UrbanStems Review 2024
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Which is better Bouqs or Urbanstems? Flower delivery can be pricey, and no one wants to send a lackluster bouquet. Both Bouqs and Urbanstems sell generally higher quality and more creative floral arrangements than the old-guard like FTD, but which one should you choose? I first published this post almost three years ago, and it it was definitely time for another review to see how each service measures up. This time around I ordered two bouquets from each, and one plant.
Bouquet Comparisons
First Bouquets
For the first round of bouquets, I didn’t set a price limit, and opted for a lush looking arrangement from each site. Comparison is a little difficult, as Urbanstems often doesn’t make clear how many stems are in an arrangement, while Bouqs offers standardized sizes, often with 3 options, from Regular to Grand.
I settled on Bouqs Grand size Summer Love bouquet ($79), and Urbanstems Regatta bouquet ($130, no size options). Despite the price difference, it seemed like the bouquets might be of similar size. I also added on a gift box of Sugarfina gummies to my Urbanstems order, an option that I wish Bouqs would offer!
Both bouquets were scheduled for delivery on the same day, and both arrived as scheduled. However, once I’d unpacked, trimmed and placed the bouquets in vases, something seemed…not right. The Urbanstems bouquet was markedly smaller than the Bouqs bouquet. I also thought I’d ordered a prettier arrangement in a different color palette.
I double checked my order info, and found that what they’d sent looked nothing like the bouquet I’d ordered. After some sleuthing on Urbanstems’ website, I found that they’d sent me the Firecracker bouquet, which sells for $60 less! When I contacted Urbanstems customer service about the mistake, they apologized and said that the Regatta wasn’t available (it’s not clear if someone just decided to make a substitution?), and gave me a store credit for the full amount of my order. Had I placed this order for someone else, I’m not sure this would have been entirely satisfactory, but for my purposes, it was a good-enough resolution.
And when comparing based only on price, I ended with two very similarly priced bouquets–the Urbanstems Firecracker, which sells for $70, and Bouqs Grand size Summer Love, which sells for $79.
The difference was striking: the Bouqs bouquet looked fresher and I struggled to fit all the stems in my vase. The Urbanstems bouquet was smaller, with shorter stems, and slightly older-looking. I noticed during my first review of the two that Urbanstems tends to ship flowers closer to fully bloomed, and while you might not notice the distinction at first, it absolutely shows up in the state of the bouquet after a week:
The Bouqs bouquet still looks pretty great after a week, with some flowers starting to brown around the edges. Unfortunately, the Urbanstems arrangement was done for, drooping, dropping pieces, and looking dry despite plenty of water.
Second Bouquets
For the second round of bouquets, I wanted to compare value priced options, and chose arrangements that came in under $50: the Sprinkles bouquet from Bouqs ($39), and the Godetia bouquet from Urbanstems ($45).
Once again, the Urbanstems bouquet was markedly smaller, and in this case, a little beat up. Several blooms fell off immediately, and one stem was bent. The Bouqs bouquet was less impressive at first, but quickly opened up and still looked amazing after a week. The Urbanstems bouquet continued to underwhelm, dropping blooms left and right.
While I did lean toward Bouqs during my first review, I was surprised to find such a clear winner this time around. Bouqs bouquets we fresher, larger, and a better value for the money.
Plant Comparisons
Though shipping plants can be expensive, I’ve sometimes considered sending a pretty plant rather than short-lived flowers. I was also curious how well houseplants would hold up during shipping.
So I ordered some plants to find out! I bought an Orchid from Bouqs and a Jade Plant from Urbanstems. This doesn’t make for a completely even comparison, but I’m happy to report that both arrived in great shape and are still thriving after a month on my windowsill.
Urbanstems shipped my Jade Plant wrapped in a mesh gift bag to prevent potting soil leakage, then wrapped in bubble wrap, and held in place in the shipping box by a long stick inserted into the pot.
This packaging was fairly effective as the plant itself arrived in great shape. The mesh bag wasn’t enough to keep the plant and soil firmly in the pot, though. There was a good amount of soil in the bag, and along the top of the planter, so that I needed to take the plant out on my balcony to unpack and clean it up.
All of the textured rope detailing on the pot made this a bit of a pain! It’s not quite the experience I’d hope for if I were sending a plant as a gift, but I do understand that it’s difficult to ship a plant while keeping all the soil in place.
Bouqs shipping of the Orchid was similar, but it felt a tad more professionally packed:
Shipping at Bouqs vs Urbanstems
Bouqs and Urbanstems ship their flowers in basically the same way: wrapped in plastic or paper and secured in a large cardboard box. They both include a note for the recipient if you’d like, flower food packets, and instructions for care of the flowers.
Urbanstems signature pink boxes are a little more attractive than Bouqs brown cardboard, but they’re both carefully and very similarly packaged.
When I had a delivery hiccup with Urbanstems during the first review, the service rep mentioned something about special packaging that was meant to keep the flowers hydrated, but my orders over that summer, and more recently in the spring, never included anything beyond the standard plastic cone wrap.
Bouqs tends to ship their flowers in bud form, or at least not quite fully bloomed, so that the recipient gets super fresh flowers that last longer. However, this means that their bouquets can sometimes be less impressive when you first open the box (this does vary though, my tropical Promenade bouquet was stunning from the start!).
Urbanstems, on the other hand, generally shipped their bouquets closer to fully bloomed, so that they were ready to display immediately. This can be nice, but it did also mean that some of my bouquets were less than fresh by the time they arrived…see the Quality section below for more details.
Quality at Bouqs vs Urbanstems
Quality-wise, I feel like they’re both sending high quality blooms, but I did have more frequent issues with the appearance of some of Urbanstems’ bouquets.
I think part of this issue comes down to the fact that Urbanstems seems to ship flowers that are closer to fully bloomed, as opposed to Bouqs practice of shipping flowers in bud form, or just shy of fully bloomed. Also, all of my orders for this review took place over the course of the summer, so it’s easy to see how the heat could affect delicate flowers in shipping.