Supermarkets are great if a little boring, simply because they have to stick to tried-and-tested varieties. A specialist florist can pick and choose from thousands of different flowers.

Price-wise you’ll often find a good florist will be just as reasonable – it’s a myth you need a second mortgage to buy from a florist – so whilst supermarkets are great for a quick, stuff-it-in-the-trolley fix we’d always say ‘see what the florist shop or stall has got’, support an independent trader and have a more fun buying experience.

These are the best people when it comes to flowers. Open at least 6 days a week they offer same day delivery and can make virtually any design you could ask for. If it’s a really special flower they’ll need a bit of notice, but 24 hours is usually enough.

Most florist shops – and certainly our GFG shops – will be staffed by fully trained florists (it takes five years to pass the exams) who design brilliantly and know all the right conditioning techniques to make sure your flowers last.

Are all shops good? Sadly not. We’ve seen some dreadful ones and wouldn’t want you to touch them with a barge pole. But then that’s exactly why we started Good Florist Guide 10 years ago!

Many street stalls, especially in trendy cities like London, Manchester Edinburgh et al are now very hipster and on trend. As a rule they’re usually a little bit cheaper because traditionally their overheads are lower.

However, as rent and rates go up so more florists have moved onto the street and are offering a full service. Therefore don’t expect to pay far less unless it’s one of those stalls that clears old stock, piles it high and sells it cheap.

These are often fully trained florists who don’t want the overhead and responsibility of a 9 – 5 shop. They do everything a shop based florist does but won’t always have a walk in service, offer same day delivery or have a ready to go range.

However it’s also a name adopted by a lot of wannabe florists (see Kitchen Sinkers/Basement Betty’s) so you need to be careful you are buying from a proper studio florist. Best rule of thumb is to check out their website and look at the pictures.

These are the florists that specialise in the sort of drop dead gorgeous design work you see at weddings, parties, fashion shows, product launches and film premiers.

Catering for the glitterati as well as us mere mortals these florists offer a completely bespoke service and will be totally dedicated to your special event so it will probably be ‘by appointment’ only.

Some wonderful florists have started from home, but they quickly moved into a studio or shop. However, along with bad shops (the ones who don’t appear in our GFG!) the bad Kitchen Sinkers are a group of people we want to save you from.

They work from home, often buy the flowers from supermarkets and their training can be just a few You Tube videos. While they think they know what they are doing, they often don’t, and can let customers down badly, especially on weddings. There are some good ones out there but in the main we would say avoid.

Carnations and cheap roses that have been sitting in stagnant water for days! We aren’t even going to go there … and neither should you; especially if you’re a chap and wanting to make an impression.

We know they try hard but in our opinion the gift of garage flowers is desperation wrapped up in cellophane.