Mother's Day is right around the corner (Sunday, May 12th) so it's that time of year when we all get bombarded with ads on the radio, TV and internet for cheap flower deals. Don't be fooled by these flower brokers or it could  lead to dissappointment for you and your mother! 

Here's how it works. The ads show a big bouquet of flowers for $19.95 so you click here, order the special deal and assume the flowers will arrive on time and in good condition. Frequently that doesn't happen. The flower broker may drop ship your flowers in a box, not in water, for your mother to arrange herself. If she isn't home to accept delivery the shipping company leaves it by the door just like they do for Amazon or any other place. The problem is, flowers don't do well baking in the sun all day with no water source.But maybe you get lucky and Mom is home to receive the delivery. Now she has to make her own arrangement instead of enjoying a professional design by a real local florist. It rarely ends up looking like the photo you selected.

Sometimes these flower brokers transfer the order to a real florist through one of the networks like FTD or Teleflora. Unfortunately the person taking your order will promise you the world, but they really have no idea what the local florist has in stock. Most of these brokers don't know a daisy from a dandilion! So when the order makes it's way through cyberspace to the actual florist, it will either be  a) rejected or b) filled with subsitutions which are allowed in the very fine print you didn't notice. Frankly, most reputable florists want no part of those orders today due to the high probabilty of complaints and the fact that we lose at least 20% off the top in commissions to the sending company.

 Finally, that $19.99 deal always ends up costing a lot more after shipping, handling, and other fees added at the end of the transaction.  You can usually get a much nicer arrangement from a local flower shop for not much more than you'd spend after all those extra fees are added. Frankly, even if it does cost more to shop locally, isn't your mom worth it?