When people send flowers to a loved one, they write heart-felt messages on the card to show their true feelings. To make it even more personal, the sender might also put in a few inside jokes. While the receiver will understand and appreciate them, there's no telling what the florist will think.
Florists on Reddit share the weirdest message they've ever had while delivering flowers. Content has been edited for clarity.
This Guy Needs To Take A Hint
“One of the most memorable ones was having a guy come in to drop off his note for the flowers we were delivering for a friend’s birthday. The note turned out to be a six-page letter, and apparently they are only ‘just friends’ because she had turned him down before.
Then a couple of weeks, later it’s almost Valentine’s Day and he comes by again to order flowers for her and drop off another lengthy letter. We congratulate him because we thought that they must be together now but nope. She has a boyfriend now and he still wanted to send her flowers on Valentine’s Day.
Another one that was outrageous, but more so because of what was in the message. It was on 5/20, and it was significant because he had 52 hundred dollar bills. This guy wanted us to wrap each individual rose in the bouquet. He said he wanted to show his girlfriend how much he loved her, and he knew she also loved money. So he wanted his girlfriend to be able to pluck out each individual bill and be able to get the message of his love.
We have done money bouquets before but with significantly less money. So we told him we would do it only if he stood there and watched because we weren’t comfortable with that amount of money. We told him that it would take at least an hour, but he didn’t really have the patience to wait that long so he just ended up paying for the 99 roses and we never knew how he ended up presenting the money.”
If Only He Knew
“The first time I ever sent flowers, I was about 18-years-old. I ordered online and had no concept that a florist would have to write out my message. I assumed it would be printed by computer and they barely have to look at it.
I left the sappiest, long-winded, rambling confession of my undying love. When I visited the girl I’d sent the flowers to, I saw that the florist had taped pieces of paper into the card to extend the handwritten message.
I was so mortified, thinking someone but she had read what I wrote.”
There’s So Much Happening At This Store
“When I worked as a florist, we had several interesting ones that stood out:
An arrangement for a new baby, in this case, twins: ‘I’m sorry for the bad news. Good luck!’
The best part was they asked for a sympathy arrangement instead of one of the new baby-themed ones.
The dead roses’ arrangement accompanied by ‘These roses are as black as your heart, brat.’ The note on the order said to make the arrangement as dead-looking and ‘goth’ as possible.
Valentine’s Day is a florist’s most dreaded week, and the cards are always really sappy, generic, or embarrassing which provided us a lot of amusement. We also bring on extra help for the week, and one year we had an Irish guy answering phones and manning the register while we furiously worked to create hundreds of arrangements a day in the back. This led to some interesting conversations, as the accent created some miscommunications.
Someone dictated a card to him that was something like ‘I can’t wait to see you tonight, I’m counting down the time on the clock ;)’ (they also literally said winky face). The Irish guy asked him several times to repeat the message to be sure it was right, then there was a long pause and he had to mute the phone and laugh.
After the call, he said the guy resorted to spelling out the message but had a little mishap and said ‘It’s CLOCK, C-O-C-K! Clock!’
And from then on whenever someone asked the time we’d all say check the C-O-C-K!
There was a guy who sent a dozen red roses to this girl every week, which is a lot of money but not too unusual for some couples. However, the girl didn’t want them, and my delivery driver often said last week’s flowers were still on the porch. One week, she called us and asked us to stop delivering to her as she had a restraining order out on the guy, and that we could just donate the flowers somewhere.
His next message was ‘I’m sorry I came to your house last night, please don’t call the police. Love, Nightmare Guy.’
We refused the order but I still think about how thick this guy was to spend thousands on a girl who had an actual restraining order against him.”
That’s Not A Funny Joke
“Got a call from a soon to be bride (next day) on my work phone at stupid O’clock. She is bumbling, perhaps hammered, and there are loads of noise in the background. It took me a while to get what she was talking about. The groom had sent her a bouquet of flowers, the card read ‘I don’t.’
Well great.
Now I’m in bed panicking (waking up my ex), and I scrambled to locate and contact the groom. I get through to his number (he was sleeping (hungover) as I had been and slept through missed calls ‘apparently’), and he’s annoyed and confused.
I think my words were ‘John what is going on? Why did send flowers like that?’
Turns out one of his groomsmen had sent them as a joke. Like a stag party joke. Everyone and I mean everyone was furious. So yeah the entire Bridal party had less then 3 hours sleep before the big day, myself included. It was an intense day.
The amount of messed up things I’ve seen at weddings is unreal.”
Something Extra Was Included
“A lady I work with had three dozen roses delivered. The note came with a key. The note said ‘By the time you get these I’ll be moved out.’ Her fiancé had packed up and moved out of their shared apartment. Oh, but it gets better.
They had a joint checking account. He drained it that morning, bought the three dozen roses using overdraft protection. When her paycheck was direct deposited that night half her check went to pay for the flowers.”
Why Was This Printed?
“My aunt (by marriage) is a real piece of work. She and my uncle had a bit of a falling out with my grandparents over something pretty trivial. I think it was about the fact the TV was on during Christmas dinner, or something else completely unimportant. Anyway, about a year or so after this, my grandfather died of a heart attack, so my aunt sent flowers to the funeral.
The message on the card read:
‘The old guy got what he deserved.’
Why the heck the florist decided to actually print this, I will never know.”
Two Heartbreaking Experiences
“I worked at a flower shop in high school. This shop was big on only using handwritten cards, nothing printed and the cards we used were small.
Well, this person called in, ordered flowers and said they wanted to email in what was to be said. It was a several page long heartfelt apologies for a lifetime of messing up. I was handwriting it and had to stop because I was crying so much. Another girl working there read through it and was bawling as well. This man had messed his life up so in every way possible, burned every bridge possible, knew there was no one to blame but himself, and was desperately trying to reconnect to his parents who he still deeply loved. I will never forget reading that. Wow
Another not so fun experience was a mother came in to plan her teen daughter’s funeral, no idea how she died but it was obviously sudden and unexpected.
The poor mother while planning, started saying over and over really fast ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this.’
She then ran outside the glass door and collapsed on the ground in complete agony while her friend cried with her and rubbed her back. Man. That was heartbreaking.”
Did He Ever Realize It Wasn’t A Joke?
“Last year, I gave a gravestone maker the weirdest request he’d probably ever had.
So a friend of mine commissioned a new stone for a grave. ‘Message blah blah blah, from her name and husbands name, grandchildren X and Y, and great-grandchild Z.’ Except they messed it up. They got everything right, then wrote, ‘granddaughters X, Y, and Z.’
It’s not what my friend paid for, but it’s not so bad, right?
One of the ‘granddaughters’ is male. Hence, why it said grandchild in what was commissioned. I will admit, grandson has a feminine name – it’s a shortened version of a longer name that happens to be a primarily female name.
Anyway, they wanted a correction and I was going to be near the gravestone making place. I had to ask a guy to commission this-
‘Correction, from grandson (feminine name) and (name of obvious non-human), the grandson’s dog.’
A heart-shaped gravestone message starting with the word ‘Correction.”
The guy thought it was a joke. He acted completely fine in the meeting, took all the details and everything, gave the price. But the family was chasing him up for months afterwards because it was so late. He said he wasn’t doing it, he hadn’t started, because he actually thought it was a joke.
Because ‘that’s an odd message’ and ‘that’s a female name.’
My guy, when people are paying you an insane amount of money for stone for someone’s grave, you freaking do it whether you think it’s a joke or not I had offered him the money upfront. I showed him it was the money the family gave me in case upfront payment was needed.
Still thought it was a joke.
Dude.
Who the heck would joke about that?”
Not That Type Of Band Camp
“At my first shop, we had a guy call in Valentine’s week and buy an arrangement for his wife and his mistress. It was deeply tempting to switch those cards.
Another memorable one had to do with a swingers club in town. It was an extremely wealthy blue blood New England town. One summer, a bunch of people in town were sending arrangements to each other with cards saying things like ‘Can’t wait for band camp!’ Or ‘You’ll have to show me that new instrument at band camp’
We were all confused, thinking What the heck is band camp?
A year later, I meet a dog walker that serviced the same town, and she had been invited to a ‘band camp’ party. They basically collect blue-collar workers and try to sleep with them, and each other while a live band plays. She caught on what was going on when the local ice cream parlor guy tried to entice her with ice cream to back to his house.”
Always Spell Check
“My best was named our state’s ‘Teacher of the Year.’ I called a florist to send a big balloon bouquet to her at her school (she’s in another city), and said the card should read, ‘I always knew you were the best there is!’
As we finalized the order, I asked the woman to read the card back to me and she said, ‘I always knowed you was the best they is!’
I’m not even kidding.
We had to go through the whole inscription word by word with me telling her how each one should be spelled. Fortunately, it was correct on arrival but wow, for a teacher.”
She Must Have Been So Confused
“I think my note either outraged or perplexed the florist who worked with my order.
I ordered flowers for my mom’s birthday online, and selected the ‘add a not;” option. My note was supposed to say ‘Hyvää syntymäpäivää, äiti!’ (‘Happy birthday, Mom’ in Finnish).
My mom was in Russia at the moment and I’m guessing the software that Russian florist company was using couldn’t read all the ‘ä’s’ and replaced them with ‘#&228;’
So my mom ended up receiving a nice bouquet of flowers and a note that said ‘Hyv#&228; #&228; syntym#&228;p#&228;iv#&228;#&228;, #&228;iti!'”
Jimmy’s First Stalker Call
“I once delivered to this nice fancy home in lower Denver area of Highlands Ranch back about 12 years ago. This particular arrangement was just a bowl vase and six red roses in it. So I knock on the door as usual. But the lady answers without opening the door.
‘Who is it!?’ She was basically yelling.
So I reply as loud as I can to whoever is on the other side of the door that I’m with a flower delivery service.
Instead of opening the door as I expected, they yelled back said: ‘What is it?!’
Okay, I thought. ‘Just a bunch of roses ma’am.’
She doesn’t open the door either at this time and instead yells, ‘Well who is it from!?’
So I reply I really don’t know who it’s from, as I am just the delivery driver.
‘Well, you can read the card for me?’ the woman yells back.
So I read the card out loud, and it said it was something along the lines of ‘in another world, we belong or are a perfect match.’ It was signed some women’s name.
So she then says, ‘Oh no. She can’t come within so-and-so amount of feet from this house! Just take away the flowers just throw them away! And please leave!’
Well, I just didn’t know what else to do except well leave. So I did. Called my boss immediately as I drove away and told him the story hoping I wasn’t in trouble.
My boss says, ‘Oh Jimmy we got us a stalker call.’
And that was my young self growing up.”
Keep It Clean
“I sent a very explicit message to my significant other via an online order of flowers. I got a call from a very angry florist, telling me that I couldn’t write such lewd things in the card. We haggled a bit, and he allowed me to sign the card with ‘Your #1 Nasty Man.'”
Started As Creepy, Ended As Sweet
“I’m female and straight. My (female) friend had been going through a lot and working overtime to help a lot of other people. So I wrote her a long note of appreciation and put it in her letterbox myself, and got the florist to send her flowers with a card saying ‘from your secret admirer.’
Unfortunately, she didn’t check the letterbox. For a few hours, she was convinced the flowers came from her boyfriend but eventually she believed he was telling the truth that it wasn’t him. Then she freaked out, and the next day called the florist to find out the identity of the flower sender. The florist wouldn’t tell her directly but gave her clues to my name until she got it.
A week later, she still hadn’t checked the letterbox and I had to literally tell her housemate to do so. Then it finally turned from creepy into sweet but… I think the creepy overshadowed the sweet in the end.”
Something Sneaky Going On Here
“At my work, we do balloon deliveries. This one lady placed an order and the card was relatively mundane, something about how she had a good time at a meeting, thanked the receiver for making it so enjoyable, and that she couldn’t wait to see him again.
But she purchased our Lover’s Deluxe combo, full of heart balloons. This put the whole card message in a different light. Suddenly it read like thinly veiled flirting, and we were all pretty sure the ‘meeting’ was an affair hookup. When we dropped it off at the guy’s office the secretary’s face confirmed our suspicions.”
Something Didn’t Add Up
“When I worked for Edible Arrangements, I had this woman come in and buy an arrangement for a guy to be delivered at his work. It had a sweet little card message, so I knew it was a girlfriend and boyfriend kind of deal. I made the arrangement and delivered it myself.
Dude had a unique name, so the next week when an order came in with the same name, I knew it was the same guy. But his arrangement and lovey-dovey message was written and made out to delivery to some girl that wasn’t the first one.”
A Funny Tradition
“I was covering the front desk when a florist dropped off an arrangement of blue and yellow flowers in a hurry. No name, no office number, just the address.
Wait, there’s a card. Maybe that’ll give me a clue.
‘Congratulations, I hope your member falls off. — Roger’
No help. I’ll just set them aside and let the regular receptionist deal with it after her lunch.
It only took one glance at the card before she called Mark, one of the company lawyers.
Reception: ‘Hi, Mark! You got flowers again. It says, ‘Congratulations, I hope your member falls off.’ All right, see you soon.’
After shredding the card, the receptionist explained. Mark and his brother Roger had a running bet over any Michigan vs. Ohio State game; Loser had to send the winner flowers.
The next time Michigan, won the card read ‘Congratulations, I hope you hurt your butt.”
She Send Two For A Reason
“I used to work in a distribution warehouse for a department store while I was in college. My first position there was packing and shipping, so putting things in boxes. One time I got a bin that had these two gorgeous dresses. Like absolute black-tie gala type gowns. I gently put them in a garment box, tissue paper, everything. Before I sealed it up, I notice there is a note printed from my ticket area.
‘The blue one is for Christmas, black for the funeral. Can’t wait to see you, XOXO Grandma.’
I put the note in one of the neat little envelopes and tried to never think about it again.”
The Things They Read
“I used to do temp work all the time. During every Christmas season, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day I worked for a flower delivery company. People went wild on the cards thinking no one else would read them. We would get all kinds of crazy stuff, most specifically butt stuff.
We’d occasionally get the weird family inside joke but most people would go into crazy detail about their personal lives. It was great.”
Maybe Next Time They’ll Write Something
“One was literally just today. It said ‘Yay. You started!’ The man was pumped that his lady had started her period.
Sometimes people (mainly men) come in and slap money on the counter and tell me ‘Write something nice on the card.’
In my eyes, that’s pathetic and infuriating. You mean to tell me you can’t come up with anything to say to this person that you love and care for? You’re making the effort to send flowers, it takes almost zero extra effort to tell them you love them on the card. Or, just sign your darn name! I try to convince them to write something…anything!
But, if they insist that I write ‘whatever I want’ on the card, then I do just that. I’ve made outlandish promises, pledged undying love, written poems that make no sense. No regrets. They deserve it. Next time maybe they’ll write their own card. I’ve got my faithful repeat-customers trained now. Fill out the card or I’ll write some crazy nonsense.”
That’s A Good Neighbor
“When I (a 22-year-old female at the time) was in a volatile relationship, I lived in an upstairs apartment. One night after a lot of screaming and banging around, my downstairs neighbor who I didn’t know came to check on me and make sure I was okay. I screamed at her to go away and slammed the door.
The next day I sent her some flowers with a card saying, ‘I’m sorry for telling you to f* off I appreciate you making sure I’m not dead.’”
Saving Some Money
“I had gone to college, and returned home, and depended on my parents a bit too much. We’re not a big card/gift/holiday recognition family. I got my live together and moved to another city to start a career.
Still didn’t go home often, or send cards or gifts, but one Mother’s Day I decided, now that I was a little self-sufficient to send some flowers, a couple of hundred miles away.
I asked for the card(s) to say something like, ‘Mom, thanks for everything…’ (next) ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ (next card please…) ‘Happy Birthday!’ (next…) ‘Happy anniversary!’ (next…) etc…
I think there were a dozen or so occasions I commemorated with the one bouquet. Reflecting back on it now, maybe I was too cheap.”
He Needs To Stop
“My mom is a florist, and she always got orders for arrangements, sometimes more than one at once, from a guy who would always have them delivered to a girl he really, really liked or rather was in love with. This guy wouldn’t ever stop, even if she never gave anything back or went out with him. I worked at the same place at the time and it was pretty frequent.”
A Free Gift
“I’m a delivery driver. I had a note that said something like, ‘I’m so sorry and love you so much.’
I ring the doorbell for delivery, and an undressed dude, using the door to hide behind, answers ‘Umm… we don’t need those. That’s not from me.’
‘Well, sir… if I just leave them at the door, and you remove the note, we still get paid and you have flowers to give as a present?’
‘Oh… yeah, just leave them there then. Thank you!’
An odd moment for sure.”
She Got A Kick Out Of Those
“When my husband and I first started dating, he would send me flowers and he would always do unconventional cards.
One time it was ‘Roses are red, violets are blue, booty booty booty, rocking everywhere.’
Then another time he just had them write ‘something funny.’
I laughed so hard my coworkers thought I lost my mind. I can only imagine what the florist was thinking.”
What’s Going On Here Bill?
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“One Valentine’s Day at the bakery, we had ‘Bill’ order a cake with a dirty message to be delivered to ‘Susan.’ Then ‘Tina’ called later and ordered chocolate covered strawberries with a dirty message to be delivered to Bill. It was definitely the same Bill because the phone numbers matched, and Susan and Tina had different numbers and billing addresses so I don’t think they were the same person with a nickname or anything.
Always wondered whether it was a poly thing or whether Bill is a scumbag.”