As further away visitors, my partner and I recently attempted to buy flowers closer to an ill friend's house to drop off with a week's worth of meals in south county. She is a plant person. They really cheer her up! (But not in this case!) We wanted to buy a bouquet when we got into her area, so it would be as fresh as possible. Given the run on flowers since the pandemic, selection was low, except this shop's stuff remained. So that afternoon we picked out a bouquet and a vase. We used a garden faucet at my friend's to put a few inches of fresh water in the vase and placed the wrapped bouquet and ice chest of food on her porch late afternoon. She had a caregiver coming over early evening with whom we arranged to bring the goods inside.
Aside from them looking mediocre, we discovered why these flowers remained at the store only after it was too late! We learned from the caregiver that when she unwrapped the flowers an hour after we dropped them off the stems under the wrapping were slimy, and a few hours later she noticed that they had aphids! Some had dropped off onto the nightstand she put the bouquet on, and became easy to see! There were no other plants ever kept on that stand (which is heavily sanitized daily) and these flower stems had many aphids on them that evening. My friend's plants WERE in perfect health previous to the arrival of this aphid infested bouquet. It's too obvious the pests came from this bouquet! The aphids have now transferred to my friend's plants and she's watching her plants go down as she she doesn't have the energy to care for them! And her care team is to provide only the basic services toward her health, not her plants'! A call to the flower proprietor went ignored! As well, we have since heard unsavory things about how she, the owner of Floristics flowers in Penn Valley, really is! Several trusted sources have explained she's NOT the nicey nice facade she grossly puts on. Not a business or person we want to support! read more