A Big Disappointment with My 'Semitsvetik' Bouquet - Wilted in Just One Day

Hello!

This is one of those rare cases where I just have to share my terrible experience with everyone.

So, let me show you this video first:

How many days do you think this bouquet lasted? 3? 4? 5? Or a whole week, and it's already looking like it's ready to be chucked out?

THIS BLOOM LASTED FOR 1 DAY!!!

From the video, you can already see that some of the roses have dry leaves. Every single bloom has wilted and died. It might look like it just sat on the table for a day, but nope. The stems were carefully trimmed to an inch and placed in room-temperature water. The roses weren't exposed to direct sunlight or a heater. The apartment's around 20°C, so they weren't overheating either.

The flowers were a gift, so I won't be able to evaluate the ordering system, but I'll give my overall thoughts on the website, delivery, and bouquet quality.

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WEBSITE and PRODUCT ASSORTMENT

The website is pretty user-friendly and easy to navigate. You can sort flowers and bouquets by various criteria. For example, you can choose all 25 red roses or all 50 white roses. Or just browse through the roses.

The product assortment is quite big and, I assume, seasonal. There are plenty of classic 'wreaths' (excuse me, but after my experience, I've got a hard time calling these flowers anything else) made of giant bunches of roses that I've always thought looked tacky. There are more exotic options, like a bouquet of roses that's as tall as I am (yes, there are options with roses that are 150cm tall). There are bouquets with other flowers too, so customers should be able to find something that suits their taste.

The bouquet I received consisted of 25 Kenyan red bush roses, according to the website. There was no packaging info in the product card, so I assume they charged extra for it. The current price for this bouquet without packaging is 1750 rubles due to some promotion, but I think it could always cost that much. That's a normal price for a mid-range flower shop with high foot traffic.

One thing that stood out to me about the bouquet was the branded satin ribbon used in its design. It's kind of like buying a bag from a supermarket - you pay for the bag, and the store gets to advertise their brand on it. I think it's a clever move by the store to get their brand out there. It's almost like the store is saying, 'Hey, we're proud to be delivering this to you, and we want you to know it's from us.'

Delivery of Flowers from Semitsvetik St. Petersburg ReviewsDelivery costs either 300 or 500 rubles. 300 rubles if you're flexible with the delivery time, and 500 rubles if you want the flowers delivered at a specific time.

DELIVERY

I'm used to getting a call from the delivery person before they arrive. It's a nice touch that lets you know someone is on their way. But with Semitsvetik, I didn't get a call beforehand. Maybe it was the person who ordered the flowers calling to confirm I was home, but I could have easily ignored the call and not answered the door.

It would have been nice if they had called beforehand, especially since it was a special occasion and I was expecting the delivery. After hearing the doorbell, I could have easily ignored it or thought it was someone trying to break in.

The flowers were wrapped in paper, and the delivery person unwrapped them in front of me. I'm not sure if they were wrapped in paper at the bottom as well, but that's an important detail for my investigation.

They also gave me three helium-filled balloons, which cost 80 rubles each. The flowers were chosen by the person who ordered them.

I don't have a good photo, but here's a quick selfie to show that I received the flowers:

Delivery of flowers Semitsvetik St. Petersburg Reviews My Pikachu socks still didn't know what was coming their way - that the next morning I'd be feeling the same emotions as they did.

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WHAT I GOT DELIVERED AND WHAT THIS ARRANGEMENT TURNED INTO

I got a pretty bouquet delivered. It looked fresh, and I was convinced it'd stay perky for at least 3 days. Looking back at the first photos, some of the flowers might've been looking a bit wilted, but they held up well. Every single one of them stood tall and proud, just like fresh roses should.

Delivery of flowers Semitsvetik St. Petersburg Reviews There were multiple blooms on each stem, and they were all fully open. That's a minor minus in the 'expectation vs reality' department - I hate those big, fluffy rose bunches. My guy knows that about me. I'd much rather have one showy rose or a cluster of smaller, bushy ones. The website makes the bouquet look brighter, with more greenery and delicate flowers that look lovely against the foliage. The actual bouquet, though, is more like a standard bunch of small roses, each one on its own stem. Kind of the type that glamorous Instagram influencers love to pose with. After I got the bouquet, I removed the wrapping paper and ribbon, trimmed the stems with gardening scissors, and put it in a room-temperature water. It looked great until evening, when I brought home a new vase and noticed the roses had started to wilt a bit. I didn't think much of it at the time - I was tired, after all.

But the next morning, I walked into the kitchen to find my lovely bouquet had turned into a sorry excuse for a floral arrangement.

Delivery of flowers Semitsvetik SPB Reviews Only one stem out of 25 survived, and that's on the backdrop of others looking okay. But when I pulled it out and took a closer look, it looked just like the rose I brought home three days ago. Delivery of flowers Semitsvetik SPB Reviews Check out these three different flowers for comparison. On the left is the wilted rose from this bouquet. In the middle is the one that survived the best. On the right is a regular large rose I bought separately, and I treated it the same way as the bouquet before putting it in a vase. Delivery of flowers Semitsvetik SPB Reviews So, how could this happen to the bouquet? I'm going to take a stab at three possible reasons, although I'm no florist and can't say for certain. One possible reason is that the flowers froze. On the day of delivery, it was below freezing outside. That means there should have been conditions in place to transport them safely. Some kind of thermal box or something to keep the flowers from freezing while the driver was running around delivering and leaving the car unheated. The wilted roses kind of point to this. I've had flowers like this before that I got on dates in the winter, and I carried them around for a couple of hours outside. Another possible reason is that they got wilted during transport. I wrote about the packaging, but I'm not sure if the stems were bare at the bottom or not. If they were, it's anyone's guess how long they were left exposed before they got to me. I did trim the stems, but maybe 1-1.5 cm wasn't enough in this case.Another possible reason why the flowers didn't last long could be that I was simply given old flowers. Or maybe it was just a combination of everything. I mean, only 5-6 out of 25 flowers had wilted, and one of them was still looking pretty fresh the next day. The rest just withered away. So, it's possible that it was just a coincidence.

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WHY NOT JUST CONTACT THE SHOP

On their website, they claim to guarantee the quality of their flowers. But I got stuck because I didn't actually order the flowers - I received them as a gift, so I could only complain to the person who gave them to me. I didn't want to upset the person who was going out of their way to surprise me, especially since they're from a different city. Imagine you put in all the effort to choose the perfect flowers, get them delivered, and everything seems great for a day or two. But then, your partner finds them wilted and clearly not due to poor care. You wanted to bring a smile to their face for a few days, and instead, you get a bunch of dead flowers on the carpet while you're sleeping.

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THE VERDICT

For me, flowers are a symbol of attention. My partner often travels for work, and he tries to surprise me with flowers before he leaves, so I can think of him a little longer. In the past, he used to send me fruit baskets quite frequently, but after about 15 times, I got a bit tired of them (I just lost interest in eating fruit - I couldn't keep up). I confessed as much, and he started sending me flowers instead. On one delivery, he tried something new due to various reasons, but the quality of the flowers never disappointed me.

I'm still fuming about the experience with 'Semitsvetik' this time around. What was meant to be a celebratory gesture turned into a disaster. I have no idea what went wrong, but it seems their beautiful bouquet turned into a wilted bunch of dry stems the next day. Needless to say, we'll never be ordering from them again, and I'll be sharing this horror story with all my friends. There's nothing worse than gifting a present, only to find out it's defective and can't be returned.

Semitsvetik St. Petersburg Reviews