Sending flowers online is such a minefield these days!

There are so many snazzy websites out there offering what look like real good flowers from real good local florists – but too often the reality falls way short of that first impression.

So many of these sites just make up the arrangements in some warehouse somewhere and then ship them out by carrier for next day delivery. Having some delivery guy from FedEx or UPS or whatever (no offence guys!) turning up at some random time with a bashed and dented cardboard box of flowers is just not my idea of making a grand gesture. And what if I’m in a hurry and want flowers delivered same day???Other sites gather orders and pass them on to a local florist (which is great), but only after the site operator has harvested a healthy percentage of your order (which is not great!).

Well, I just found what might be the answer to this problem.Direct2florist is a network of "Real Local Florists in America Canada and Worldwide". There are no hidden corporate costs, no middlemen, no percentage discounts, no advertising deductions, and no hidden charges. This site passes 100% of your flower money to the florist giving you bigger and fuller bouquets – and all from a real local florist.

Direct2florist is different to the other ‘wire services’ and ‘order gatherers’ websites because it only charges a small service fee to operate the site, promote the site and transmit your order - there are no hidden charges!

The money you spend on flowers is exactly that - your flower money! By going direct you receive better value from direct2florist. By ordering from the site your order is instantly transmitted to the florist of your choice. The confirmation email sent to you provides you with the florists contact telephone number. So you are safe in the knowledge you are in contact with the florist.

With direct2florist "It’s just like you walked in to the shop and paid over the counter!"
This site has been up and running in the UK now for a while, but has just recently launched in the USA.Coverage is not great at the moment, but new florists are joining every day. Just for an example, say you wanted to send flowers to Cambridge MA, just go to the direct2florist website, search for Cambridge, or the ZIP code, and then choose from the shops that come up in your search.

You can see the actual shop, their actual work, and real comments left by customers – so it’s all pretty transparent. And, more of your $$ will go into flowers and less into the hands of middlemen – cool! The US direct2florist web site was only officially launched in March 2008, so it’s still very much in its infancy. Despite that it looks like there are lots of real florists all over the world signing up to the idea and allowing the consumer to get best value when they send flowers.

I know that the next time I need to send flowers – to Jacksonville, Anaheim, London England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia or WHEREVER – I’ll turn to direct2florist first.