Michael's Flowers

I called Michael's Flowers, as I have in the past, for a custom centerpiece. This was for Thanksgiving, and I wanted it to coordinate with my china. They immediately accessed images of Wedgwood Wild Strawberry bone china online. This china pattern has a white background, with green leaves, pink flowers, warm red strawberries with yellow highlights, and a gold rim. I requested that the centerpiece contain flowers in white and pink, and some warm red, but not dark red roses, along with lots of ferns and other greenery. I specified further that it should contain no plastic accents, no spray, and no Gerber daisies, but that regular daisies would be very good. I was told that the regular daisies are called "pom" daisies, which is information that I appreciate having. I gave them dimensions, a price of $75, and we agreed that it would be ready for us to pick it up that afternoon between 4:30 and 5:00. The centerpiece that I received was stunning, as you can see in the photo. Especially impressive were seven gorgeous roses, huge in size, of pale yellow, with a warm red margin. Also included were eight large pink lilies, the "pom" daisies, white carnations, snapdragons, etc., and lots of ferns and other greenery, exactly as I had requested. The centerpiece was in a high quality clear glass footed bowl, which had been custom lined in pink. We were very pleased, as usual. One close friend complimented us on the centerpiece and asked how much we pay for such a beauty. When she learned that it cost $75, she said that it looked like it would have cost much more. For great style, wonderful service, and an excellent price, we highly recommend Michael's Flowers of Woodbridge, Virginia.

I ordered the flowers from Michael's Flowers on Wednesday, February 13 by email; received a confirmation email at 8:01 p.m. I requested at that time - especially since they are about 1 mile from our house - that they please try to deliver before noon as my wife and I had plans and would be leaving the house shortly before then. As it turned out, we didn't leave before 2:30 p.m. and no delivery had been made. We returned about 5:15 p.m. and I called Michael's to ask where my wife's boquet was. They had trouble finding the order, and couldn't tell me if/where it had been delivered to (don't they log their deliveries?); I suspect the order was never filled to begin with. The man I spoke to seem to be taking this in stride, and said they would have the order out in 30 minutes. The order we received didn't include what appeared to be white carnations in the arrangement (lillies and roses), and the vase was a very plain, generic looking vase; not the "cut glass" squared bottom vase featured in the photo on the web site. I wonder whether my wife received the "Better" version of the boquet, or we received the "Good" version. We will not do business with this florist in the future.

I have used Micheal several times over the years. Not a lot, but I have used him for bouquets and they have always exceeded my expectations. The price is high but then nice arrangements are not cheap. I would definitely use him again.