1-800-Flowers Review: The 45-Year-Old Company That Gets Flowery Delivery Right (2024)

Having multiple fresh bouquets arrive in pristine condition in the middle of a February snowstorm does seem like somewhat of a magic trick—but the fact that it wasn’t, makes my first experience with 1-800-Flowers that much more impressive.

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I recently ordered two bouquets from the longstanding flower delivery company, and they definitely have their service down pat after nearly 50 years of business. Here’s my in-depth review of what it’s really like purchasing flowers from 1-800-Flowers, plus all the details you’ll want to know before placing your first order.

My Experience Ordering from 1-800-Flowers – The Essentials:

About 1-800-Flowers:

Who are they?

1-800 Flowers started nearly 50 years ago as a small floral boutique in Manhattan. After adopting the phone number 1-800 Flowers (which later became their name), the company’s founder Jim McCann took to the internet and started selling flowers online.

Many years of changes and innovation later, the company acquired several notable online gifting brands like the Popcorn Factory and Cheryl’s Cookies. They also started multiple partner brands, including the fruit basket company Fruit Bouquets and the steak company Stockyards. Today, 1-800-Flowers is a multi-million dollar business that’s considered to be an industry leader in the online gifting space, owning and operating 150 retail stores.

What are they known for?

1-800-Flowers is known for classically designed floral bouquets that can be purchased or gifted for any occasion. Whether you want to send someone a sympathy bouquet, an arrangement for a birthday, or just about any other event you can think of—the company provides a ton of choice and customization options to make your gift memorable.

Besides an abundance of choices, the company also offers several notable add-ons to all of their bouquets. This includes things like vases, balloons, stuffed animals, and even chocolates. They allow you to choose from a variety of shipping methods, including same-day delivery (typically provided by a local florist) and delivery to businesses, hospitals, and funeral homes.

1-800-Flowers currently ships to all 50 states as well as internationally to over 100 countries. Most of their flowers are sourced from local florists (which makes the extensive service offering possible), but otherwise, their flowers typically ship from farms in Colombia, Ecuador, and California.

My 1-800-Flowers Experience

The Flowers I Ordered

I ordered two bouquets from 1-800-Flowers. The first of these was the Assorted Roses & Peruvian Lilies, which arrived on the expected date in pristine condition. The second bouquet I ordered was Nature in Bloom, which is part of the company’s Local Delivery program. Rather than arriving in the mail, this bouquet was made by a local florist and hand-delivered to my door on the expected delivery date.

The Online Ordering Experience at 1-800-Flowers

Ordering flowers with 1-800-Flowers is fairly straightforward. While the website does have a lot going on, the company also makes it easy to place a quick order without too much red tape.

Because the company is also affiliated with a number of other gift-type delivery brands (notably Harry & David, The Stockyard, and Cheryl’s Cookies, among others) you have several options to expand your shopping beyond flowers.

Several upgrades are offered throughout the process (ie. adding balloons or a teddy bear to your order), and you can also opt in for the company’s ‘Celebrations Passport’. This annual subscription costs $29.99 and gets you free shipping and no service charges across all of the company’s brands for one year. If you’re buying flowers as a one-off for yourself or someone else, this probably isn’t worth it. But if you frequently send gift baskets and floral arrangements, it does seem like the savings could be worthwhile.

Besides these upgrades, you’re also given the option for further order customization at checkout, where you’re prompted to add an ‘occasion’ to your order as well as a gift message (assuming you’re sending flowers to someone other than yourself). These prompts aren’t very pushy, and it’s actually kind of nice having them so readily available and not needing to hunt around to find where you can write a gift message.

Another feature I enjoyed at this stage of checkout was the ‘suggested messages’. These are pre-written prompts based on various occasions you can choose from, including Sympathy, Get Well, and Love & Romance. The best part? The prompts are actually pretty good and feel like something an average person would actually write to another person. And if I was placing an order in a hurry for someone I didn’t know very well, I would definitely be tempted to take advantage of this feature.

Talking Delivery

Despite using two different delivery methods (snail mail and hand delivery), both bouquets arrived in flawless condition and on time. I was especially impressed by the packaging for the mailed delivery, which was minimal but effective in keeping the flowers protected during transit.

I should also mention that despite living in a somewhat remote location with very snowy conditions, both bouquets arrived without issue—which leads me to believe this would be the case for other customers as well.

The easy delivery is also, at least in part, due to the clearly labeled and branded packaging, which I’m sure most delivery drivers have come to recognize. The box would be hard to miss even in a pile of others, which doubtlessly helps it get to where it’s going safely.

Upon opening the box, the flowers were wrapped in minimal plastic packaging with the stems securely fastened to the inside of the box. The company used a similar method that I’ve seen in other flower deliveries, where plastic is threaded through the bouquet in a way that protects the more delicate blooms (like roses) from being damaged during transit. Since most of the flowers were unopened, this also helps keep the petals in place. This packaging seems to be the industry-standard way to ship flowers from long distances while optimizing for freshness and little to no damage.

The best part about the packaging is that most of it (minus the plastic liners) was completely recyclable. Some instructions and light reading were included on the types of flowers, but there wasn’t a lot of paperwork or trash that I needed to sift through (a big plus in my book).

Setting Up my 1-800-Flowers at Home

The packaging also allowed for my bouquets to be displayed right out of the box with minimal fussing. After cutting open the plastic, finding a vase (I opted not to buy one), cutting the stems to size, and adding in the flower food provided by the company, my bouquets were display-ready.

Because of how large the bouquets were, I actually ended up breaking them out into three vases rather than two—which made it feel like I got an even better deal than I bargained for.

1-800-Flowers Delivery Review: The Verdict

As you can tell from the 4.5 rating, my experience with 1-800-Flowers was overwhelmingly positive. Here are the details on why I gave it that rating.

Considerations:

The only reason 1-800-Flowers didn’t score a 5/5 is the price point. Everything about the flowers and service was perfect, but the price still feels pretty expensive for what it is. Although I really enjoyed getting my flowers (and would certainly spend the money again on a gift for someone), I’m not sure it was enough of a “deal” for me to regularly buy flowers from the company for myself. And considering they often go through local florists, I actually think I might be able to get similar bouquets locally at a slightly lower price.

One other consideration is that there’s no easy way to customize their flower arrangements. Whilst there’s a significant variety of floral designs to pick from it would have been nice to specify a few flower varieties if I was shopping for a particular occasion.

Highlights:

All of that being said, the flowers themselves (as well as the service) were flawless. The bouquets arrived in pristine condition, with many unopened blooms that have since come into their full glory these past few days. The bouquets definitely resemble the pictures online and, combined with the excellent service, more than met my expectations.

The company’s ability to orchestrate a local flower delivery to my address (which, as I mentioned, isn’t the most accessible place to find) also increased my confidence that they would be able to successfully ship flowers anywhere, whether that’s international to my mother-in-law, or even just to my grandmother’s nursing home. With the company marketing itself mainly as a gift service, I can say I would definitely be inspired to use them as such in the future—if only because I know my gift would arrive in perfect condition to its correct destination, which is no small feat by any means.

What occasions might someone consider ordering from 1-800-Flowers:

As I mentioned earlier, probably the best way to use 1-800-Flowers is for gifting flowers. The price point is a little steep for regular personal use, but as a gift, you couldn’t ask for a better flower delivery company.

Flowers arrive in flawless condition on the correct date, and that level of service combined with the huge amount of choice and customization makes it the perfect carefree way to send a meaningful gift to just about anyone.

For more, check out 1-800-Flower’s latest floral collections here.

Alternative flower delivery companies to consider:

If you’re looking for alternative flower delivery companies, you might want to check out one of these two companies:

• UrbanStems– Moderately priced flower subscriptions with seasonal blooms. Full review here.
• BloomsyBox– Affordable farm-to-door flower subscriptions with free delivery across the US. Full review here.
• Teleflora – Locally crafted bouquets and vase arrangements for every occasion from another long-standing flower delivery specialist. Full review here.
• The Bouqs – modern, eco-friendly bouquets with a farm-fresh feel. Full review here.
• Odeàla Rose – a slightly more luxurious flower delivery service for special occasions and European-inspired floristry. Full review here.