A stem may change. The size, the colour and the value will not

Cut flowers are an agricultural product bought at auction hours before they are arranged. Stems sell out at Dangwa overnight. A container of imported tulips is held at the port. A typhoon closes the road down from Benguet and the roses that were coming do not come.

A shop that never substitutes is a shop that cancels orders instead, and a cancelled birthday bouquet is worse than a birthday bouquet with a different filler in it.

• The overall size. A large bouquet is replaced by a large bouquet.
• The value. A substituted stem is worth the same or more; we never trade down and keep the difference.
• The colour palette. A blush and cream arrangement stays blush and cream.
• The flower type wherever it exists at all. Roses stay roses, sunflowers stay sunflowers, tulips stay tulips.
• The stem count when the name states one. Grand Gesture (24 Roses) arrives with twenty-four roses.
• The container, the wrap and the ribbon shown in the photograph.

• A filler or foliage — statice for aster, ruscus for eucalyptus, that kind of swap.
• The variety within a flower. A different white rose from the one we usually cut, at the same grade.
• The exact shade within the palette. Two dye lots of the same pink are not identical.
• A vase or basket of the same size in a different finish, when the one pictured has run out.
• Seasonal fruit in a basket, which is chosen for what is genuinely good that week.

Anything smaller than that we simply build, because it is the difference between two bouquets nobody could tell apart in a photograph.

If the change is one you would notice — the main flower is unavailable, or the palette has to move — we contact the buyer before we build anything, on the number and email on the order.

If we cannot reach you before the cut-off for your window, we hold the order rather than guess, and we tell you what happened. A late delivery you were warned about is recoverable; a bouquet of the wrong flowers is not.

These are handled differently, and more carefully.

We do not substitute the FORM of a funeral piece. A standing spray stays a standing spray, a wreath stays a wreath, a casket arrangement stays a casket arrangement — the shape is what the family is expecting to see when they walk into the chapel.

White and cream flowers are kept white and cream. If the flowers we planned are not available, we call you before we build, whatever the size of the change. If we cannot reach you, we call the funeral home to confirm the timing rather than let the piece arrive late.

Email inquiries@bloomspointph.com within 24 hours of delivery with the order number and a photograph, the same way as a freshness claim. If we changed something we said we would keep, we replace the arrangement or refund it — your choice.