A rose is a rose is a rose

A rose is a rose is a rose - isn't it? Choosing the right red rose for Valentine’s Day, with help from your local friendly florist You might have peeked into a florist on Valentine’s Day and seen one single rose stem for £5. Then you’ve turned on your TV and seen an advert for a dozen supermarket roses priced at £5. What’s all that about?  Let me explain. It’s like when you buy clothes. You might want something cheap; it isn’t made particularly well, but that doesn’t matter as you only want to wear it a couple of times. Or you might want something more classic, that will last longer, and that you can tell is made from better fabric.  Right at this very moment there are dozens of varieties of red rose available to buy as cut flowers. (One company alone offers 11 different sorts to its growers.)  Florists, supermarkets, street stalls and online companies can’t sell every variety - so they choose two, three or maybe four key ones. The varieties they choose, depends on type of business they are.  My customers at van Wonderen Flowers want high quality, long lasting flowers with good long straight stems and a strong red colour. Something classic and well-made, if you like.  Our rose of choice this year is called Freedom. We  have chosen this rose as this is a classic Valentine’s florist rose. It’s a real cracker, has a rich scarlet red colour - like a soldier's uniform. Looks very vibrant and lasts incredibly well. We also carry Grand Prix which also has a big open flower head with a beautiful shape, lots of well-formed petals. It has a darker red colour which is also popular with some of our customers.  For people that ask for really dark red roses we offer Black Baccara as this has the deepest reliable colour and a lovely shape to the flowers.  These roses are grown with long stems, up to 80cm long or even more. The flowerheads are large too, in proportion. The cheapest roses you will see are often half the length, and the flowers less than half the size. If you look at the flowers side by side, you can really see the difference in the number of petals, and often the richness of colour. The vase life can be affected sometimes too, because of the way they are grown.  Another difference in price is down to presentation. We carefully wrap and package all our valentine flowers – even if you buy a single rose stem, we’ll giftwrap it for you. We don’t just pop a bunch of flowers in a cellophane sleeve and stick a price tag on!  If want to see what a high quality valentine rose looks like, come along to the shop and we’ll be happy to show you the difference.