Flowers in New York

Recently, I had the occasion to buy flowers for two friends in New York City. I was disappointed both by 1-800-Flowers and a downtown TeleFlora affiliate that I found on the net.

The first florist failed to deliver the flowers on the day I requested. This wasn’t a hard delivery–the flowers were to go to a midtown office building with a messenger center. It shouldn’t have been necessary, but the florist called my friend to meet downstairs. My friend hunted for the delivery downstairs, but it never showed up. Even worse, 1-800-Flowers told me that the delivery had occurred! The florist asserted that no one was in the building to accept the flowers–this is not even remotely believable. It took 30 minutes to an hour to work out the mess; the flowers were delivered two days later. (To add insult to injury, the florist substituted from the vase pictured on the web site.)

I found the second florist by searching Google. They had their own web site, but in many ways was even more disappointing than the first. This delivery was to a friend’s apartment. She doesn’t have a doorman, but there is an atrium where the flowers could be left and the building is frequently occupied during the day. They were not able to successfully deliver the flowers to the atrium of my friend’s apartment; even though they said they spoke with the restaurant next door, I don’t think they tried the other apartments in the building or the business on the same level. I went down later that afternoon and delivered the flowers myself. This wasn’t too upsetting even though I feel they should have been able to deliver the flowers.

What was upsetting about the second florist was that their arrangement was fairly poor. I asked for a contemporary design with a nice arrangement of fall flowers. (All of the designs on their website I liked were unavailable.) They arrangement I received was your standard floral arrangement in orange with a cheap transparent vase.

There wasn’t time to complain to the second florist. They were closing and I had to get back to work. However, I don’t necessarily believe in complaining in these types of situations. The best thing I can do is decide not to patronize them again.

Ultimately, I’m sure both of my friends were very happy with the flower purchases. And that’s what matters because if they are happy then I am happy. And if you are one of the friends reading this who received flowers and were not happy, then I apologize. :-)

I want to find a florist with good delivery, good taste, and honest service. Cost is always a factor, but I am willing to pay a decent amount of money. Can anyone recommend good florists in New York City?