The Best Online Flower Delivery Service In 2025

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Fresh flowers make a thoughtful and easy gift. We ordered more than 50 bouquets from 20 brands to find the best flowers for all occasions.

Lauren Savoie/Business Insider

When in doubt, flowers make a foolproof gift or gesture for nearly every occasion, whether you're celebrating a milestone, want to express sympathy, or — our favorite reason — just because. With Valentine's Day coming up, you can send your loved ones near and far fresh flowers with the best flower delivery services.

Keep in mind, many companies let you place orders up until the last minute, but the best selection and promotions come to those who plan ahead.

To find the best flower delivery service, we ordered more than 50 arrangements from 20 flower companies. We assessed product assortment, ordering and delivery experience, and how the bouquet arrived and thrived for a week. Our favorite, UrbanStems creates some of the most stunning floral arrangements with a modern appeal, but if you're in a pinch, FTD connects you to local florists for same-day delivery and hosts plenty of affordable options-

Our top picks for the best online flower delivery services

Best overall: UrbanStems

Runner-up: The Bouqs Co.

Best same-day delivery: FTD

Best value: 1-800-Flowers.com

Best farm-fresh: Farmgirl Flowers

Best fresh roses: Roses Only

Best preserved roses: RoseBox

Best dried: Idlewild Floral

Best subscription: BloomsyBox

Best overall

If you're searching for the perfect flower arrangement, look no further than UrbanStems. The brand offers a curated assortment of modern, fresh bouquets for all your flower-sending needs. You'll browse according to delivery location and intended delivery date to see the most updated availability, with decent same and next-day delivery options. UrbanStems also offers fresh plants, but availability depends on time of year and delivery location.

We tried a vast array of arrangements from UrbanStems including fresh bouquets, plants, and dried flowers.

Lauren Savoie; Jaclyn Turner; Maria Del Russo; Rachael Shultz/ Business Insider

While product names frequently change, we tried five different fresh bouquets, along with a Chinese money plant, over the course of two different testing periods. UrbanStems offers each of its arrangements in three sizes — single, double, and triple — and you can add on a vase, plus a small gift like a candle or gourmet chocolate before you add to cart.

The UrbanStems bouquet was shipped in tissue with plastic sleeves and zip-tied together to stay secure.

Jaclyn Turner/Business Insider

Everything arrived on time and in excellent condition with an immediate wow-factor not present in other bouquets. The arrangements were some of the freshest, most attractive bouquets we tested and were filled with lively, creative blooms in a range of colors. UrbanStems is our-go for arrangements that have that spark, but if you're if you're looking for a single type of flower, like classic red roses (of which the brand only has one dedicated offering), you may want to consider our runner-up, Bouqs, which has more robust single-flower type offerings. However, if you're after peonies, UrbanStems specializes in these happy and full flowers, which arrive in bud form and are sourced from around the world.

Read our full UrbanStems review.

Runner up

It was a close comparison between The Bouqs Co. and UrbanStems, and you really can't go wrong with either. We've had more consistent experiences with UrbanStems, but we've also treasured the bouquets we've tried from The Bouqs.

The Bouqs Co. offers a massive selection of farm fresh flowers, about twice as many UrbanStems. Each arrangement is available in three sizes, with the middle "deluxe" being the most commonly chosen size. The Deluxe is essentially double the original, or two bouquets in one if you'd like to split them up.

The Bouqs Co. serves up fresh farm flowers and excels in creative, rose-forward arrangements.

Jaclyn Turner; Lily Alig; James Brains/Business Insider

I like that you can browse according to color, flower type, or occasion, and the first available delivery date is also prominently shown. Like UrbanStems, The Bouqs Co. also has several same-day options, depending on your location. There is a good next-day selection, but some specialty options require as much as five days' notice. The assortment also includes dried flowers, plants, access to renowned David Austin Roses, and large party boxes so you can curate your own arrangements for special events. Plus, for Valentine's Day, its offering gifts from BarkBox and Dame.

When we initially tested The Bouqs for this guide in 2021, we could not recommend the service, since poor packaging left the flowers damaged and wilted. The brand has since stepped up its packaging, placing the flowers in protective cardboard or plastic and zip-tying them to the box to keep them secure. When we tested in 2025, the flowers arrived in good condition, but they looked best after about 12 hours, once they had time to perk up in water.

These two bouquets were shipped in the same time period, one to Michigan and other to Georgia; One is wrapped in plastic, and the other had cardboard for extra protection.

James Brains;JaclynTurner/Business Insider

We've still had a few delivery hiccups, though this latest testing period occurred on some of the coldest and most volatile weather weeks of the year, which really stress tested the delivery experience. One plant arrived in poor health, and another coworker purchased an arrangement to arrive on a certain date, but it came late due to the weather. Bouqs refunded her shipping for the inconvenience.

Best same-day delivery

When you need to send flowers fast, a floral wire service is your best option. Florists' Transworld Delivery Service (FTD) has been in the flower delivery business for more than 100 years and partners with local florists to fulfill and deliver orders in all 50 states and more than 125 countries. In many cases, you'll also have the option of same-day delivery. The arrangements lean toward more traditional colors and flowers instead of more modern or unique designs. In addition to flowers, you can send gift baskets like fresh chocolate covered strawberries to charcuterie boxes and spa gift sets along with your bouquets.

FTD partners with local florists to quickly fulfill and deliver orders in all 50 states and more than 125 countries, whether planned out or last minute.

Lauren Savoie/Jenny McGrath/Business Insider

We had a better experience with FTD than with other similar floral wire services. The bouquets and plants we received from FTD were fuller, fresher, and in better condition. Of course, since local florists typically fill orders, your experience may vary depending on who ultimately fills your order.

If you need to send flowers quickly, internationally, or to hard-to-reach places, FTD is the best same-day service we've found for last-minute florals.

Read our full FTD review.

Best value

The online photos from 1-800-Flowers.com don't always do this industry stalwart justice. Some bouquets feel more inspired than others, but the ones we tested certainly had the "wow" factor we were looking for.

1-800-Flowers.com offers same-day and next-day delivery on various arrangements. Many orders are fulfilled by local florists and delivered by courier in a vase, while some types, like roses and its flower of the year, ranunculus, ship from farm partners through FedEx. Like with FTD, quality can vary depending on what florist fills your order.

We ordered the Floral Meadow for Mom in Small, Nature's Charm in Medium, and 36 stems of the Sorbet Roses from 1-800-Flowers.com.

Jaclyn Turner/James Brains/Sarah Saril/Business Insider

We mailed ourselves four bouquets to Georgia, Michigan, and California; each was more beautiful than the next. They were lush and vibrant and looked even more beautiful than the photos. The arrangement that was fulfilled locally was immediately ready to be displayed and required no extra pruning or trimming on our behalf.

The all-rose bouquet (shipped via FedEx) actually lasted the longest, while the locally-fulfilled bouquets (which also included fresh roses) began to wilt near the one-week mark — still a solid length of time for a fresh bouquet. Our one outlier was an order of ranunculus. The flowers shipped directly from Ecuador in bud form; FedEx left them outside without knocking when it was below freezing. They were frozen, and never fully recovered. We also lost four stems out of the 20 in the arrangement.

1-800-Flowers.com offers options for all price ranges, with bouquets starting at $30. You'll also find collaborations with cult brands like Disney, Love Shack Fancy, and HGTV. The site makes it easy to browse what's available once you add your intended delivery ZIP code and date, and you can sort by occasion and flower type. However, it can be difficult to figure out exact delivery fees until you check out, but if you enroll in the $20 Passport program, you'll get free shipping for a year. 1-800-Flowers.com also offers preserved roses, dried flowers, houseplants, gift baskets, and tons of other add-ons, making it a truly one-stop gifting destination.

Best fresh roses

Roses are such a big seller that we made sure every arrangement we received as part of this guide included at least some of them. Having seen the spectrum of what's out there, we can confidently say that Roses Only delivers the most pristine, long-lasting roses we've found.

No one does roses like Roses Only, with beautiful long-stemmed, and long-lasting roses available by the dozen.

Lauren Savoie/Katie Decker-Jacoby/Business Insider

So much care is put into the delivery: The cartoonishly perfect long-stemmed roses (which you can order in quantities of 12-50) come packaged in a long, elegant box with a linen ribbon, and every rose has its own water reservoir to ensure it arrives pristine. The roses themselves are flawless, with big velvety petals. They lasted about two weeks and gradually opened up until each bud was about palm-sized.

At about $5-7 per flower, Roses Only sells some of the most expensive roses out there, but if it's just fresh roses you're after, no flower delivery service does it better.

Best preserved roses

There's a lot to love about these trendy preserved roses: they look good for months and even give off a pleasant scent. Usually packed into boxes or displayed in a classic ball arrangement, these flowers are incredibly popular with influencers and celebrities.

We tested three preserved rose brands and found the quality very similar. Ultimately, we chose RoseBox as the best preserved roses for its diverse color and display options. We particularly liked that its plentiful display containers had discreet branding or none at all, unlike other preserved rose brands that cover containers (which can't be separated from the flowers) with logos.

For everlasting roses, Rose Box's various arrangements are available in over 25 different colors and still look good more than a year after the fact.

Lauren Savoie/Maliah West/Hannah Freedman/Business Insider

Almost all of RoseBox's 90+ products can be customized with varying rose color options and arranged in certain patterns. Currently, classic red and pink varieties are among the core choices, as bolder hues like turquoise are no longer available.

Preserved roses are expensive, no matter what brand you choose. A single preserved rose will start around $89, which is the same price as a full-sized bouquet from many of our other top picks. Expect a medium-sized array of 16 to 21 preserved roses to cost about $350 (unless you can catch a sale, which Rose Box frequently offers). That said, they can end up being an economical alternative to buying flowers every week. One editor has been proudly displaying her arrangement from Rose Box for over two years; it's lost its scent but still looks presentable.

Best farm-fresh

If you're after an arrangement that looks like it was recently plucked from the garden, Farmgirl Flowers offers inventive and playful bouquets based on what's in season. Farmgirl's flagship offerings are the Just Right, Big Love, and Fancy Pants XL bouquets. You don't get to choose what you receive; instead, Farmgirl puts together a bouquet based on what's available and in season. The company's website and social media give you an idea of what to expect, but every bouquet is slightly different, giving it a special, unique feel.

Farmgirl Flower arrangements are bursting with color and arriving looking like they've been freshly picked from a garden.

Lauren Savoie/Connie Chen/Business Insider

We received a Just Right and a Big Love and had another Just Right sent to a tester in California. We loved that the arrangements had a whimsical, wild shape and were gorgeous from every angle. The Just Right and Big Love appeared the same size when we first received them, but after a few hours in the water, the Big Love's closed buds opened up to create a fuller bouquet.

If you'd rather choose your blooms, Farmgirl also offers a few dozen specialty bouquets, including single-flower arrangements and rare blooms like flower breeder David Austin's roses. The selection is slightly different than that of Bouqs, with an emphasis on larger bouquets.

Shipping costs a flat $25 per a bouquet, and Farmgirl Flowers strongly recommends purchasing its Route Package Protection to insure from loss, damage, shipping delays, and theft; otherwise your flowers are not protected in the event you're not satisfied with their arrival condition.

Best dried

No matter how pretty the bouquet, fresh flowers will all eventually wilt. Dried bouquets are a good solution for those who love the look of florals but hate the upkeep. Most importantly, they'll look good for months to come. California-based Idlewild Floral creates some of the most imaginative and beautiful preserved arrangements we've encountered.

Each bouquet is typically available in three size options: petite, deluxe, and statement. We shipped two bouquets to Atlanta and New York City. Shipping took a little longer than we expected from California, but they looked even more beautiful in person than in the online photos.

Both Idlewild Floral Bouquets arrived well-protected and wrapped in tissue paper with a bow.

Jaclyn Turner; Lily Alig/Business Insider

Each flower is harvested at the peak of its bloom before undergoing a drying process, and some of the flowers are coated in natural glycerin for preservation. This gave them a papery texture that wasn't plasticky or artificial-looking. Recently, the small business added Forever Plants to arrangement, dried greenery that still looks fresh and vibrant.

It's been over a year since we originally ordered the bouquets, and they still look as nice as they did on day one. Tester Lily Alig said she regularly gets compliments on her arrangement and has recommended Idlewild to many others as a long-lasting way to have beautiful flowers around.

Best subscription

Flower subscriptions are a great way to brighten someone's day on a more frequent basis — or to liven up your own home with regularly scheduled blooms. BloomsyBox offers a robust fleet of weekly and monthly subscription options at reasonable prices. You can pay month-to-month or save a few dollars by prepaying for 3-, 6-, or 12-month subscriptions. While the retailer also sells à la carte bouquets and plants, its subscriptions offer the best value.

New York Botanical Garden's floral experts help curate the monthly NYBG subscription and feature in-season blooms.

Lauren Savoie/Business Insider

We tried BloomsyBox's priciest subscription: Its NYBG Collection. Each bouquet in the subscription is curated by the New York Botanical Garden's floral experts and features in-season blooms. A portion of the subscription supports the NYBG's plant science and conservation efforts.

We highly recommend BloomsyBox's subscriptions to anyone looking for a bit of floral cheer on a regular basis. It's a nice monthly treat to get an email saying a new bouquet is on the way.

How we test flower delivery services

We sent flowers to our staff located all over the country from 20 flower delivery companies.

Caitlin Petreycik/Lauren Savoie/Business Insider

To find the best flower delivery service, we conducted hands-on testing of every brand in this guide. We ordered two to three arrangements from each brand, evaluating the selection, ordering, and delivery process. We sent bouquets to testers in different parts of the country — including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, rural Colorado, and suburban Connecticut and Michigan— to see if quality and delivery time varied based on location. In all, we tested 55 bouquets from 20 brands. It's an ongoing evaluation of all the service experience.

What to look for in a flower delivery service

We considered all parts of the experience: from ordering and delivery to the quality and consistency across bouquets.

Lauren Savoie/Business Insider

Here's what we looked for in the best flower delivery service:

Ordering: We scrutinized the ordering process of each service, noting whether the website was simple to navigate, what the product selection was like, and how easy it was to place an order. We also looked at shipping options and estimated delivery times.

Delivery: We noted whether the arrangements arrived when they said they would (all did), evaluated packaging, and looked at the condition of the flowers when they first arrived. Testers across the country compared notes; we found delivery times and quality consistent across the country.

Quality of flowers: We looked for full bouquets of lively-looking flowers that matched the description and photo of the arrangement we ordered online. We read all care instructions and followed them meticulously, noting how long the flowers remained fresh enough to display.

Consistency: A good flower service should deliver quality blooms no matter the recipient's location. Our testers across the country took photos and detailed notes about delivery and bouquet quality to compare experiences.

Budget: When choosing a flower delivery service, it's important to consider your budget. Flower prices can vary widely, and some delivery services charge more than others for their arrangements. To stay within your budget, consider shopping around and comparing prices from different florists. You can also look for seasonal flowers or less expensive options to help keep costs down.

Packaging, customization, and extras: Customization options are important, especially if you want to add a personal touch to your gift. Look for a service that offers a variety of vase options and add-ons such as chocolates, balloons, or stuffed animals. Some services even offer personalized messages or cards that can be included with your delivery.

Flower delivery service FAQs

With proper care and attention, fresh flower arrangements should last at least a week.

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When should I order flowers for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and other popular holidays?

While many flower delivery services offer next-day delivery for most of the year, all bets are off when it comes to major holidays like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. When ordering around popular holidays, a safe bet is to place your order two weeks in advance of the day you want the flowers delivered. This will ensure you have plenty of arrangements and delivery dates to choose from. We've also noticed companies offering discounts to those who shop early.

Is it safe to have fresh flowers around pets?

It depends on the types of flowers. The ASPCA maintains a comprehensive list of flowers and plants and whether they are toxic or safe for dogs and cats. It's important to remember that certain plants can still be toxic to animals even if they are kept out of reach; pollen and other airborne spores can get into the fur of animals and be ingested during grooming.

If you're ordering flowers for a household with pets, it's best to stick with a service that allows you to see the types of flowers in the arrangement before ordering. Some brands, like Fresh Sends or subscription services, don't allow you to preview the bouquet before it's sent, which could land you with a bouquet that isn't pet-safe.

Our top pick, UrbanStems, lists the type of flowers in each arrangement so you can check to ensure it's safe for your pet while Farmgirl Flowers has a dedicated pet-safe section to take out any guesswork.

Check out our guide to the best pet-friendly plants.

How long do fresh flowers last?

A lot depends on how recently the flowers were cut before they arrived at your home. Flowers can be cut hours, days, or weeks before shipping to you, greatly varying their lifespan in your home. On average, however, you can expect fresh flowers to last five days to a week in a vase with good care, which entails trimming flowers and replacing with fresh water every few days. If you want longer-lasting flowers, preserved roses or a dried bouquet are great options.

What's the best way to keep fresh flowers alive longer?

Some ways to extend the life of your fresh flowers include cutting the stems before putting them in water, using flower food in the water (often supplied with the bouquet, but can be homemade), and changing the water whenever it gets discolored or cloudy. You can read more tips for keeping flowers fresh.

Remember that you don't have to trash the whole bouquet if a few flowers are dead or wilted; just remove the dead flowers and rearrange or tighten the bouquet as needed (you may need to downsize to a smaller vase). Hardy flowers with woody stems (like roses) can last several weeks with proper care.

What are the best types of flowers to buy?

When in doubt, roses are a great pick. They're long-lasting, easy to care for, and largely pet-safe. You can get roses in all colors, shapes, and sizes to suit any recipient.