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Roses in Paris: the odd-numbered bouquet and how to choose one
Roses in Paris, like any French bouquet, arrive in an odd number of stems, eleven rather than ten, nineteen rather than twenty. The explanation usually given traces the habit to florists' shops, keen to set themselves apart from market sellers who sold flowers in even bunches. Count is a sensible place to start choosing, and colour, variety and height follow from there.
A Dutch hub, then Rungis: how roses reach Paris
About eighty per cent of the cut flowers sold in France are imported, and some eighty-two per cent of that import passes through the Netherlands, a trading hub rather than necessarily the field where the stems grew. A rose billed as Dutch usually describes the route it travelled, not where it was raised. The Dutch share has been slipping, from eighty-seven per cent in 2019 to eighty-two per cent in 2022, while Italy and Kenya each supply around four per cent; those figures cover cut flowers in general, not roses on their own.
Roses named for their origin, Ecuadorian ones among them, are sorted into Roses by Type: their long stems come from plantations high in the Andes. Paris florists buy much of their stock from wholesalers in the cut-flower pavilion at Rungis, just outside the city. At JFLOO the flowers for an order are bought only once payment has gone through, so the stems on their way to the recipient are something the sender first sees in a photo taken before the courier sets off.
Peony-shaped roses for the months French peonies are not cut
French growers cut peonies from late April to June. Outside that window, the full, many-petalled look comes instead from peony-shaped roses, mostly English varieties bred by David Austin and others close to them. Anyone set on the real flower, in season, can turn to peonies.
A rose sold as French is not a variety grown locally; the name describes a florist's technique, the outer petals turned back by hand to open the bloom wider. Both styles sit among Roses by Type, and bouquets that pair roses with other flowers belong under Mix Rose Bouquets.
Colour, height and bouquet shape: the choices after the count
Colour has its own section, roses by colour, and in France the rose is the flower most tied to Saint-Valentin, as the flowers in Paris section sets out more fully.
Stem length is sorted separately, under Roses by Height, and the overall shape of the bunch, tight or loose, falls under Roses by Bouquet Shape. For a gift meant to be the biggest thing in the room, Giant Rose Bouquets group the largest arrangements on their own.
Rose delivery in Paris is free in the centre; elsewhere a fixed zone charge applies and shows before payment, as set out on the delivery page. Most orders go out the same day they are placed, and the exact timing sits on the bouquet's own page rather than in this text. Once the roses are photographed, before the courier leaves, the sender can still ask for a different shade or a different stem; if a variety is unavailable the florist substitutes something close in colour and price, and that swap shows in the same photo.
A first order is easiest built around the count: roses by quantity lists eleven and nineteen stems as a normal run. For the French-finished look or a particular origin, roses by type sorts entries by Ecuadorian, Dutch-traded and French-style, and anyone after the single biggest gesture can go straight to giant rose bouquets.