The Rise of Letterbox Flowers

We make cards, pin badges and prints in the UK, all of them flat enough to post. We don't sell flowers, so the guide below is a straight guide - the cards and prints at the end are the only things we're selling.

In 2013 the idea sounded daft: post flowers in bud, flat, through the door, and let the person arrange them. Bloom & Wild was founded that year by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, and has since said it has delivered more than 30 million letterbox bouquets.

A decade on, the flat box is a normal way to send a gift in Britain. It's worth looking at what it actually solved, because the answer explains a lot about how people send things now - including cards.

What letterbox flowers fixed

• Nobody has to be in. The old model failed at the last ten metres: a bouquet needed a person at the door, and most people are at work.
• No neighbour, no depot, no card through the door saying you missed it.
• Flowers in bud last longer than flowers cut and arranged days earlier, so the gift survives the post.
• Ordering from a phone, minutes before you remember the date, which is how most gifts are genuinely bought.
• Price became visible. Interflora-era pricing was opaque; a flat box with a fixed price was easy to compare.

What it changed about gifting generally

• It made small gifts normal again. Before, sending something meant a parcel and effort; now a £20 gesture is unremarkable.
• It broke the link between gifts and occasions. A lot of letterbox sending has no birthday attached at all.
• It moved the bottleneck from the shop to the door. Everything now gets designed around 2.5cm of thickness - brownies, coffee, candles, gin, all flattened to fit.
• It normalised gifting to people you haven't seen for years, because posting is easier than visiting.
• It changed what a card is for. When the gift arrives on its own in a box with a printed slip, the handwritten card becomes the only personal object in the transaction - and it often arrives separately, or not at all.

What it didn't fix

• The recipient still does the work: unwrap, trim, find a vase, change the water, throw it out next week.
• For someone ill, grieving or exhausted, that work is the exact thing they don't have spare.
• A printed gift message is not a card. Most people can tell the difference within a second of reading it.
• Flowers still die. The gesture has a week-long shelf life by design.
• Older doors, communal entrances and narrow slots in new builds still defeat the box more often than the marketing suggests.

Where it goes next

• Almost every category has been flattened to fit the door, and the ones left are the ones that genuinely can't be - so the growth now comes from sending more often, not from new products.
• Subscription sending - something small every month - is the logical end point, and it's already the normal model.
• The differentiator has shifted from delivery to the message, because everyone can get through the door now.
• Which is the quiet lesson in all of it: the box solved the logistics, and left the actual gesture exactly where it always was, in whatever you wrote by hand.

Shop thinking of you cards

Prints that post flat

A5, A4 and A3 art prints, drawn in house and printed in the UK.

How to write it so it lands

• Convenience was the innovation, not the flowers.
• The recipient still does the arranging.
• The handwritten card is the part the box never replaced.

Where to shop next

• Letterbox gifts instead of flowers
• Letterbox sympathy gifts
• Thinking of you gifts by post
• What fits through a letterbox
• Letterbox gifts for someone far away
• What to write in a sympathy card
• Thinking of you messages
• Wall art and prints
• All guides
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges

Frequently asked questions

Who started letterbox flowers?

Bloom & Wild, founded in London in 2013 by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, popularised flowers sent flat and in bud through the letterbox. The company has said more than 30 million letterbox bouquets have been delivered.

Why did letterbox flowers become so popular?

They removed the failed-delivery problem. Nobody needs to be home, the price is visible up front, and the order takes a minute on a phone - which is how most gifts are actually bought.

Are letterbox flowers better than a florist bouquet?

They're more convenient and last longer because they travel in bud. A florist bouquet is better when someone will be in to receive it and wants it to look finished on arrival.