Laurel's On Whyte — Local services in Edmonton

Beware of purchasing flowers from this business if you have pets or small children coupled with a lack of knowledge of flowers. They sold my husband lillies and asked no clarifying questions as to whether or not he had any vulnerable parties at home that could be poisoned by the lillies. We have a cat. As soon as I saw he brought lillies home I immediately got rid of them. I called to share my concerns and was told it's not their policy to ask every customer who buys lillies if they understand that they're poisonous. I don't see why they doubled down on this position. It's a simple and easy thing they could be doing to avoid this problem in the future.

Edited to respond to the response

Your example of this being the same as managing a food allergy is incorrect. In restaurants servers ask their tables if anyone has any allergies. Simple clarifying questions can easily improve a customer's experience with your business and your obstinacy is concerning. Even Made By Marcus employees ask if you have any allergies before serving you ice cream. Lillies being poisonous is unfortunately not common knowledge. Nowhere near as common knowledge as nut or gluten food intolerances, making your point moot twice over. It certainly won't be good for business if you continue to assume it is common knowledge and one day someone accidentally poisons a pet.

My husband clearly stated that he didn't know anything about flowers and still was not asked any clarifying questions that could have avoided his kind gesture turning into this stressful situation. It does not matter that you have successfully provided flowers to veterinary clinics if you refuse to acknowledge that the average person might not have the experience or knowledge to navigate flower safety on their own.

Second edit And as now your response has disappeared entirely, I can only continue to assume negative things about your customer service. Seriously I can't get over how a florist could have an opportunity to educate people about flower safety, providing good customer service, and not only miss that opportunity but also dig their heels in that they take no responsibility when selling...

Wanted to support a local business for my mom's birthday instead of going to a big retailer and was very disappointed. There wasn't a lot of room on the website to add special requests. I didn't want any white flowers for cultural reasons. Never received a call or email or text to say if that was possible or not. So I called in and asked and the gentleman said that the white flower was removed. Didn't tell me if it was replaced or what it was replaced with. I asked that it not be chrysanthemum and he tersely replied that I hadn't specified that. I explained that there wasn't enough room on the website and that I thought someone would call me. He said "fine, I'll take it out". I asked if there were any on there, and he said he didn't know. All in all it was not a very pleasant phone interaction.

When I went to pick up it looked like the flowers had seen better days and were a little brown along the edges. The "white flower" was replaced with a yellow carnation - which I thought was tacky and cheap. It was also a rose instead of an orchid which was the main reason why I ordered it. The gentleman was completely unapologetic and just said that "it says on our website". The lady there was very sorry and said that they just didn't have any orchids right now. I'm aware that the website says "Flower varieties are dependent on availability." but it would have still been nice to have been advised when I called about my order.

I really like the arrangements on the website and I found the price to be reasonable. I really wanted this to be my go to place, but I guess I will have to find...

Laurel's On Whyte floral shop in Edmonton does not disappoint! Ordering floral arrangements from Calgary for a friend in Edmonton couldn't have been easier, either online order or by phone. Last Christmas, when I left ordering flowers to the very last minute, and when other florists in Edmonton were not able to fulfil my order, Laurel's came through with no issues at all, even though my order was the week before Christmas. Realizing that their stock had been depleted by then (they didn't have anything left in red), and that their staff was harried and being rushed off their feet, I simply asked for a festive floral arrangement at their own choosing with what they had to work with, within my price range, and to have it delivered in time for Christmas. The owner himself assured me that they'd have it delivered on time. Left to their own creative devices, the arrangement turned out stunning and, coincidentally, it's light pastel colours matched my friend's Christmas tree's ornamentals almost perfectly! We couldn't have been happier with it. The photo attached here is the latest arrangement which I ordered for my friend's birthday. As she is originally from Mexico, I asked that the bouquet have a good variety of colours contained within it. Again, they came through with a beautiful and varied assortment of flowers. My friend was delighted with both the surprise and the bouquet, as was I when I received this photo. Laurel's On Whyte remains my trusty "go-to" florist...