What is the best flower subscription service?
Well, of course, it does depend somewhat on what is most important to you. There have been a number of 'best of' lists released about flower subscriptions and they tend to have many categories to choose from such as 'best value', 'best letterbox', 'best ethical', 'best next day'...
Arena flowers has come up top of a number of lists as best ethical or socially conscious flower company. They plant mangrove seedlings for each bouquet they sell and they buy from Fairtrade farms to source a lot of their flowers. They have produced a sustainability report that demonstrates they are looking into closed loop systems and considering every aspect of the flower journey to make considered choices that reduce the environmental impacts associated with importing flowers.
Bunches has come up a few times as a good budget option. For £22 per month including UK letterbox postal delivery you can receive 10-12 stems. Furthermore, 10% of their profits go to charitable causes. Their range is predominantly a traditional mix of tonal or brightly coloured flowers.
According to their website, Bloompost was the original inventor of letterbox flowers and they sell a surprising mixture of styles and options with some low cost offers at around £20 including UK postal delivery.
Bloom & Wild is perhaps the best known and most successful letterbox flower company and the offer a fortnightly subscription. In my opinion, their flower mixes have got a lot more textured and arty in recent years and it is now also possible to buy their flowers directly in supermarkets.
Bloomon is a fast-growing Dutch company that provides a flower subscription service in the UK. They have an quirky, eclectic style that works well in a minimalist setting. As with most of the flower subscription companies, the customer is expected to arrange the flowers themselves. This means they often don't look quite like the photo when finished. However, as Bloomon is all about admiring the many different forms of flowers, as long as you can space the blooms away from each other, you should end up with something nice to look at!
As a small family business, I can't say I've spotted MeadowSweet on any of the big online 'best of' lists yet! I would say that we differ from many of the above companies in that our flowers arrive already expertly-arranged. They are also sent with a jar that is the right size to display the arrangement correctly. I feel this is important because when someone is sent flowers, the arrangement looses its appeal dramatically when they don't have have the right sized vase to display it in. We also differ from other companies in that we only use 100% British grown flowers and foliage throughout the year. This can be a challenge, but there are a number of high quality growers in East Anglia that grow throughout the year and in the Spring/Summer months there is greater availability from smaller growers such as through Flowers from the Farm for example. Using 100% British ingredients means that we can eliminate the air miles that leads to the high carbon footprint of imported flowers. It also means that we can create arrangements that are closer to nature and more in touch with the seasons.
For more information about our subscription posies, click here.