23 Jan A Classier Way to Send Flowers This Valentine’s Day

Is it just us, or does the experience of sending flowers feel less like a Hallmark moment and more like buying a used car? We’ve often tried sending our moms $35 bouquets that ended up costing almost 60 bucks at checkout.

That’s why we’re digging this new L.A. company called the Bouqs, launched just in time for the frenzy of February 14. (Full disclosure: C recently wrote ’em up for DailyCandy.) The Bouqs charges $40 out the door — including shipping and delivery to all 50 states — for each of their bouquets, which are sourced from eco-friendly, volcano-nourished farms in South America.

The flowers aren’t even cut until you order them. Bunches include the “Thick as Thieves,” yellow and orange roses of almost blinding impact, the “Simple Beauty,” which overflows with pink hydrangea and green ruscus, and the lily-centric “Pow!”. There’s even a “Dude-Quet,” designed for “the real men who love flowers too.” Hear hear.

C was delighted to receive a delivery of “Heaven Sent,” vibrant lavender roses that arrived in a narrow Fed-Ex box. At first she reached for a standard-issue vase, after cutting the stems under running water and stripping most of the leaves with a spiked mat we picked up from the florist.

It looked cute, but we felt these lush, romantic blooms called for something over-the-top.

We gathered a U-shaped vase (which came in handy when we made our evergreen centerpieces) and three atomic-era green glass vases (estate sale finds) of staggered heights. We chopped the roses down to appropriate heights to add some aesthetic rhythm, then bunched them together to form a floral explosion.

The result, combined with our favorite porcelain bust, was slightly bonkers — a nook of decadence in an otherwise spare setting. Sometimes you gotta overdose on romance.