How Flower Buying Works
Three models sit behind almost every flower order in the UK. Here is what each one actually does with your order.
When you order flowers online, one of three completely different things happens next — and almost nothing on the website tells you which. Your order might be passed to a shop near the recipient that you will never be told the name of. It might be packed flat in a warehouse and posted. Or it might go straight to the person who is going to make it. Those are the three models, they produce three genuinely different objects on the doorstep, and this page explains them without pretending one of them is always right.
We are an independent studio, so we have an interest here and you should read this knowing that. What follows is still a comparison of models rather than of companies: we name the best-known example of each so you can place it, describe how the model handles an order, and leave the judgement to you. Where a fact is not public — the commission split, for one — we say so instead of guessing.
A national network takes the order and transmits it to a member florist near the recipient, who makes and delivers it from the network's product photograph. The network handles the customer; the member shop handles the flowers. Interflora is the best-known UK example, and the model is old — wire services predate the internet by decades, which is exactly why they exist: they were the only way to send flowers to another city.
A single company buys centrally, packs flowers in bud to a fixed recipe, and sends them by courier or post — often in a flat box designed to fit a letterbox. No florist near the recipient is involved at any point. Bloom & Wild is the best-known UK example. It is e-commerce logistics applied to flowers, and it is very good at the problem it set out to solve.
One studio takes the order, designs it, makes it and delivers it inside its own area. There is no product photograph to reproduce because the arrangement does not exist until you order it. The trade-off is geography: an independent covers a delivery radius, not a country.
Every row below describes something you can verify from how each model is sold. Where a figure is not public, the cell says so.
| What happens | Relay / wire network | Direct-send letterbox brand | Independent local florist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who takes the order | The network's website or a member shop, which passes it on. | The brand's own website or app. | The studio that will make it. There is nobody in between. |
| Who designs it | A member florist near the recipient, working to the network's product description and photograph. | A central production team, packing to a fixed recipe. | The florist you spoke to, working to your brief. |
| Who delivers it | The fulfilling florist, locally. | A national courier or Royal Mail, usually in a flat box. | The studio, by hand, inside its own delivery area. |
| What reaches the maker | A share of what you paid, after the network's fees. The split is a commercial matter between the network and its members and is not published. | Not applicable — the brand is the maker, so nothing is shared out. | The whole order value, less payment processing. |
| Substitution policy | Networks generally reserve the right to substitute items of similar value, and the fulfilling florist works from whatever its own market has that day. | Stems are picked to a published specification; substitutions are made centrally against it. | Equal or greater value, same colour story and feel. If a swap would change the point of the gift, you get a message first. |
| Can you speak to the maker | Usually not. You speak to the network's customer service, which relays messages to a shop you are not told the name of. | Customer service, not a florist. | Yes — the same person throughout. |
| How closely it matches the photo | Approximately. The photograph is the network's; the flowers are whatever that shop can source. | Closely, because the recipe is fixed and centrally bought. | It is not working from a photograph. It is designed for you, so there is nothing to match. |
| Can you change or personalise it | Only within the listed options on the product page. | Only within the listed options on the product page. | Yes — colours, scale, a flower they loved, a specific avoidance. Just ask. |
| Coverage | Nationwide and international, wherever there is a member shop. | Nationwide, wherever the courier goes. | A defined local area for fresh flowers. Posted keepsakes go UK-wide. |
This is the part most comparisons get wrong, in both directions. The structural fact is simple and not in dispute: in a relay order, the total you pay has to cover the network as well as the flowers, and the shop that actually makes the bouquet receives a share of it rather than all of it. What that share is, we are not going to tell you, because it is a commercial arrangement between a network and its members and it is not published. Anyone quoting you a precise percentage is repeating a number they cannot source.
What that structure does to the object on the doorstep is easier to reason about. A florist working to a fixed price they did not set, against a photograph they did not take, with a margin that has already been shared out, has less room in the arrangement than a florist working directly for you at the same total. That is not a criticism of the shops in those networks — they are usually good florists in a tight spot, and plenty of them are excellent. It is a description of the maths.
With an independent, the whole of what you pay goes into the flowers, the making and the delivery. It is also why we can offer things a relay order structurally cannot — a design built around your brief rather than a listed product, a colour you name, a bloom you want left out, or a hand-crocheted keepsake that no catalogue carries.
A comparison that concludes "always use us" is not a comparison. Here is the honest version.
Websites in all three models look broadly the same, and some directories and lead-generation sites look like florists without being either. Four checks settle it in under a minute.
A local florist has a name, a story and a person. A network sells you a product; the shop that makes it is not named anywhere in the order flow, before or after.
Real hand-delivered fresh flowers travel a radius, not a country. Nationwide next-day fresh delivery means either a network of member shops or a courier and a flat box — both fine, but neither is a local florist.
Look for a gallery of arrangements that are visibly different from each other, in real rooms and on real doorsteps, rather than a grid of identically-lit catalogue photographs.
Message and ask for a colour that is not listed, or for lilies to be left out. A studio will just say yes. A network's customer service will point you back at the product options.
A relay florist — the older name is a wire service — is a network that takes your order centrally and passes it to a member florist near the recipient, who makes and delivers it. Interflora is the best-known example in the UK. You are buying from the network; a shop whose name you are usually never told is doing the making. It is the model that lets one website deliver flowers almost anywhere.
No — it is a different model again, and the distinction matters when you are comparing. A direct-send letterbox brand packs flowers in bud at a central facility and posts them, usually flat-packed, by courier or Royal Mail. There is no local florist in the chain at all: nobody near the recipient touches the order. That is a genuinely different proposition from a relay order, and worth knowing before you compare the two on price alone.
With an independent florist, all of it, less payment processing. With a relay network, a share of it — the network takes fees and the fulfilling shop receives the remainder. We are not going to put a percentage on that, because the split is a commercial matter between a network and its members and it is not published. What is public is the structure itself: some of what you pay is buying the network, not the flowers.
It depends which model you used. A direct-send brand buys centrally to a fixed recipe, so the match is usually close. A relay order is made by a shop working from the network's photograph with whatever its own market has, so it is an approximation. An independent florist is not working from a photograph at all — the design is made for you, which is why we ask about the occasion instead of just taking a card number.
Genuinely often. If the recipient is somewhere with no good local florist, if you need international delivery, if nobody will be home and a letterbox box is the only thing that will not sit on a doorstep all day, or if you want a repeating subscription — those are exactly what those models are built for, and an independent florist with a local delivery radius is the wrong tool. The honest answer is that the models solve different problems.
Four quick checks. Does the site name the studio that will make it, or only the brand? Is there a stated local delivery area, rather than nationwide next-day on fresh flowers? Can you see actual work rather than stock photography? And can you message a person and ask for something that is not on the page? A yes to all four is a local florist; a no to all four is a network or a national sender.
Not necessarily, and the comparison is harder than it looks. A relay order carries the network's fees inside the same total, and a letterbox box is smaller than it photographs. What you can say with confidence is where the money goes: with an independent, it all goes into the flowers, the making and the delivery, because there is no third party taking a cut of the same order.
No. The Floral Muse is an independent studio in Leeds — not a branch of a chain and not a shop that picks up jobs from a network. When you message us you are talking to the studio that will design, make and deliver your flowers. Fresh flowers are a Leeds and West Yorkshire service; hand-crocheted keepsakes are posted UK-wide.
We deliver fresh flowers by hand across Leeds and West Yorkshire, and post hand-crocheted keepsakes UK-wide. Either way you are talking to the studio that makes them.
Read about your independent Leeds florist, what makes a bespoke florist different, where we deliver in Leeds, or how to send flowers to the UK from abroad.
