Of course ultimately I am most angry with the florist who made the cruddy Interflora design. You see if it hadn’t failed so miserably there probably wouldn’t have been a story in the first place. So whoever you are… and at this stage I don’t know… shame on you. Having looked at the Which picture of what was delivered, what you made was not only dreadful and an embarrassment to good floristry but bore little resemblance to the web picture.  In fact I think Which were being generous in giving you 3 stars for it.

Because while it may have had 3 stems of AYR and a rose in the middle that was about it.  For silver Eucalyptus you used ugly green foliage, for fleshy pink carnations you used fragile white freesia and instead of pretty button head Chrysanths you used a sparse white variety that should have been reserved for basing work.  To be blunt if I’d been assessing the bouquets I would have downgraded it as well and been ashamed that it came from someone purporting to be a proper florist.

And there is no reason why it couldn’t and shouldn’t have been right.  I know florists say they don’t get the full value and they can’t afford to do it like the picture but that’s a load of tosh.  Firstly, the rules of relay, whatever service you belong to, state that you have to make to the order value paid by the customer – not what you receive. Secondly substitutions should be as good as, not the cheapest thing you can find to bulk it out.

Because the money taken off - and no I’m not going to debate the rights or wrongs about that particular hornets nest here- is not some huge cut taken by greedy operators but what you, as a member, have agreed to pay for getting the order in the first place.

In short, the money deducted should be viewed as marketing or advertising/order generation budget, not an evil ploy by said operator to fleece you. This florist chose to buy into the Interflora service to get orders … as such they should have abided by the rules, done a decent job and not tried to short change the customer by sending out, excuse the pun, a less than perfect gift.

Am I being harsh?  No.   Have I suddenly become Interflora’s new best friend? No. Am I cheesed off that a florist has failed?  You bet I am. Because this florists’ attempt to keep their books balanced has impacted on all their fellow Interflora florists and might well have damaged Interflora sales in the crucial Mothers Day period.  And, because the consumer is convinced all florists are Interflora in the same way they think all vacuum cleaners are Hoovers, they haven’t done the rest of the independent sector many favours either.

And at this point I’m going to quote two comments made by American florists on Facebook who had picked up on the story to show this isn’t just a Carrie rant but a view shared by florists around the world.

“I personally think that many of the best florists have bailed on the wire services, for the most part, leaving the not so business savvy florists to fill the orders for the order gatherers and their cheap customers. This article may make all of us look bad but the smart customers know that the best way to order flowers is direct from a local florist and we need to just continue to educate them on that most important point. Eventually the bad ones will fall by the wayside because bottom line, they aren't making any money on all those wire-ins.”

“If you don't like filling wire orders ... don't fill wire orders. However, if you are a florist who can sleep at night while sending out arrangements that can't last a week I DO have a big problem with that :) Low quality florists make us all look bad and we can't blame Interflora or FTD for that particular problem.”

We can’t blame Interflora completely but I do hope they come down on the florist involved like a ton of bricks. And if it’s someone I know sobeit. I won’t name and shame… I will however be very disappointed because the flower industry doesn’t need florists like them.