St Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and of course it’s traditional to buy a lovely bunch of flowers for your sweetheart. Like most holidays, Valentine’s Day is so commericalised these days that it’s easy for florists to whack their prices up around this time of year.

So here at Happy Valentines we’ve put together a few tips to help you get the best possible deal on flowers this Saint Valentine’s Day, or whenever you want to show your love with lilies or your passion with peonies!

Plan Ahead

Do your research – always know what you want before you contact the florist, and ask for a quote straight away. Don’t let the florist sell you their oldest stock at the highest price. If they can they will. It’s a business and stock needs to be rotated.

Choose Carefully

Red roses can quadruple in price around valentines and the quality can vary dramatically due to high trading volumes and early or late harvesting on the rose farms. For the same price as a dozen red roses, you can buy 3 or 4 dozen in another colour. Try  pink or orange and ask for a dark sexy foliage like red cordyline or black thai leaves.

Length of roses dictates their price as well, and although the florist will try to convince you that 1 metre long roses are better, it’s not necessarily the case unless you are buying a single rose.  For a bouquet, Anything around 40cm in length is fine and will look impressive in most vases.

Demand Good Service

Also, because of the high volume of deliveries around valentines day, unless you stand out as an important customer, you are likely to recieve another standard bunch of flowers made by a swarm of work experience students or junior florists. Trust me, every florist does this and the standard always slips on valentines.

Be Sneaky!

The best way to get excellent service, better value and more beautiful flowers on valentines or any other time is through a little deception!

Pretend the recipient is a famous celebrity who goes by an ‘alias’ (the name you give them). Or pretend the recipient owns or operates an events company, is just starting up a restaurant or is in any kind of position of power to order lots of flowers in the future, and make a big deal out of the florists opportunity to get big business out of one bouquet.

A customer like this will always be at the front of the queue for delivery slots, choice flowers, and will have the best florist arranging their bouquet.

If all of that fails, or if you can’t be bothered trying to negotiate a better deal with someone in person, you can always rely on a service like Interflora!