This Discounted Floral Service Is So Easy to Use That I Bought My Mom a Year’s Worth of Flowers
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You can personalize your bouquet every month.
Bouqs
Buying gifts for my mom can be difficult because—lest I sound like a Hallmark movie—nothing feels quite big enough for the hours of love and service she’s devoted to us. For Christmas of 2021, I discovered and selected a monthly floral delivery service, which turned out to be a winner. I’d intended to continue the service for about three months, but ended up stretching it out to over a year because I loved the ritual and her reaction so much. Why shouldn’t I buy my mom flowers all the time?
While it’s undoubtedly lovely to receive flowers for occasions, 92 percent of women say that the best time to receive a bouquet is “for no reason,” according to a study conducted by the Society of National Florists. When all the siblings pool together for Mother’s Day or her birthday to gift a delivery, my mom is grateful, but not nearly as surprised and happy as when I bring her back a small bundle of peonies I tossed in my cart at the grocery store.
I’d looked through various direct-to-consumer floral deliveries, settling on The Bouqs Co. because I consistently loved its farm-fresh offerings—and because it was the cheapest option with its subscriber’s discount. You save up to 30 percent on each bundle, plus $25 off shipping (because you get free delivery.) Each day she called me with a bouquet at her door felt cheesily enough like a gift to myself, too.
Bouqs
To buy: From $44; bouqs.com.
In evaluating the Bouqs subscription plan options, there were three tiers of bouquets I could select from: the Original (10 to 16 stems for $44), the Deluxe (20 to 32 stems for $56), or the Grand (30 to 45 stems for $69). I chose the Original, figuring that my mom appreciated flowers showing up more so than the size of her delivery. You can add in any of Bouqs’s signature vases as you’d like.
I could also adjust my frequency, delivering flowers weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or every other month. I chose monthly, figuring it was frequent enough to shower her with love the way she deserved but that I could schedule around her regular travels and commitments. You can also skip your monthly delivery as needed.
Once you select your subscription, you only have to fill in your recipient’s details once. You’ll select your relationship as well (there’s also a self option, by the way—rock on!) so the Bouqs algorithm can provide you with the best suggestions.
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Each month, I’d log into the The Bouqs Co. dashboard and evaluate my options. I needed to make any necessary changes within nine days—longer, if around a holiday—of delivery. First of all, I loved how easy the interface was to use. I can immediately see the delivery date, bouquet selected, address, payment method, and more. I’d click the bouquet selection to change it, and be taken to a page of different floral options with care tips and notes. For example, Bouqs will point out that one bouquet is pet-friendly while another takes one to two days post-delivery for the petals to fully unfurl.
The service defaults to “freshest picks” (seasonal selections) as the flower selection so you don’t have to personalize your bouquet, but I enjoyed poking through its rotation and picking the flowers most likely to wow my mom. With each delivery, I picked up on certain preferences—no baby’s breath, yes to sunflowers, roses in moderation—and felt I could more accurately pinpoint what she’d savor. The subscription even gave me access to exclusive seasonal blooms.
The Bouqs deliveries always arrived in a narrow cardboard box from which she’d retrieve and primp up her flowers. They traveled well, including my note and best care instructions for the recipient. And there they’d live in a place of honor on her kitchen counter, generally lasting about a week and a half to two weeks depending on the floral selection and season. (My mom is very good at extending the life of her flowers.)
After the first month’s surprise, I did end up having to coordinate the best dates for deliveries with her. When I do try to surprise her (like I did this month with a Valentine’s Day bouquet), I end up finding out she’s visiting one of my siblings in another state. Annoying. While you’d think that the planning might remove some of the serendipitous magic of the ritual, it doesn’t; my mom knows roughly the window in which the flowers might arrive, but she won’t know what they look like, and I can customize a note with each one. After the first few deliveries, I wouldn’t necessarily know when they arrived because she was so used to receiving them, but that was a bonus to me—she should just expect to receive flowers regularly.
Bouqs
To buy: From $44; bouqs.com.
I loved considering the best timing in which to optimize her flower enjoyment. For example, when we lost her own mother this past year, I chose a date past when the casseroles and condolence notes had stopped—a day right when the tough cadence of “regular life” had just started. And since my grandmother’s favorite flower was a yellow rose, I picked a bouquet to honor her. While I hope we have no similar mourning occasions upcoming, the easy navigation of the Bouqs interface helped me to pick the right bouquet for the occasion.
The Bouqs Co. delivery service ended up being a bonding occasion for us, even from opposite sides of the country, and I appreciated how effortless it was to use. A few months in, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to give her flowers—and the subscriber discount sure helped it stay sustainable for my budget. While I adore my subscription, I can also buy bouquets à la carte, like now while deluxe bouquets are $15 off with code UPGRADE. From Valentine’s Day to Mother’s Day to the everyday, Bouqs is my go-to for its convenience, beauty, and price. Try out this floral subscription for your loved one today, starting at just $44.
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