FTD + UPS = Wilted Flowers

I don't know what genius at FTD thought that UPS would be a good way to deliver flowers.

Books, yes. Canned tuna, yes. Anything that is hardy enough to take being on a truck from 7 in the morning until reaching its destination at 4 in the afternoon.

But not flowers. Not delicate, living organisms.

The first delivery, when I thought their specification of UPS odd but figured that they'd worked it out, wound up with practically dead flowers on my mother's doorstep. All but 2 gave up the ghost by the next day.

The replacement delivery, set up by an aghast and sympathetic FTD representative on the phone, suffered the same fate. Not quite as wilted, perhaps, with a few more living the next day.

It wasn't as if I were trying to get orchids delivered. These were sunflowers, some of the hardiest flowers around.

Overall, FTD's experiment is a gigantic failure and one that assures I will avoid them like the plague in the future.