Americans will purchase more than 180 million roses for Valentine’s Day. Sixty-four percent will be red. But how do you save some green? Seven On Your Side’s Tappy Phillips conducted her own war of the roses to save you money.
We ordered five bouquets, a dozen red roses from big online florists FTD, 1-800-Flowers and ProFlowers, as well as from a smaller company, FlowerGram.com and even picked up a bunch at the corner store.

The prices ranged greatly, from $28 for the bodega bouquet to the 1-800-Flowers bunch costing $106.

We prepared the flowers according to the directions enclosed. ProFlowers had us re-cut the stems and remove outer petals. We also re-cut the stems of the bodega bouquet. All of the others arrived in vases and had no directions. But we did make sure all were kept watered.

ProFlowers was the first to go. By day 2, the blooms were starting to discolor and droop. By day 5, all the flower heads had fallen. And by day 7, they were ready for the trash. Our grade for them? F.

The 1-800-Flowers bouquet hung in until day 4, then began to drop a little. By day 5, they still had color. But by day 7, they were no longer pretty. Their grade? D.

The FTD bouquet also started to show age by day 4, and then dropped quickly. After day 5? They were done. We gave them a D.

Our surprises were our least expensive roses. By day 7, the bodega bouquet still looked pretty good, earning a B+. And the $64 FlowerGram roses were still full and lush even after seven days – grade A.

So what is the secret to making your blooms last? Florist Peter Grontas has a few simple steps.

“You should definitely cut the stems when you get them,” he said.

Always use a sharp knife, never scissors, which will crimp the stems. And then change the water and re-cut again after a couple of days.

“You could put a little eye dropper of bleach in there, and what that does is prohibit the bacteria from building up in the water,” Grontas recommended.

Our three droopers all had money-back guarantees.

Both FTD and 1-800-Flowers gave us full refunds.

ProFlowers? Only a partial refund.

And none of the bouquets ever mentioned the guarantee in the packaging. You wouldn’t know it unless you go online to the Web sites. So we got all the information for you.

source : http://abclocal.go.com/