7 best flower subscription services 2024 UK to brighten up your home
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IT’S coming up to Mother's Day and I think it's fairly safe to say that, while most women love a bunch of roses, if you really want to dazzle mum, stun her with a flower subscription.
Not only will it be a very obvious sign of your love, but it’s also a clever way of gently reminding her EVERY SINGLE MONTH that you’re super generous too.
Plus, if you get your order in now, you can sit back and laugh in the face of the last-minute panickers, shelling out a fortune for a forlorn bunch of petrol station roses.
But which is the best subscription that will suit your sweetheart down to the ground?
As Gardening Editor of The Sun, I like to think I know my Tulips from my Tiger Lillies, so I've spent the last month checking out a whole bunch of subscription services for Sun Shopping.
From sheer luxury to savvy and sustainable, I’ve put the flower’s powers to the test and this is what I found.
Best flower subscriptions at a glance:
- Best overall & biggest bunch: Arena Flowers
- Most stylish: Flowerbx
- Best budget: Blossoming Gifts
- Most sophisticated: Appleyard Flowers
Arena Flowers
- Arena Flowers, £25 per bunch - buy here
These bunches are HUGE! I'm not joking, the first bunch of the most beautiful pinks and greens, including Lisianthus, Greenbell and Antirrhinums, contained 37 stems and went over three vases. And they lasted for well over two weeks.
They arrived in a beautiful bow-tied cardboard box, which felt really luxurious.
So not only do they tick the box for the the biggest bunch, Arena has also been voted the UK’s #1 rated ethical flower delivery company for eight years running, which is not to be sniffed at. Or perhaps, more literally, it is.
I also received a huge bunch of tulips, cleverly arranged with sprays of Pittosporum to prevent the inevitable tulip collapse. This had, wait for it…FITTY SEVEN stems in all and went over two vases.
They come with Day 1 and Day 4 flower food, which is a really nice touch to keep them going for longer, a card describing what the flowers are, and a useful arrangement guide.
The website is straightforward to navigate: you can decide what day you want your flowers delivered, whether it's weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and there’s even a pet-friendly option.
You get all of this for £25 per bunch with free delivery. And it gets even cheaper if you're ordering a gift subscription; then it can go down to £23 a bunch if you order a 12-month gift set. This is incredible value for lovely seasonal stems.
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Interflora
- £42 a bunch at Interflora - buy here
When it comes to Interflora, you know what you’re getting before you’ve even ordered. The brand is synonymous with reliability, luxury and tradition.
And, because their bouquets are handcrafted by a local artisan florist to you, you don’t have to worry about unsustainable mileage.
Interflora selects your bouquet from the stems they have in their florists that day, so although you can’t choose exactly what you want, you know that you’re getting the best of the best with each bunch.
Each bouquet I received was big; on average, there were over 30 stems and they looked absolutely stunning, with a huge variety of flowers. The sets I received all included lilies, which I love and filled my home with a gorgeous, heady scent.
Crucially, they arrive mostly in bud, so you get to see them from start to finish. Mine have lasted well over a fortnight and counting. It also comes with Day 1 and Day 3 food, which keeps them going for longer.
The downside of Interflora is that they don't come cheap; each bouquet comes in at £42 and you pay the same whether it’s a three, six, nine or 12-month subscription, along with an initial £7.50 delivery fee.
But it's almost reassuringly expensive; Interflora shouts luxury from the bottom of their stems, to the very top of their blooms; a very swanky way to wow your Valentine.
Flowerbx
- £40-£45 for each bouquet from Flowerbx - buy here
There's a reason why Flowerbx boasts reviews on its website from Vogue and Vanity Fair; these flowers are very, very stylish.
Ideal for impressing the purist in your life, they contain just one variety of flowers, which oozes elegance and class.
Mine (20 beautiful Pink Sweet Avalanche Roses, what everyone gets as their first subscription delivery) arrived in a sophisticated-looking box, hand-tied with a beautiful ribbon which just felt special.
GIve them a few days to burst into life and you’ll see why they start with such a stunning rose.
The roses are usually priced at £70 for a one-off delivery, so at a cost of £40, it's a big discount to start your weekly, fortnightly or monthly flower affair.
There’s also the choice of choosing a tulip or rose subscription, again with one single variety, but so many different options; absolutely stunning.
Customers who sign up will receive a complimentary Royal Windsor glass vase, worth £30 with their first delivery - AND - for the next few months they’re also offering a complimentary scented candle when customers use code ‘MUGUET’.
Appleyard
- £20 to £30 per bouquet from Appleyard - buy here
Oozing sophistication, Appleyard London promises much and delivers more.
Arriving in a beautifully illustrated floral box and hand-tied with a black velvet ribbon, my bouquet was packed with 17 stems of flowers and various greenery, which looked incredibly elegant.
The longer you subscribe, the less you pay, so if you pay upfront for 12 months, it works out at £20 per bouquet. For what you get, that's a real bargain.
Appleyard offers a Seasonal, Birthday and Romance subscription; perfect for the Valentine in your life.
And, in fact, the romance subscription starts with a dozen letterbox roses, so you don’t even have to worry about your loved one being home for delivery. A small but important detail.
You can choose an ongoing subscription where you pay £25 monthly, or upfront for three, six or 12 months and there’s no problem with skipping one if needs be.
My bouquet came with a handy ‘how to’ guide on best practices and a little about my stems.
In all, this was a lovely-looking bouquet, from a lovely-looking company.
Blossoming Gifts
- £20 to £25 per bunch from Blossoming Gifts - buy here
There's no messing around with the Blossoming Gifts Bouquets. While it might not have been the biggest or bloomiest, mine came in a lovely box and was filled with a 13-stem bunch of roses, lilies and Thalaspi which lasted for ages.
More mass marketed than maybe some of the other more high-end subscriptions, the website is very easy to use and, like most of the services, offers an ongoing, or three, six or 12-month subscription.
If you don’t want to pay monthly you pay upfront for the three, six and year subscriptions, but the longer you order for, the less you pay; it works out at £20 a bouquet if you pay £240 upfront for the year subscription.
It’s a lot of money, but if you’re buying for a flower fanatic, then it's going to get you smiles and more every single month.
Stems are selected depending on their freshness and seasonality, so you won’t know exactly what you’re getting. Nut whatever it is, judging from my experience, it's bound to be lovely.
Our friends at Blossoming Gifts are offering Sun Gardening readers 40 per cent off their Valentine's Day Bouquets! Just use the code SUNV40 at the office site before Feburary 13 2024.
T&Cs: Excludes delivery charges and add-on gifts. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Valid on full-priced bouquets only. Excludes subscriptions.
Happy Blossoms
- £26-£75 per bunch, The Happy Blossoms - buy here
Now here’s a different idea: how about a monthly subscription of dried flowers? Ethical, colourful, and classy, it makes dried flower arranging look cool, not least because they do it all for you.
Making a cheeky change from the big blousy blooms in the previous subscriptions, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Especially if your loved one is prone to the odd bit of hay fever, or you just feel they deserve something a little bit different.
Happy Blossoms do deliver fresh flowers, but it’s their Baked Blossoms range that's really worth raving about.
You’ll receive an arrangement directly to your door in the first week of each month, whether it's from their core range or their most recent seasonal collection, each month will be a surprise!
Every bunch features a mixture of dried & preserved flowers that have been painted, dyed or are natural in colour. I was lucky enough to receive two to review: a very colourful collection of 50-plus stems from their Valentine's Day collection and a more classic one with neutral tones.
And one of the things I love the most is that they can last up to a year!
I keep moving them around the house to work out where they’re best suited. But, because they’re pretty robust, I'm not worried about them getting damaged in transit.
Of course, they’re dried flowers, so I'm not suggesting you can chuck them about with no consequences, but it’s the idea that they’ll be around for a while which is just so sensational.
There’s the option of baby (£26), small (£46), medium (£58) and large (£75) delivered in three, six or 12 months subscription.
And they arrive hand-tied in a nice cardboard box. I honestly cannot recommend this enough; it makes a really nice change from the usual floral fancies.
Smith and Munson
- £25 per bunch from Smith and Munson - buy here
What is absolutely fabulous about these flowers, is that they come directly from a family-run glasshouse in Lincolnshire, straight to your door and it doesn’t get more ethical than that (short of picking from your own garden and getting your kids to ring on the doorbell so you can pretend you’ve got a surprise delivery…)
They grow all year round on their flower farm, so what you get is what is supposed to be growing in the UK, at the right time of year; a real win for those who have concerns about some of the more far-flung countries our flowers are arriving from.
And it’s reassuring to know that five generations of the same family have worked at the company who really seem to take pride in what they do.
My flowers, two beautifully-wrapped bunches of 10 pink tulips, arrived in a lovely cardboard tube, which looks really elegant.
Both bouquets came with clever advice to keep the flowers fully wrapped, stems in water, for two hours before moving them into a vase, which meant they were super perky when they came out.
They lasted for around two weeks with only a small amount of collapsing (something I remedied when I chopped off some of the bottom of the stem and changed the water).
Depending on the season, you’ll get tulips, ranunculus or lilies and they even offer a pollon-free version, to prevent those nasty carpet stains!
Smith and Munson seems like a really classy company; the flowers come with lovely delivery and the fact they’re made in Britain is the icing on the cake.
Which website is best for online flower deliveries in the UK?
There's a wide range of online florists available in the UK - here are some of our favourites:
How much is a monthly flower subscription service?
There are masses of flower subscriptions nationwide that can be tailored to your needs and budget.
The cost of the monthly subscription will vary on the type of flower you select and the size of the bouquet delivery.
Expect to pay anywhere from £18 for a smaller set of flowers to £60 for premium bouquets, but most subscriptions cost around £25. The flower subscriptions we included in our round-up range from £20 up to £44.
The cost will also depend on how many months you choose to receive flowers for - the longer the time period, the cheaper the monthly price of flowers will be.
How to choose the best flower subscription for you?
When choosing a subscription service, there are many considerations to take into account.
Think about how often you'd like to receive the flowers and how long you want to sign up for to ensure the subscription service offers what you want - and that you can cancel if it doesn't work out.
Check that the quality and style of the flowers are what you're looking for - as there's a huge range of different bouquets and letterbox flowers to choose from.
Budget is also a consideration, so think about how much you're happy to spend and look out for a good deal - many subscription services will offer a discount if you pre-pay for a longer period, such as an annual subscription.
How do flower subscription services work?
A flower subscription service delivers an ongoing supply of fresh flowers straight to your front door. Most subscriptions work on a monthly basis, but some companies provide the option of weekly or bi-weekly deliveries.
The beauty of a flower subscription service is that you can either choose what flowers you'd like delivered every month or leave it up to fate and be surprised every month with something new and different.
Subscription services generally save you money compared to a one-off purchase, but you are usually locked into a regular fee for anywhere between three and 12 months.
How long do the flowers last?
Different types of flowers last for different periods of time - but with most flower subscriptions you will get the flowers in buds. This means that they've been harvested to last longer and bloom when the bunch arrives at your home.
Most flower subscriptions come with flower food or handy tips on how to look after your blooms and keep them looking fresher for longer.
Is a flower subscription worth it?
There's no better feeling than getting a bunch of flowers - they look and smell amazing, can really boost your mood and brighten up your home.
It's totally down to personal preference, but everyone deserves to treat themselves every now and again. Also, if you're looking for an extra special gift, a flower subscription makes a truly memorable one.
Where do florists get their flowers?
Florists usually get their flowers from flower markets or wholesalers at trade prices.
Some bigger UK florists even grow their own flowers but for the most part, flowers are imported from overseas.
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