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Well Mother's Day is here and I am certain as all-good adult children you have ordered your flowers for Mom. Well this is certainly the time of year to order flowers; Mother's Day is the all-time biggest day for the flower companies. But flowers is only one of the biggest gifts that people will give to women which makes online flower companies such as 1800flowers.com and ProFlowers.com some of the fasting growing companies to date.

They may be growing fast but are they worthy enough to handle your busy. This comparison may help you to find out.

According to Hoovers.com, 1800Flowers.com is not just an online site, but also a very large and successful company with several Web sites, over 130 million catalogs, and over 80 franchised and 15 company-owned shops that are mostly in California. Their main office is in New York.

They not only sell fresh flowers and plants, but Harry London gourmet chocolates, balloons, plush animals, gourmet snack items, greeting cards, home and garden gift and very expensive jewelry!

Founder and CEO James F McCann began his flower business in 1976, still controls 96% of the voting power and is very active in 1800flowers television and print ads.

If you don't like dealing with a website, you may call 1800flowers and conduct business with a live agent. Well trained agents will even suggest arrangement or gift items, if you should have it delivered early and deal with those problems that pop up like your flowers not arriving or the fact your roses got left on the delivery truck and now look like ashes.

Proflowers.com is one of 1800Flowers' largest competitors. They have been around since 1988 and their main office is in San Diego. Proflowers was a part of Providence Commerce before being bought out in 2006 by Liberty Media Corporation. ProFlowers.com also sells not only fresh flowers and plants but gourmet fruit and gift baskets, desserts and steaks, pork and seafood packages that can be sent anywhere.

I have purchased items through both companies and found many similarities and differences.

Both companies have online websites, friendly agents and very nice products. But I have to say I would have to side with 1800Flowers.com for several reasons.

1800Flowers have more products to choose from than ProFlowers. I might buy their seafood, pork and steak packets from ProFlowers, which 1800flowers.com doesn't carry but I don't think I would send meat or seafood as a birthday or Mother's Day gift. 1800Flowers has a better selection of gifs geared towards women whether it's Mother's Day or they just had a new baby. And if they can find a gift for my hard-to-shop-for-Mother-In-Law who hates fresh flowers, then they have my vote of an approval. (By the way, that gift was a gift 'basket' that was inside a large woven magazine basket filled with gourmet junk food and gardening items.) Proflowers does not carry items like the jewelry and their gift baskets aren't as inventive as 1800flowers since they mostly are fruit baskets. Lots of fruit. 1800flowers had items like a giant chocolate cover fortune cookie, cheesecake, a coffee-styled gift basket in a decorative tin and they even had a section for flowers for men! They win hands down in the variety-in-product category.

Prices were less at ProFlowers so if you were just looking for something quick and cheap, they would definitely be your place. 1800Flowers.com, on average, was at least $20 more expensive on their arrangements but their arrangements were larger than the ones that I received from ProFlowers. So less is definitely not more in this situation.

Freshness. Both companies' flowers arrived fresh and undamaged. ProFlowers' were a little wilted but I re-cut the stems and gave them more water and they were fine. What upset me about ProFlowers versus 1800Flowers was what I found out later. ProFlowers has their own network of suppliers and none of them are near where I live! 1800Flowers wire local florists so they are truly fresh when they arrive. Also, ProFlowers sent my arrangement, UNARRANGED. I have to arrange them myself. The vase, which I had to pay extra for, arrived in a separate box. 1800Flowers arrived via a local florist, already arranged and in the hands of the florist delivery woman. No box.

Live Agent Service. I also have to commend 1800Flowers on their professional and efficient phone service. I called their line to assure delivery and found myself a real live person and not an automated machine. A friend of mine and I both ordered arrangement from both 1800Flowers and ProFlowers. With ProFlowers, she, a military wife, ran into snags. Even though she ordered the flowers with her husband's credit card (who is in Iraq), she had them put her name as the person that she was ordering from. When she called to find out the status, ProFlowers refuse to let her now if her flowers were going to be on time! She didn't ask about credit card information, price or anything but an estimated time of arrival! ProFlowers told her, that she was going to have to email her husband in Iraq and have him check on the status even though it was noted that 'she' was the one that ordered the arrangement.

When I asked the 1800Flowers agent about this, I was informed that they had special programs for military families so this wouldn't occur. Besides, as long as she wasn't the recipient, they could tell her the status of the delivery.

Track Record: Nowhere in my research could I find any discrepancies in 1800Flowers practices as a company. I found two major lawsuits against ProFlowers by FTD for unfair practices and a class action lawsuit for deceptive marketing practices.
Whether or not this changes your mind or helps you make up your mind about flower ordering, that is up to you. But overall, between the two companies, I believe that 1800Flowers comes out smelling like a rose!

The above is a random extract from Associated Content, visit Associated Content for the actual writer of this article.

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A good area to attempt to economize at your wedding is table centerpiece arrangements. Here is a simple how to do it yourself wedding table centerpieces. Costco.com does sell rose centerpieces, but they are much more expensive than you might think – they are $399 for six arrangements and they do not look much different than that which you can easily do yourself.

Price around your local floral venues for roses. One of the cheapest options is the roses available at Costco, that are typically $18 for 2 dozen roses. This deal rarely can be beat, but you can try to see if any local competitors will price match. The colors vary, but you can always count on red roses being available. If you prefer another color, you may have to special order in advance. This may cost $139 plus shipping for 125 roses at costco.com in dark, light or bi-color pink roses, orange roses, bi-color orange, yellow, peach, peach and yellow, off-white or rainbow roses. This will give you ten dozen and a few spares. You can probably do one dozen per table centerpiece, but you can always use 18 to 24 roses per arrangement is you have enough roses.

Some Costco's will take reservations in advance for a set number of roses for no extra fee; others just are a first served first come basis. Inquire as to what your Costco does. A day or two before the wedding, purchase the roses from your local Costco. You can always remove a few outside dead or damaged petals, but for the best quality roses, try squeezing the rose bud and make sure it is firm and not mushy inside. Also check the stem just below the bud and make sure it is strong enough to hold up the head to make sure your roses look fresh when they open in a few days. You might want to get an extra bunch in case you make a mistake or a vase breaks or some roses wilt so that you can replace roses that do not bloom. If a rose does wilt or does not open, pull off all the petals and use these for the flower girls basket or strewn them around the table centerpieces you make or use them to decorate around the cake table, place card setting table, or other focal point. There are about 40 – 50 petals per rose depending on your decorating needs, a full $18 two dozen rose batch can get you up to 1,200 petals to decorate your wedding reception area with.

Put them in warmer water if you want to speed up how fast they open the day of the wedding, but keep them in cool water if you do not want them to open anymore. Otherwise, keep the flowers at about 35 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid extreme temperatures when you transport the flowers, air conditioning might be helpful; on the way over of the car is any warmer than 75 degrees. The colder the storage space, the better to conserve the flowers. Do not freeze the flowers; the heads will wilt when they thaw.

Before the wedding, look for vases on eBay, tag sales and estate sales, flea markets, or craft stores. A simple clear ginger vase should run you less than $10 at stores like Target or Michael's Craft. People often sell their vases that they got when someone sent them flowers, so you may be able to get matching ones on eBay or tag sales. Assess if the vase is the right width and height for your roses, the vase should be two thirds as high as the flowers in the vase.

You will want to keep your roses in tact while you transport them to the reception site. To do so, you will want a frog. This video shows you how to make a frog step by step.

If you have any flowers in your garden, you can add them to the arrangements or leave them as just classic roses that look very presentable for your wedding. If you wish to add some color or texture to a clear vase, consider the colored clear glass marbles (you can coordinate to your wedding colors) or gather small smooth pebbles or even sea glass or sea shells.

Have a large box and bubble wrap to transport the roses in their vases, leave plenty of room per box to protect the vases and arrangements. This will likely take having the boxes seat belted in on the back seat and the floor as well as the front seat. Depending on the size of your reception, you might need multiple trips or multiple people.

You total cost will be your vase (hopefully less than $10 per vase) and one dozen roses are $9 each, so for about $20 you can do your wedding table centerpieces. For more ideas for wedding floral savings, read the article How to Save money on your wedding flowers.

The above is a random extract from Associated Content, visit Associated Content for the actual writer of this article.

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I just wrote a few articles a preview of the films released in the next, like, Michael Clayton, and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. This is a list of new films the more you should look for or watch out for. Find out all you need about the film and see what I have to say.American GangsterDirected by Ridley ZaillianRelease Steven ScottWritten by date: November 2, 2007It's in the 1970s, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a drug kingpin in Manhattan is smuggling into the country in the coffins of the dead soldiers of the Vietnam War. It's up to one detective, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) to stop it. It's like a smart for Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. I still do not know what one of them had to come back from. I think that their last effort, of A Good Year is actually quite entertaining. All in all, I can not wait for this effort by the two – no, three big talents.More principal of castCuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky BarnesJosh Brolin as Detective TrupoRZA as JonesJohn Ortiz as Javy RiveraBee MovieDirected by Simon J. Smith and Steve HicknerWritten by Jerry Seinfeld, Andy Robin, Barry Marder and Spike FerestenRelease date: November 2, taking 2007Let A Bug's Life, replace each insect with a bee, use Jerry Seinfeld, and you have the Bee Movie. The idea did not seem so fresh. A flourist by the name of Vanessa (Renee Zellweger) can really understand what a bee, Barry Bee Benson (Seinfeld) said. Since then, both are almost inseperable. She makes him safe when he tried to better understand the human world. There is also this strange story of humanity and to sue to take back honey in the world. I hope that this is at least entertaining. This may not Ratatoille or even Toy Story, but definitely will funny.More of principal castChris Rock as the Broderick Mooseblood MosquitoMatthew as AdamKathy BensonJohn Bates as Janet Goodman as Layton T. MontgomeryHitmanDirected by Xavier GensWritten Skip WoodsRelease by date: November 21, 2007Based the Hitman series of video games, a man born and raised enough to kill. He called Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant). He is a professional assassin with a barcode tattoo on the back of his head. Suddenly, Agent 47 turned from hunter to prey. There was political upheaval. Both Interpol and the Russian military after 47. This movie can be thrilling, but it could be another stinker based games. Resident Evil series has been pretty good. I've got my fingers crossed that will not disrupt the Hitman movie too much.More from Scott as principal castDougray MikeOlga Kurylenko as NikaRobert Knepper as YuriUlrich Thomsen as Mikhail BelicoffMartian ChildDirected by Menno MeyjesWritten by Seth Bass and Jonathan TolinsRelease date: November 2, 2007Writer (John Cusack ) lost his fiancee. He found a small child, Dennis (Bobby Coleman) who thinks he's from Mars, and staying in the box. Cusack's character tries to adopt the child in an effort to create a family. This story is perhaps a bit too small to attract the attention of everyone, but I hope it does not attract the attention of some viewers. Cusack is my favorite actor. After 1408, I think he has turned into one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood today. More from Cusack castJoan principal as a sister characterAmanda Cusack's Peet as HarleeSophie Okonedo as SophieOliver Platt as Jeff Fred ClausDirected by David DobkinWritten by Dan FogelmanGrowing reached the North Pole is not easy for Fred (Vince Vaughn), because he was constantly compared to relatives children pious. As much as he tried, he could never measure up to Nicholas Claus (Paul Giamatti), who is perfectly holy. Fred get into trouble. Nicholas had to guarantee him. But there's a catch. Fred had to come back to the North Pole and repay his debt by making toys. The problem is that although he was not exactly elf material and with Christmas fast approaching, Fred's antics jeopardize not only the merriest time of year in the Arctic, but also for millions of people around the world. I'm kind of waiting for this, because what I enjoy the director, David Dobkin's previous film, Wedding Crashers. I've got my fingers crossed that this will be just as funny, but I do not want to get my hopes up.More of principal castMiranda ClausKevin Richardson as Mrs. Spacey as ClydeRachel WandaKathy Weisz as Fred Bates as Santa and MomMore November release to see forStephen The King's MistDirected by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile) Written by Frank Darabont from Stephen King novelRelease Date: November 23 2007Starring Thomas Jane as David Drayton, Alexa Davalos as Sally, Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries, and Chris Owen as NormEnchantedDirected by Kevin KellyRelease Bill LimaWritten by date: November 21, 2007Starring Amy Adams as Giselle, Robert Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden as Prince Edward, Timothy Spall as Nathaniel, and Susan Surandon as Queen NarissaLions to LambsDirected by Robert RedfordWritten by Matthew Michael CarnahanRelease date : November 9, 2007Starring Robert Redford as Dr. Stephen Malley, Meryl Streep as Janine Roth Tom Cruise as Senator Jasper Irving, Peter Berg as Wirey Pink, and Michael Pena as ErnestRelease date: November 9, 2007 releasesMichael 2007Other ClaytonDirected by Tony Gilroy; written by Tony Gilroy; released October 5, 2007; starring George Clooney, Sean Cullen, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney PollackThe Seeker: The Dark is RisingDirected by David L. Cunningham, written by John Hodge; released October 5, 2007; starring Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston, Ian McShane, Jonathon Jackson, and Amelia WarnerSleuthDirected by Kenneth Branagh; written by Harold Pinter; released November 9, 2007; starring Michael Caine and Jude Law30 Day of NightDirected by David Slade, written by Brian Nelson and Stuart Beattle; released October 19, 2007; starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston, and Craig HallWe Own a NightDirected by James GrayWritten by James GrayStarring Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby Green Mark Wahlberg as Joseph Grusinsky, Robert Duvall as Burt Grusinsky, Eva Mendes as Amada JuarezGone Baby GoneDirected by Ben AffleckWritten by Ben Affleck and Aaron StockardStarring Morgan Freeman as Jack Doyle, Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie, Michelle Monaghan as Angela "Angie" Gennaro Ed Harris as Detective Remy Broussard, and Robert Wahlberg as Detective Luck O'MalleyGood ChuckDirected by Mark HelfrichWritten by Josh StolbergStarring Dane Cook and Jessica AlbaResident Evil: ExtinctionDirected by Russell MulcahyWritten by Paul WAS Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Robert Kulzer, Bernd Eichinger, and Samuel HadidaStarring Milla Jovovich and Ali LarterAcross The UniverseDirected by Julie TaymorWritten by Julie Taymor, Dick Clement, Ian La FrenaisStarring and Evan Rachel Wood and Jim SturgessThe InvasionDirected by Oliver HirschbiegelWritten by Dave KajganichRelease Date: August 17 2007Starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig

Above is a random article extract from Associated Content. Visit Associated Content for the author.