Posted by: scentandviolet April 6th, 2018

Scent & Violet has created this handy guide to help you make informed decision between flower delivery and flower shipping. We hope this will clear up some confusion and help you enjoy flowers for any occasion, whether delivered or shipped

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Flower delivery is a service provided by full service florists. Full service florists are flower shops with retail location open to public. Term full service florist is reserved for those florists that offer flowers for all occasions as well as specialty flowers. (Specialty florists per example would be florists offering wedding flowers only.)

Scent & Violet in Houston Texas prides itself in being a full time retail florist and as such we provide flower delivery in greater Houston area. While 70% of our deliveries are in West Houston (including Katy, Richmond and Fulshear, Texas) our flower delivery vehicles make daily trips to Houston Downtown, Galleria area, Medical Center, Sugar Land, Heights, etc. Very often we will go out of our way to ensure our custom flower designs and specialty gifts reach desired recipient.

Flower shipping is a service provided only by some full service florist and are usually reserved for floral companies or flower brokers. Flowers are packed in warehouse, hub center (often in South America) and shipped via courier (such as Fedex, UPS, or USPS). Scent & Violet ships only bulk flowers for special events and do-it-yourself weddings.

If you are wondering what is the difference between delivery and shipping, our short answer would be presentation. Flowers coming from retail florist location are designed in a floral arrangement by floral designers. They are hand delivered to the recipient of the gift. Flowers shipped in a box come, well in a box. They’re packed tight and whoever receives them have to go through a procedure that involves cleaning flowers, hydrating them and of course arranging them.

Both of these options have their advantages and disadvantages, and we would like to address them.

Flowers shipped in a box usually have lower starting price point, which is awesome for the buyer. What it lacks is the presentation. I like to compare this as sending someone Ikea shelf. While I personally love Ikea, and shop there often – assembly can sometimes be frustrating and lengthy process. I would never consider shipping Ikea shelf as a gift to someone, unless I volunteer to assemble it myself. Shipping flowers to someone in a box is very similar: assembly can be frustrating.  Shipping flowers to yourself on the other hand is a wonderful idea. You can receive flowers and be your own designer. Even if the end product does not resemble professionally designed arrangement, you can still take pride in creating something with your own hands. Once you are finished you can keep the flowers or give them to someone.

PRO: Cheaper flowers CON: Not a presentable gift

Flowers delivered by a retail florist have usually higher starting point. Respected florists work with premium quality of the flowers and floral designers have been trained in the art of floral design. Florist has already inspected the flowers, cleaned them, hydrated them and designed the arrangement. Such arrangement can be picked up in a florist’ retail location but in majority of the cases is hand delivered to the recipient of the choice. Most of the time people send flowers to someone else. True flower lovers buy flowers for themselves in real flowers shops for multitude of reasons: quality of the flowers, beautiful floral design, better presentation or special occasions like dinner parties, holidays, etc.

PRO: Better quality, very presentable gift CON: More expensive

We hope that this explanation will help you make more informed decision in purchase of your flowers and help you decide which option is better for you and the occasion.