

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 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!

..

My reply will probably be of more interest to someone wanting to send flowers as a gift ……

My elder son lives some 130-miles away and so we don’t see him as often as we would like, but every four to six weeks I receive a lovely bouquet of flowers from him from Homeland Flowers via Amazon.

They arrive beautifully presented and in a sturdy box.

They last for over a fortnight, when I then transfer the ones that still have life in them to a smaller vase where they last for another week.

He’s done this for a few years now and I’ve only had one disappointment. When I wrote about it, I was sent a replacement. I now buy gift flowers from them myself as flowers seem to be a present that everyone enjoys receiving - and often the high postage costs etc for sending other gifts by post can add make it a no-no.

..

Lidl's flowers ate fab, and last for ages, regular supermarket price too

I love flowers in the house and regularly buy them from Sainsbury’s, keeping them going for as long as possible. I don’t buy from my local florist as on the odd occasion I have popped in (the shop has some charming vases, pots and odds and ends as well), the staff there are so rude and unwelcoming I don’t think they deserve my custom. I do buy from the florist in town sometimes, a lovely, friendly young team, but they are very expensive. I love to see flowers growing best of all, but my flat does not have a garden so it’s nice to bring the outdoors in a little!

I had a Saturday job in a florist/nursery in 1960s, and have always tried to support a local florist wherever I've lived. However supermarket flowers do seem to last longer.
Recently I organised a small bouquet of flowers for a friend from our local florist (any colour, any flower). Nicely wrapped they looked presentable, but once in a vase they looked scant. I had tried another florist first, who told me she couldn't do a small bouquet for the following day as she needed 24hrs notice!
So I've now officially given up on florists.

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.

kittylester

Aggie these are not expensive flowers as such.

She had tulips that were nearly as much per bunch as 3 times as many in Waitrose.

I fear that, if she closes we will get yet another barbers, coffee shop or vape shop.

You're lucky, kittylester, if one closes round here it's turned into an art hub/gallery - we have a few - and they're mainly eyesores!

Though it is nice to support our local small businesses, we also have to think about our purses.
Stick with Waitrose!

I live close to a Waitrose, and independent cheese shop, wine shop butcher, fishmonger, baker and florist. I try and use the independents as I don't want to lose them. The only one I don't use is the baker as I don't eat gluten and Waitrose sells gf whereas the baker doesn't. I think it is probably a bit more expensive but I don't want to see the big supermarkets push out the smaller businesses.

You're right, it certainly is a first world problem. I'm very lucky in that I have flowers available in the garden for a good part of the year. The spring flowers have been wonderful and our roses are just starting now. I love cut flowers in the house but, even though they are from our own garden, they don't come without our labour. In the few months when we have nothing available, I do buy flowers but only from Lidl usually. I've found them to be a sensible price and they last well. I don't have a local florist & there's only 1 Waitrose in our county and it's about 40 miles away! No dilemma for me! kittylester other supermarkets are available!