This is where things get a little tricky. Flowers are a wonderful gift but order-gatherers and drop-shippers are going to try and get between you and the real local florist that you want to fill your order.
The end result? What gets sent is so much less than what you deserve.
What Are Order Gatherers?
An order gatherer is a business that tries to generate flower orders but rarely if ever actually fills those orders. Most order-gatherers are nothing more than a call center and a website and, unlike a real flower shop, they wouldn't even have flowers to send or florists to prepare them.
They are however very good at convincing the public that they are genuine florists, largely through the use of deceptive websites and telephone listings designed to convince you that they are legitimate. They take your order (and your money) and then contact a real local florist and place the real order, the order that will actually be delivered, with that flower shop.
The problem is that they also want to keep a lot of the money for themselves – it's not uncommon for less than 60% of what you actually paid to get passed along to the real florist that actually prepares and delivers your flowers. The end result is that you get much less than what you paid for.
What Are Drop Shippers?
Unlike the real florists that do an outstanding job of serving a small local community drop-shippers attempt to serve entire continents from just one or two national production facilities.
Rather than using local delivery companies that specialize in handling fresh flowers they have to ship with overnight couriers. It also means that they flowers are packed into special shipping boxes.
What the person received is generally nothing like what you thought you were purchasing. The recipient will have to unpack the flowers and arrange them on their own. It's unlikely that the flowers will look like they did in the picture that you feel in love with.