FAQs

All flowers are graded. When a flower is harvested, it is evaluated for quality. The highest quality flowers are sent to professional florists - this is the grade that you'll get from Portland Wholesale Florist. Lower quality flowers, those with smaller heads and shorter stems are classified as 2nds or bouquet grade. These are sent to your mass merchandisers (Costco, Sam's Club and grocery stores) or to people who make the mass-produced low grade bouquets you see in grocery stores. Bouquet grade is what you get from Farmer's Markets - they maybe pretty but they typically have a 3 day vase life whereas flowers purchased from a professional florist will most often have 7 to 10 days (or more!) vase life.

When it comes to roses, the grading is based on based stem length.
Domestically grown roses are graded slightly different than our South American growers.