The Bouqs Subscription Review – June 2017

The Bouqs subscription is a flower delivery service from The Bouqs.com. They send fresh cut flowers to you or a friend as often as you'd like.

You can set your deliveries every week, every 2 weeks, every month, every 2 months, or every 4 months. Plus, you'll choose your Bouqs aesthetic ("The Farmer's Market", "C'mon Get Happy", "War of Roses", or "Bouq-tastic Voyage") and the size of bouquet you prefer (Original, Deluxe, or Grand).

This is a review of the monthly "Bouq-tastic Voyage" subscription in the Deluxe (double blooms) size ($55 per month).

As soon as I opened the box, I saw instructions on how to prep and care for my fresh-cut flowers. They recommend cutting your stems at an angle at the right height for your vase and changing the water every 2 days to make your blooms last longer.

The flower arrived wrapped in corrugated cardboard for protection. The entire bunch of flowers was secured to the bottom of the box with a heavy-duty plastic tie, so they didn't bounce around in the box during shipping.

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

The Box: The Bouqs Co. Subscription ("Bouq-tastic Voyage" style, Deluxe size)

The Cost: Choose from 3 different sizes of bouquets—Original for $40 per bouquet, Double (what's featured in this review) for $55 per bouquet, or Grand for $70 per bouquet.

The Products: Fresh flowers from sustainable, eco-friendly farms that are cut-to-order (which means no flowers go to waste). When you sign up, you can choose the style that fits your needs, and pick a frequency for receiving your bouquets (weekly, every two weeks, monthly, every two months, or every four months). You can always pause or change your subscription settings, and even include a note (if for instance, you're sending your subscription flowers to a friend or loved one).

Good to Know: There are discounts that come from subscribing! According to the site, "1-2 Bouq Deliveries gives you a 10% discount, 3-5 qualifies for 15%, 6-12 orders is 20%, and 13+ per year is 25% off. To qualify for these discounts, you will have to pay upfront. Pay as you go is an option, but the discount is not as great."

Ships to: US only via UPS

Everything looks so lovely! But it's important to note that The Bouqs sends cut flowers that you need to prep and arrange by yourself. This is not the standard ready-to-admire flower delivery you get from your local florist. Don't worry though, prepping your flowers isn't hard and just takes a little time and love to get right. I'll walk you through how I got my flowers out of the box and turned them into the pretty arrangement above!

Here are my blooms out of the box and still securely wrapped.

The flowers came with a nice kraft card that lets me know some additional care tips and tells me the name of the bouquet I received. The design is called "Genuine".

I unwrapped the parcel to find 2 bunches of pink roses and 1 bunch of purple statice.

When I unwrapped the flowers, I noticed that the ends of the stems had a cool, clear gel on them. This gel was a bit messy but I'm sure is what keeps the cut flowers hydrated without fresh water on the journey in the mail!

Now, on to the flowers!

20 Desperado Roses

The pink roses are gorgeous! The petals have rich pink tips that fade into white. This effect is so lovely, and I prefer it over solid-color roses. I'm not usually a rose girl, but these were really stunning.

The Bouqs website explained to me more about these flowers and specifically, about Farmer Gino, who grew these roses in Ecuador.

Gino’s farm grows the world’s best roses, and not in a New York City “World’s Best Coffee” kind of way either. These babies are perfecto! Grown on a Volcano 10,000 feet above sea level in the most sun possible, the flowers benefit from volcanic run-off of pure ice-melt water, hence their name “Volcano Roses”. Also, Gino's farm is Rainforest Alliance certified.

Purple Statice

In addition to the roses, my bouquet included a bunch of purple statice. The Bouqs included just enough of this flower to act as a light accent to the denser roses. The small purple flowers are delicate and fluffy, like tiny ruffles. The "Genuine" bouquet is described as including desperado roses and purple phlox in the description the site but it looks like they substituted in purple statice instead (thanks for the tip, Joy!)

Now that I've shown you all the flowers in the box, let me show you how I prepped and arranged them!

Here is a single rose with all its leaves and guard petals. I trimmed the end of the stem at a 45-degree angle to just the right height for my vase. Always use sharp scissors or garden shears when cutting flowers to avoid crushing the stem. Picture a crushed drinking straw versus a clean-edged straw!

Next, I removed most of the leaves on the stem of the flower. You want to remove any leaves that will touch the water in your vase. Leaves and greenery rot very quickly in water and will seriously shorten the life of your flowers in the vase if not removed.

Roses have guard petals on the outside of their blooms. They are a touch thicker than the rest of the flower and are likely to look a bit dry, rough, and even discolored. They are meant to be gently removed to reveal more beautiful rose petals.

This is looking so much better!

Chrysal Clear Universal Plant Care Packets

This shipment also included plant food to be mixed into the vase water.

I trimmed all of my rose stems to the same height using my first cut as a template for the rest. I filled my vase with fresh water and placed each rose into the vase, one by one. I love the simplicity of having just one kind of flower in a vase, especially with roses.

Next, I trimmed up the purple statice and added it between the roses throughout the arrangement. I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what to do with the filler flowers, so I looked up pictures of the finished arrangement on The Bouqs website. I would love to see The Bouqs include a project card with different ways to arrange the included flowers to inspire some creative ideas.

Here's a look at the finished arrangement from above. If you want the flowers to fit a bit tighter together, you can wrap a piece of string around the stems to hold everything in all nice and snug.

With the guard petals off, the roses look fresh, healthy, and beautiful. The statice adds an additional pop of color.

The Verdict: This was my first time trying The Bouqs, and I am pleased with the quality of the flowers. The $55 price seems very good for 20 roses in this unique color, plus some colorful filler flowers. I just ordered a flower arrangement for my mom for her birthday and spent more than $60 for a design with only a couple of roses. The big difference here is that you will need to supply your own vase and do the arranging yourself. It's kind of an IKEA approach to flowers. There is something very satisfying about arranging your own flowers, but I think it can be a bit daunting as a gift. Sending someone a project is very different from sending them a gift ready to admire! I recommend this as a gift for yourself and your home, or as a treat for a crafty loved one.

Have you tried The Bouqs? What did you think?