Tesco Orchard

I have been a member of the Tesco Orchard Panel for quite a while now, and had some really great things to try free of charge including cheese (Rob’s favourite) and flowers (probably not Rob’s favourite)  The latest campaign they have been running is Fresh Flowers.

Rob doesn’t buy me flowers on a regular basis.  He says it is because he likes to surprise me, and if he gets me them all the time they won’t mean anything.  To a certain point I agree, but I do love having fresh flowers around the house.  Unfortunately my favourite flowers are lilies and Rob has severe hayfever which means I can’t have them in the house.

I was brought up around supermarkets.  My parents met as Management trainees at a chain of well- known supermarkets, and when we were little we went to work with my Dad on a regular basis.  Rob still maintains that my use of the phrase “out of code”* is abnormal!  This means that I have an eye for a bargain and we do try to pop into stores at the time products are reduced.  Tesco often have reduced flowers, sometimes down to as little as 50p per bunch which is an amazing bargain.

Tesco has always been one of our favourite stores for flowers.  They are normally quite well stocked, regardless of the size of the store, and it is quite rare that we go there and find that there is nothing we like.  However, for us, it has been the longevity of the flowers that has really attracted us to them.    Even the reduced options I have mentioned above tend to last at least 2 weeks, sometimes longer. 

I was sent a voucher to purchase a full cost bunch of flowers, plus some money off ones which I haven’t yet used.  The £5.00 voucher I spent on a bunch of beautiful lilies for my Mum when we went round there for my birthday celebrations.  We were both pretty impressed with the size of the bunch for the £5.00 that it cost us- we got about 6 large stems, none of which were out.  My only minor criticism, which makes no difference to me, is that none of the bunches had any stems in bloom.  Personally I like this as it means they last longer, but it does mean they look a bit bland so if you are getting them as a gift it might not necessarily work.

Directly after giving them to my Mum I went away for about 2 ½ weeks, providing her with strict instructions to monitor the life span, size of the flowers, and quality of the bloom.  Silence for the whole duration of my trip.  When I returned I anxiously contacted her, thinking she had forgotten and I was going to be left without a picture.  To my surprise I got a response (on the 14^th) saying that they had all bloomed beautifully, the scent was very fresh, fragrant and long-lasting, and that they were only just getting to the point where they needed to be thrown away.  I was shocked.  

As you can see from the picture the colours, size of the heads, and the amount of flowers, is superb, especially for the princely sum of £5.00. 

Mum is now a convert, like us, to Tesco flowers.  It is rare that I will recommend Tesco over my beloved Waitrose but in this case Tesco is a clear winner.  They have got it all; great range, low cost, long lasting, and beautiful to boot.  Thanks Tesco Orchard for giving me the opportunity to try out these flowers free of charge.  Now I just need Rob to use those discount vouchers I still have remaining and purchase some for me.


*Rob's note: Normal people say that food is "out of date".  "Out of code" is jargon that I've only ever heard used by Emma's family.