FAQ's

How will a Bouquet or arrangement arrive?

Our flowers arrive in one of our signature green, eco-friendly, Real Flower Company branded boxes. The flowers are packed for transport in a fresh bag saturated with water. Opening our premium boxes, releasing the amazing scent and seeing the stunning flowers for the first time is a key part of the unique experience of receiving luxury scented flowers from The Real Flower Company. Our flowers come in a semi-open bud form to maintain freshness and durability while they make the journey to you. Please wait one to two days past the arrival date to see them in their fully open, finest state. Many people like to keep our flowers and enjoy watching them age beautifully and gracefully for well over a week. Just like humans, there is beauty in older flowers too!

Why are your Bouquets more expensive than some other florists?

Our pricing is as good as, or better than, any premium supplier of Fairtrade or English grown luxury scented flowers in the world. You might be able to find cheaper flowers at the supermarket or your local florists, or with an online competitor. However, you will not get the same flower quality or scent intensity for this price anywhere else. The flowers most supermarkets and florists sell have little or no scent, will be older by up to 10 days and the bouquets will probably be bulked out with cheap fillers.

What’s included in the price?

Everything, including flower food, care instructions and a gift message. The only thing not included is delivery. This is because some of our customers prefer to collect their bouquets from our workshop.

Are the flowers guaranteed?

While we aim to make every bouquet perfect, flowers grown as nature intended are not and slight imperfections and some occasional unpredictable behaviour is only natural. Similarly, we are only human and therefore, whilst we try our absolute best every day, we are not 100% perfect! However, we can assure you that we’re working our hardest to deliver your important gifts, messages and sentiments. We want to be sure you’re happy with us and our flowers, so, if we do make a mistake, we’ll make up for it by providing a Free Replacement delivery or equivalent Credit Voucher (or a partial Credit Voucher if appropriate) to ensure you’re taken care of appropriately, based on the nature and magnitude of our mistake. Basically, if we make a mistake, we will do everything we can to ensure you are happy that you chose The Real Flower Company.

What’s covered by your Guarantee? Everything we do!

Late delivery: If we don’t deliver by the day scheduled, we will provide a Free Replacement or equivalent Credit Voucher. The only exceptions are when our courier attempts delivery on time and the delivery cannot be made for some reason outside of our control. Examples of these exceptions include but are not limited to: an incorrect address; the recipient not being at home; the nominated place to leave the delivery not being available or not ‘safe and dry’; a business address being closed, etc. and severe weather. If we miss the delivery otherwise, we make up for it.

Quality Issues: If for some reason our flowers arrive in substandard condition, we will provide a Free Replacement or equivalent Credit Voucher. This does not cover minor blemishes or if just a couple blooms or so are slightly damaged and simply require a few petals to be ‘picked’ off. Our flowers come in a partially open bud form to maintain freshness and durability while they make the journey to you. Please wait one to two days past the arrival date to fully assess their condition.

Short vase life: If your flowers do not last five days, we will provide a free replacement. This requires a photo to be emailed to us within four days of delivery. However, this is subject to the recipients of our flowers having followed the simple Care Instructions we include.

Inaccurate flower composition: If we make a mistake and send completely the wrong flowers, we’ll send a Free Replacement arrangement or provide the equivalent Credit Voucher. This requires a photo of the Bouquet and or message card within three days of delivery. Slight colour variations from the images on our website are common, and we do reserve the right to substitute some varieties with others due to availability or quality issues, so please understand that nature isn’t perfectly consistent and this may result in significant product variations; albeit we promise every bouquet we deliver will be beautiful!

And what, unfortunately, is not? Just things that are beyond our control. Acts of God or Nature such as severe weather that causes delays, wrong or non-existent addresses.

A minor blemish or a dropped petal or two: Flowers have natural variation and not every flower will be pristinely perfect. Nature gives us these imperfections to show us the beauty of it all and this is a part of the experience of receiving flowers from our small, British and Fairtrade farms rather than mass produced ‘factory’ flowers!

Missing or incorrect notecard: If your notecard is missing or incorrect, we will be happy to send a personal, handwritten card to your recipient, and we'll provide a partial Credit Voucher for the inconvenience. While rare, it can happen that notecards are lost during transit so we want to be sure to make it up to you!

How are you a sustainable and eco-friendly company?

Our farms have been independently certified by third party agencies such as LEAF and Fairtrade as being responsible, sustainable and eco-friendly. Also, our farm-direct method ensures that very few stems are wasted in the supply chain, while other suppliers can waste up to one of every three stems. Our farms pay living wages and really care about and look after their employees which means you can feel good about shopping at The Real Flower Company.

I love this! Is there some way for me to help spread the word?

Yes! Please, please post our links to your social accounts to let others know about us!

How do I get in touch with Customer Services?

Please visit our Customer Service / Contact page to see the options available.

What makes The Real Flower Company and their flowers so different?

We believe flowers should smell amazing as well as looking beautiful. In order to do this, we curate and grow the most scented flower varieties in the world on our British and Fairtrade farms. These unusual scented varieties of flowers are difficult to grow and transport, so only specialist growers like ourselves are able to produce them. We only cut what we can sell, so our wastage is significantly less that most ordinary florists who waste a large percentage of stems that they buy. Our flowers are hand-picked daily and rather than spending days or even weeks in a cold store like most flowers. They are then sent to our workshop whilst they are still really fresh. Our florists then hand-tie them ready for a Next Day delivery of the freshest, most scented and beautiful flowers anyone could hope to receive!

Why are The Real Flower Company flowers so much more scented than ordinary flowers?

Most commercially grown flower varieties have been genetically modified by removing the scent gene in order to make them easier to grow, transport, and store as a mass commodity and to extend their vase life. As a result, they have little or no scent and do not open in the way that nature intended. The flowers we grow are ‘real flowers’ with their scent gene firmly intact. They will open fully to reveal their full glory and release an intoxicating scent that is unforgettable!

Why do your flowers only last for five days?

Most commercially grown flower varieties have been genetically modified by removing the scent gene in order to prolong vase life. As a result, they have little or no scent and do not open in the way that nature intended. The flowers we grow are ‘real flowers’ with their scent gene firmly intact. They may not last quite as long as some ordinary flowers but they smell amazing and add another sensory dimension to the experience of receiving flowers.

How should I care for my Real Flower Company flowers?

Our roses have a shorter vase life than their mass produced scentless rivals and will, as nature intended, open and start to shed their petals after about five days. There are however a number of things you can do to extend the life of your flowers. • Remove flowers from their protective film and pour away any the water. • Carefully remove any damaged petals from the outside of the roses. • Rinse the stems in clean water. • Cut 2.5cm from the end of the stems at a 45 degree angle. • Place your flowers into fresh water with the flower food sachet provided. • Display your flowers in a cool room, away from bright sunlight or direct heat. • For maximum vase life change the water every two days as bacteria in the water will shorten the vase life Our roses are guaranteed to last for five days if the care instructions are followed. How long should I expect my Real Flower Company flowers to last?Our flowers are cut and then shipped direct to you, so on average they will last a minimum of five days when care instructions are followed properly. Some flowers such as our sweet peas may up to two weeks after delivery!

What types of flowers do you offer?

We specialise in unusual highly scented roses, sweet peas and other luxury flowers that are almost impossible for large scale producers to grow and transport. They are available in a large variety of colours and you can sort flowers by variety using the ‘flower types’ filter on our product pages.