Win A Dozen Red Roses For Your Valentine

There is nothing like a dozen red roses to say "I love you" is there?  And I just such a prize to give away from Beards & Daisies - The Letterbox Florist guaranteed to melt the frostiest heart this Valentine's Day.

Beautiful Valentines Day Roses From Beards & Daisies - The Letterbox Florist

Using Beards & Daisies couldn't be easier.  You simply choose your flower box and select a delivery date. Their florist carefully packs your flowers and greetings card and the flowers are delivered straight to the recipient's doormat.

There are currently 6 boxes to choose from, each one named after a bird:- the Hummingbird, the Nightingale, the Wren, the Dove, the Firecrest or the Skylark. Each box has a different combination of flowers and colour themes.

You can choose from a one-off box or a three month gift subscription - which would be an ideal Mothers' Day gift too.  (This year Mothering Sunday falls on Sunday 6 March).

I was sent "The Hummingbird"  and this box is filled with Alstroemeria, Solidago, Wax Flower, Madiba and Hypericum.

The Hummingbird Arrangement 

Each box contains fresh, locally sourced flowers posted straight through your letterbox in a purpose designed, 2ft ventilated flower box. It’s as easy as receiving a letter and the flowers will be waiting on the recipients doormat when they get home!

This is how the flowers arrive.

The flowers are lovingly packed in premium gift wrapping, including an A6 ‘A Little Note to Say’ greeting card with a hand written message, perfect for any occasion.

The flowers are beautifully packaged.

Lovely additional touches to your flower box

As you can see, the box contains a card which explains which flowers you have received and, on the reverse, there are detailed instructions for both caring for, and arranging your flowers - a great help for those of us who tend to use the "plonk them in a vase" technique!

There is also a discount code to save 10% on your next order.

The Hummingbird box costs £25.99 for one box and £59.99 for a 3 month subscription (a saving of approx £18).

This includes free Royal Mail 1st class delivery in a ventilated box which fits through a standard letterbox.

Order by 4:00pm for free next day delivery.  Note that to ensure the freshest flowers, Beards & Daisies deliver Tuesday-Saturday. Flower boxes are delivered to mainland UK only. The recipient doesn't have to wait in, it's as easy as receiving a letter! Protective packaging ensures flowers are delivered in perfect condition. Signature gift wrapping is included with every flower box, together with a free A6 gift card 'A little note to say' with every flower box.

I found the flowers to be in great condition and they have added a lovely and much needed touch of spring to the house.  The quality of the Beards & Daisies box is excellent and would make a great gift.

Now, to my giveaway.

To win a beautiful dozen red roses for your Valentine (or to cheer yourself up!), just enter via the rafflecopter below.  Mainland UK entrants only.  The giveaway ends at 11:59 on Monday 8th February.  Terms and conditions, together with details of other Mother Distracted giveaways are on my Competitions page.

Note:  Beards & Daisies are only able to deliver to mainland UK. The winner will be required to respond with their details within 48 hours in order that their flowers can be received on Valentines Day.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Win A Christmas Lily & Rose Bouquet From Debenhams Flowers

You may remember I recently reviewed an absolutely beautiful bouquet from Debenhams Flowers which was sent to my mum to celebrate Grandparents Day.

Christmas Lily & Rose Bouquet - £24.99

Well, Debenhams Flowers are kindly offering a stunning Christmas Lily & Rose Bouquet worth £24.99 for one of my lucky readers.

Take a look at their selection of Christmas flowers because nothing sets off a Christmas table or a Christmas display like fresh flowers.  As you know, I'm a big fan. The Christmas Lily & Rose bouquet is my favourite but I also love these.

Winter Wonderland including oriental lilies and  avalanche roses £29.99

Christmas Cheer - including red Asiatic Lilies, Grand Prix Roses and white Reagan Chrysanthemums - £24.99

A bouquet is also an ideal gift for someone who is difficult to buy for, or who is a long way away during the festive season.

You can also choose a Christmas hamper, or wine and champagne which are always popular gifts.

Debenhams offer next day flowers 7 days a week across the UK with a beautiful range of seasonal bouquets. For guaranteed next day flowers you need to order before 9pm on weekdays, 4pm on Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays.  Next day flowers are available by courier or you can choose flowers by post which are delivered in secure packaging by Royal Mail to any UK address.

You can send your best wishes with a personalised gift message delivered alongside the bouquet you choose and add a gift, for example chocolates, fine wines or balloons.

I also have a special discount code which gives 25% off on all bouquets, with the exception of flowers by post - DFBLOG25.  Just go to www.debenhamsflowers.com.

Entry is via Rafflecopter in the usual way and the competition is for UK entries only.  The giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on Sunday 13th December. The name and address of the winner must be received before 20th December in order for the bouquet to be sent in time for Christmas.

Good luck!

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iFlowerGift.Com - Fresh Flowers Direct From The Growers

You might think that there is nothing new under the sun in terms of buying fresh flowers.  There are so many outlets to buy them - supermarkets, garages and loads of online sites offering next day bouquets.

My lovely pink and yellow blooms

But have you ever stopped to think about how supported the flower growers are?  Or the carbon footprint of your bouquet?

Some supermarket roses, for example, have flown half way around the world and spend up to 2 weeks in cool cells before you get them.

iFlowerGift.Com is a new company which works directly with the growers to ensure that they get a fair price for their flowers.  Flower farm workers are often paid a pittance so this is similar to a Fair Trade scheme. And, to keep the carbon footprint low, they use existing postal services to send them.

They offer fresh flower gifts and floristry supplies with the added incentive of free UK postage. Most of their flowers come from a sustainable flower farm in The Netherlands and are cut on the morning of the day they are sent.

I was invited to try out their service and I chose some lovely pink and yellow blooms.

I chose the "pick a flower colour" option where you choose one basic colour and the price rises incrementally depending on how many other colours you choose.  My bouquet came in at under £22.00 which is very good value for postal flowers.

You can add a personalised message (up to 140 characters) on satin ribbon at an extra £2.88.

There is also a range of  monthly flower subscriptions starting at £14.40 per month which would make a lovely Christmas gift.

I opted to pay via PayPal, which I am using more and more these days. There is nothing more annoying than having to hunt for your purse when you want to buy something on line and my payment went through with no problems.

The flowers arrived in a tall cardboard box but when I removed them, I was surprised at the clever way they were packaged.

Each bunch of flowers was wrapped separately, laid end to end on a piece of card and tied down with yellow twine.

Does anyone know what these beautiful pink flowers are?

On the end of each bunch was a moist protective packaging which will keep the blooms fresh for up to 5 days.

You do have to arrange the flowers yourself and I am no Jane Packer but the flowers came with sufficient foliage to do a decent enough job, if I do say so myself.

Although I had picked colours, the actual choice of flower is made by iFlowerGift.com and whilst I recognise yellow carnations (I think!),  the pink flowers are highly unusual.  In fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like them.

That element of surprise made the flowers even more special.

I ordered flowers on a Tuesday and although the site said they would arrive Saturday / Monday, they arrived a day early on Friday.

I did take a few minutes to find my way around the iFlowerGift.com website as there are few pre-arranged bouquet choices.  It is very much up to you to use your own creativity and purchase the seasonal flowers available to arrange into your own displays.

This does mean, though, that you can control the cost of your bouquet.  Prices are really reasonable with a dozen long stemmed red and white roses at under £25.00.

I think flowers from iFlowerGift.com are certainly worth a try for someone who really knows their flowers and enjoys arranging them.

I found the quality of both the flowers and the packaging to be much higher than flowers I have previously received from other online outlets - at a reduced cost.

iFlowerGift.com has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to the other big flower 'names.

Further information is available at www.iFlowerGift.com.

UPDATE:  The foliage is Aspidistra leaves, the yellow flowers are mini gerberas and the unusual pink flowers are celiosa!

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