Why Supermarket Flowers Aren't the Bargain Most People Think They Are

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It would be easy to forget that roses can bloom outdoors in May. That’s because every day, people buy bouquets at their local supermarket between the bread and the self-checkout. The bouquets are displayed in cellophane, often tied with a ribbon, and tend to cost no more than a tenner for roses or less for mixed blooms. As you grab one off the shelf, paying on your way home or before you get your food, it’s easy to feel as if you’re getting a bargain.

There isn’t anything wrong with buying them. But the gap between how you see those flowers at this point and what they really represent is much larger than most of us realise. And the minute we recognise it, things look very different.

The gap begins with what is wrapped inside that cellophane. Most shop-bought stems have travelled thousands of miles, grown in vast quantities in Kenya, Colombia or the Netherlands for supermarkets and wholesalers. These large-scale farms harvest the stems when their development has reached a certain point, in hopes of preserving the flowers until their eventual sale weeks later. After travelling around the world, often kept at low temperatures, such flowers are eventually displayed on a shelf and lit with fluorescent lights, far from natural light. By the time they end up in the bucket at home, with their little wrapper of food in the water, they have already gone most of the way through the life that was once preserved. The lifespan of these bouquets, measured from the time they were cut to the last wilted petal in your compost, will be much shorter than those that you buy from a florist. For a Florist Tewkesbury, contact https://flowershedtewkesbury.co.uk/

For instance, roses or peonies bought from a florist will have their stems trimmed carefully before leaving the shop, leaves that are submerged in the water removed and food in the water to reduce the risk of bacterial infection, all to maximise the few extra days that the bouquet might last. Supermarket bouquets don’t enjoy such care, and even if they did, the difference would be slight. This isn’t because they don’t want you to enjoy the arrangement for longer; it’s just that when millions of stems are being processed, speed and ease of storage trump longevity. What you get are two products that barely represent the same thing at all.