Weekend Living: Flowers in My Grocery Basket (Fresh Direct's Floral Delivery Service Review)

My love of the NY-based grocery delivery service Fresh Direct is WELL-documented on this blog. Given the amount of groceries I buy for recipe testing, cooking classes, as well as our own personal meals (and the fact that I don't drive), I can't even begin to imagine how difficult life would be without them. Apart from the convenience and the amazing quality of their food (especially the local produce & meat), I love that they occasionally add some really fun options to their site.

Like their new local floral delivery service!

I've always wanted to be the sort of woman who regularly keeps gorgeous fresh flowers around the home. The truth is that I am not that sort of woman. I'm more the sort of woman who buys fresh flowers, enjoys them for a few days, and then keeps forgetting to throw them out as they sit withering and drying and crumbling into dust all over my coffee or dining table. Way more Miss Havisham than Martha Stewart.

They finally get thrown out and then months and months pass before I even think to buy another bouquet.

But a service like this could be pretty great. Because I always remember to buy groceries (naturally) and it's easy enough to pick something lovely and seasonal and add it to my basket.

This weekend, I decided to test out the service to see just how it works in real life, and took pictures so that I could share with you in case you've also been thinking about trying it.

NOTE: This is NOT a sponsored post; I'm just sharing because I think it's a cool service and figured other folks in NYC might also be curious about it. Fresh Direct did not ask me or pay me to write this, though I am sharing my affiliate link at the bottom which means you'll get a discount and I'll get a small credit if you use it as a first-time customer.

The site said that the flowers arrive with closed buds, wrapped in parchment paper in twine. Once cut and placed in water, they start to bloom and look perfect within 1 or 2 days.

It sounded easy enough to me, so I added a $19.99 bouquet of peonies to my basket. Since the flowers come just in bouquet form without vases, they're all pretty inexpensive, ranging in price from $12.99 to $29.99.

As promised the flowers arrived closed and wrapped in brown butcher paper labeled with instructions. I decided to use an old mason jar as a vase, and cut the stems down very short to fit in the jar and create a nice tight bouquet.

Ever vigilant, Hudson was keeping his eye on the neighborhood while I worked on my flowers.

Tip: I find that cutting flowers (even inexpensive bodega flowers) very short and putting them into small vases makes them look much more elegant and expensive than leaving the stems long.

It also allows you to be creative with your vessel (I've used large mugs, watering cans, even old plum tomato cans to create really cool looking arrangements.)

From the above photo, you can see that I used my lobster shears to cut them. I couldn't find regular scissors, and it's always nice to find another use for lobster shears, since I don't really make lobster all that often.

Not wanting to waste the parchment paper, I cut it down a bit (also using lobster shears) and scrunched it up around the jar, tying it in place with the twine, for a perfectly lovely rustic look.

I arranged the cut flowers in the jar, which I prepared by filling with room temperature filtered water and a bit of the provided flower food. I then placed them in the sun, feeling rather fancy about myself.

It wasn't long (mere hours) before the tight buds started springing to life with plush, fragrant blossoms. By the next afternoon, the flowers were absolutely perfect.

While I have no illusions that a standing peony order is going to turn me into a perfect homemaker, I can't deny the fact that having the gorgeous blossoms on the table motivated me to do a bit of straightening and dusting up. We'll see how long this lasts, but for now I am most definitely a happy customer!

Do you like to keep fresh flowers around the house? Do you find that it helps you keep your home tidier?

If you've never tried Fresh Direct before, you can click on this invite link which will give you access to a $100 discount off your first 2 orders ($50 off each). (I'll get a $25 credit, too, but that won't affect your discount in any way.)

Fresh Direct Coupon Code: Want to try Fresh Direct? Click here for a first-time Fresh Direct customer coupon and save $100 on your first two orders!

Disclaimer:  This is NOT a sponsored post. Fresh Direct did NOT pay me or even ask me to write this. I just decided to try it and share it with you on my own accord. I included my referral link above so if you use it to sign up and have never ordered before, I will get $25 credit and you'll get a $100 discount, but that's not influencing my opinions in any way.

****
Love Always Order Dessert? Let's connect! Follow me on Twitter or Pinterest, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive my once-a-week e-mail updates. And if you ever need any entertaining or cooking advice, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for reading!