Recommendations

Flowers for flower fanatics.

Guide: Entrepreneur (Jack)
Location: West Village

Strengths

• The women in my life - meaning both my girlfriend and my girl-friends, tend to have very sophisticated taste (other than when it comes to me). So when I need to send them flowers for whatever reason, I can't mess around. One of my favorite florists is VSF.
• I rate florists on a 1-10 scale, with no 7's (a cop-out) and no 10's (unattainable perfection). The higher the number, the higher the chance that the minute the flowers arrive: 1) the girls in her office will swoon, 2) she will stop whatever she's doing to call me, 3) it will make her day. VSF rates a "screaming" 9.5.
• Walk by their store windows with a woman, and she'll stop you to gaze in awe. It may as well be a window full of puppies. They source unique flowers from all over the world, and arrange them with style. They claim to be known for "colorful, voluptuous arrangements of the very best seasonal blooms in unusual combinations."
• They do corporate flowers, weddings and events, but I mostly use them to send flowers as gifts.

Shortcomings

• They get pretty busy so if you catch them at the wrong time they can give you "bad phone".

Insider tips

• I tend to give general direction on color (e.g all white) or certain flowers to include (e.g peonies, cala lilies), and general price range, and then ask for suggestions.

Anecdotes

• My gf is a flower freak. She gets them delivered to her home and office each week. Sending her flowers is like bringing sand to the beach! That said, I am a sneaky bf, and when we walked by the VSF window one evening I saw "that look" in her eye. I think it was because they had these monster Peonies from New Zealand, before any other florist got Peonies in stock. Like any good spy, I didn't let on that I was paying attention. VSF hit it out of the park for me.

Credentials

• Their oldest client is Ralph Lauren.