Reading a bouquet description before you buy

What a stem count tells you, and what it does not

A stem count is the most concrete detail in most descriptions, and it is useful for comparing like with like: a dozen red roses and two dozen are plainly different purchases. But the count says nothing about the size of each head, the length of the stem or the grade of the flower, and those vary enormously. A large-headed rose can carry a bud twice the size of a short, small-headed variety and cost several times as much at market.

Counts also hide the difference between a single-flowered stem and a spray. One stem of spray rose or spray chrysanthemum carries several smaller blooms on side shoots, so ten spray stems can look fuller than ten standard stems while costing less. Check, too, whether foliage is counted. Some descriptions include every stem of eucalyptus and filler in the total, which makes the number look generous without adding much colour.

Sizes by stems or by dimensions

Some florists describe sizes by stems, others by height and width, and many use small, medium and large without saying what those mean. Stems tell you how much material you are paying for. Dimensions tell you how much space the finished piece occupies, which is what the recipient actually sees. Long stems and airy foliage make a tall, wide bouquet from a modest count, while a tight dome of short roses packs many stems into something compact.

A height usually includes the stems below the tie, so a tall hand-tied bouquet can look much smaller once it is standing in a vase. Dimensions for an arrangement in a container are more reliable, because the shape is fixed. When size really matters, for a narrow bedside table or a large hall, it is reasonable to ask what the design measures.

Why the photograph is only indicative

Nearly every flower product page says its image is indicative, and it is not a legal nicety. The photograph was taken on one day, with flowers from one delivery, often under studio light. Your bouquet will be made on another day from what the florist bought that morning. Petal colour varies between growers and batches of the same variety, and it shifts as a flower opens. Screens add their own error, showing the same picture cooler on one phone and warmer on another.

Colour names are slippery, which is why growers and breeders match petals against references such as the RHS Colour Chart instead of trusting words like peach, coral or blush. Trust the palette and style in a description more than any single shade. A white arrangement will be white and green, but some of its flowers may be cream or carry a faint green tinge, because that is what white flowers naturally do.

What substitution of equal value means in practice

Most descriptions say the florist may substitute flowers of equal or greater value. This matters most when a local florist makes the order rather than a central warehouse, because they buy from their own market and not every variety is available everywhere every day. A fair substitution keeps the colour palette, the style and shape, and the value of the flowers used. It should not mean swapping roses for carnations to save money.

The main flower deserves more protection than the supporting cast. In a product named after its flower, as a red rose bouquet is, the roses are the point, and any change should be to the variety or shade rather than to the flower itself. Containers and baskets may also vary in shape or material. If one flower matters to you, say so in the order notes; that turns a free substitution into a constrained one.

The vocabulary, decoded

Descriptions lean on a handful of trade terms, and each tells you something practical about how the flowers will arrive and what the recipient will need to do.

• Hand-tied: flowers built in the hand in a spiral, so the stems fan out and the heads form a balanced shape, then tied at a single point. It is made to go straight into a vase, and it needs one.
• Arrangement: flowers set into a container with a water source inside, so it can simply be put down. No vase is needed, which suits offices and anyone who would struggle to arrange a bouquet.
• Basket: an arrangement that uses a lined basket as its container. The lining and whatever holds water inside matter more than the basket itself, so it is worth knowing what keeps the flowers drinking.
• Spray: either a stem carrying several blooms, as in spray roses, or a funeral design, often flat and one-sided, laid on a coffin. The context makes clear which is meant.
• Foliage: the leaves and greenery that support the shape and frame the flowers. It is part of the design rather than padding, though a description heavy on foliage will look greener than one built mostly from flowers.
• Wrapping: paper, film or fabric around a hand-tied bouquet. It protects the flowers in transit and usually comes off before the bouquet goes into a vase.
• Water source: whatever keeps flowers drinking until they reach a vase, such as a sealed bag of water around the stems, a filled vessel or floral foam. Many florists now avoid foam, because research has found it breaks down into microplastic particles that aquatic animals can ingest.

Read together, those words answer the questions a photograph cannot: whether the recipient needs a vase, whether the flowers can wait a while before anyone sees them, and how much of what you are paying for is flower rather than greenery.