Blooming marvellous Mother’s Day

Choose your florist carefully if you're buying online for Mother's Day, says which.co.uk, as what you see isn't always what you order.

Using a panel of mums and Which? Gardening experts, which.co.uk ordered bouquets from 13 popular flower delivery companies and discovered big differences in quality, value and how closely they matched the image provided on their website.

Marks & Spencer's Large Serene Bouquet was a very good match to the online picture and received the highest overall rating (86%). It was praised for its expensive flowers and how long it lasted. The website also included a lot of detail about the bouquet, including the flower varieties and number of blooms provided.

However, when Clinton Cards' Plum Spectacular bouquet arrived it contained only pink flowers rather than the plum shown online - and described in its name. The which.co.uk experts dubbed it ‘more Pink Surprise than Plum Spectacular'.

Although Aldi's Pink Rose and Lily Bouquet was the cheapest on test, which.co.uk's experts felt that it was poor value. The foliage was described as ‘dried and ill', the lilies were ‘quite skinny' and one mum said she would be ‘disappointed' if she received the flowers as a gift. This bouquet received the lowest overall score (36%).

Jess Ross, Editor, which.co.uk, says: "If you want Mother's Day to be a blooming success, order your flowers as early as you can and choose a website that has lots of detail about the bouquets available - that way you're more likely to get the flowers you want.

"Make sure Mum's smile lasts longer than a day by ordering her a top rated bouquet for this Sunday."