What we ordered

This is the website that claims to have no middlemen and that their motto is ‘an experience delivered’. I really like the website design, giving it marks 4.5/10.

It has easy-to-use categories to browse from (eg. occasion, types of flowers, price, colour) and the photography is of very good quality, giving pictures that are big and bright. It also makes good use of words to describe each collection, making it sound quite lovely and inviting! Arena offers many excellent designs; from elegant, contemporary options to traditional posies & simple giftwraps.

What we ordered

My first impression of the website is that it has many consistent, good quality pictures, giving it marks 4 out of 5.

It is easy to navigate and you could search to buy using price range, types of flowers or different occasions. Their ‘classic’ range of bouquets gives good value with prices starting from only £9.99. If you’re not super-organised but want to send flowers to your beloved for the rest of the year, there is a fantastic gift at a price of £199 (which works out to be only under £17 per bouquet, per month!).

Each is ranked a score out of 5 for their website, delivery, impact of the flowers (the romance and WOW factor) and then given an overall score.

Many review sites avoid giving top or bottom scores. Most hover around a narrow band of scores which is not helpful to the reader. I have tried to be representative and give a meaningful score. When I give a 5 out of 5, it does not mean that it is perfect, just that it is the best of bunch. The lowest score in this test was 2 out of 5 (40%). Again, that means it is low in comparison to others, but does not mean it is truly dreadful, just that there are much better options out there.

The most we wanted to spend on each bunch was £35 including delivery, and in most cases we got close to that. We also selected the earliest possible delivery date without paying a premium (or taking us over the £35 limit).

This is not meant to be a scientific test, just our honest experiences. Some of our comments are indeed subjective and your opinions may vary but we have tried to set out the options in a logical way and hopefully take some of the risk out when ordering flowers online.

Overall the standard was very high, but there were significant differences between the best performer and the worst. If you are sending flowers for valentines day my view is any of the top 6 on this list will delight your valentine

What we ordered online

My first impression of the website is quite poor, giving it marks 2.5/5. It appears to have similar pictures of ‘sub-standard’ quality as other online florists. Perhaps the website operated under more than one name? Anyway, there appears to be some confusion because when I tried to shop by clicking onto ‘roses’ (because they do not have a specific Valentine’s section), the search result came up as ‘there are no products to list in this category’. Yet, in their ‘luxury flowers’ section, they are advertising scarlet red roses at £49.99 and you will find even more roses within the ‘anniversary flowers’ section.

As the name suggests, this is mainly a website more dedicated to roses although you can buy other varieties of flowers as well. You can shop using the browser for different occasions, types of flowers or selected price range. The pictures on its home page are all rather small. You will need to click into it to see a slightly larger version of the selection.

The 'One Love' Bouquet From Serenataflowers.com

This is a great website. It looks extremely nice and welcoming, has very crisp and clear pictures with consistent colour quality and gives a very professional feel. I found it easy to shop from with the different types of browser (eg. shop by occasion, by price, by style, by variety or by colour) clearly laid out. Every aspect of it seems to just flow and click smoothly without too much effort at all. I give this website a score of 4.5/5 without any hesitation.

Other than the colour scheme used, this website is almost the twin of flowergram.co.uk. In fact, reading through the information provided, this is because the two companies joined forces since May 2007. Hence, it is not unusual to note they offer the same named selections (eg. within the ‘traditional’ collection, both websites have the same pictures of ‘Golden Times, ‘Pink Candy’, ‘Patience’, ‘Destiny’, ‘White Dream’).

Rose and Lily Bouquet that we ordered

This is a smart looking website; exuding quiet classiness with simple dark grey wordings. The pictures are realistic and of good quality. I like the ‘show all’ option which allows you to scan all the selection at once within the category you have chosen. To see a larger picture, all you have to do is to double click on it.

What was delivered

This is an easy-on-the-eye website, with calming light blue colouring throughout and it’s also quite easy to navigate. You can shop by browsing through selected price ranges, varieties of flowers, styles of presentation, choice of colour or even different occasions. The pictures size however, are on the small side therefore of average quality at first hand. You can get a larger version by double clicking. It does not always give exact description of types of flowers or number of stems used in each collection. It states to be ‘due to seasonal variations some items may be substituted to produce a display of equal quality and value’. As such, I would only give this website marks 3.5/5.

Sample of Florists Choice

Wow! This is certainly an extremely vivid website. It’s the first one that I have encountered with a completely black background and lots of bold striking reds in use! It brought to mind the old type of adult toy websites. Perhaps the vibrant use of colour is to help evoke a sense of romanticism, strengths of passion and lots of LOVE?! This website is far from typical, and navigation is not the simplest encountered however it is definitely different and so I would score this website 4/5.

'Scent of Spring' bouquet we ordered

The websites photography is very good, with at least 3-4 different views of the selected choice available to click on if you wish to have a more detailed look. I like the rather clever trick of hovering over the picture and it immediately brings up a quick description of the flowers used in the selection without having to double click onto it, however I thought the website’s homepage looked rather busy and crowded with numerous tiny pictures on one panel (along the bigger ones in the middle of the page), lots of various other ‘useful info’ on another panel and the usual headings along the top panel. I mark it 4/5.

What we ordered

This I think is a website catering to those who do not like to waste a lot of time. You shop by searching different categories of occasions to suit (eg. birthdays, thank you’s, anniversary, congratulations etc), type of bouquets you’d like to send (classic value or ultimate) or plants. That’s it; it’s that simple to use. The pictures are of acceptable quality and I really like their good description of types of flowers and number of stems in each collection. I would give marks 3/5 for this website.