Flower Power

If I had read the blogs before ordering or checked with my family I would have never used Flower Power. They are known for not delivering and that is exactly the problem I had! I suggest you pick another florist or use Safeway and pick them up.

I got a call today from a lovely woman asking if/​when I would be home so they could deliver flowers to me. It turns out I was just about to leave to run some errands, so I ended up picking up the flowers myself.
The shop is very cute with tons of fresh flowers. The woman carried them out to my car and helped me buckle them in the passenger seat. She couldn’t have been nicer or more courteous on the phone or in person.
As for the flowers, they are just gorgeous! I would definitely get flowers from here again.

Karen and Flower Power rock! Karen has such a knack with flowers, and she went out of her way for us on a Sunday (a day she is normally closed!) to deliver and set up a few arrangements for a memorial service. I have tried just about every florist in the area during my 15+ years of living in Truckee/​Tahoe, and I can definitely say Karen’s arrangements are always the best. She is the person I trust to create something I won’t be embarrassed to have delivered to a friend. I also think (absent buying flowers yourself at the grocery store), Flower Power gives you the best value for your money. I would not hesitate to use Flower Power for any occasion. (and no, I am not a friend of the owner and have no interest in this business!)

I ordered a flower arrangement for my mother in laws birthday. As the day progressed I called my mother in law to check if she had received anything, it was suppose to be a surprise for her since we live almost 2 hours away from her. I called Flower Power and of course no answer, my mother in law called me the next day said someone asked her to pick up the flowers because of the road conditions. When she arrived she told them her son was upset because the flowers were suppose to be a surprise yesterday for her birthday. To sum it all up, they made my mother in law pick up her own flowers a day late, but they also managed to screw up and give her an ugly arrangement. It looked nothing like I had ordered and they charged me $ 70 for something I could’ve paid $ 25 elsewhere. A simple phone call to let me know we can’t make the delivery and we don’t have the arrangement you had ordered would have been fine but the failed and managed to upset us!!!

They showed up with my wedding flowers 4 hours after we agreed upon, and an hour after my wedding started. STEER CLEAR!!!
We saw Flower Power at a bridal show in Tahoe, so they seemed legit. I liked the pictures of bouquets that they had too, plus, with there not being very many options in Truckee, we booked them for our Truckee wedding in August. I really did not think I had anything to worry about. Boy, was I wrong. My mother in law handled most of the communications this the florist and told her everything that I wanted: 8 full size spray rose boutonnières, 4 small spray rose boutonnières, 4 bridesmaids bouquets of gerbera daisies, and a bridal bouquet of stargazer lilies, gerbera daisies and spray roses. My mother in law also ordered some bulk flowers for centerpieces and rehearsal dinner decorations. The day before the wedding, while I was getting my nails done next door, my mother in law went to pick to up the rehearsal dinner flowers, and Flower Power was closed. This was the middle of the day and not to mention she had set up a specific time to pick up the flowers. I was told not to panic by a few very nice locals, that this is Truckee and the florist is probably just running on Truckee time. I tried to keep calm and finished getting my nails done. By the time I had finished with my nails, the florist had finally just arrived. My mother in law was leaving with the rehearsal dinner flowers and I went into the shop to speak with the florist. She confirmed with me exactly what we were doing for the bouquets and boutonnières and what time they were going to be picked up before the wedding. Our wedding was scheduled to start at 4pm, my brother was sent down to pick up our flowers at 1pm (our scheduled time). Only the boutonnières were finished. My brother was told by the florist that they were delivering the rest of the flowers. My brother did not know any better and left with just the boutonnières. Well, 4:00 rolled around and no bouquets… luckily my venue was awesome and was able to pull together amazing bouquets for me and my bridesmaids very last minute. I think the florist may have shown up at around 5:00 with the bouquets which were a joke! The bridesmaids bouquets were literally 5 gerbera daisies put together with no filler at all. More than half of the stargazer lilies in my bridal bouquet were closed. We got almost a full refund after being told we were «ripping her off». What a joke. Don’t trust Flower Power with any of your florist needs, especially for something important like your wedding! Listen to all the bad reviews this place has. Don’t make the mistake we made.

I ordered a flower centerpiece for a 50^th anniversary celebration and could not have been more pleased with the arrangement — the flowers lasted for two full weeks after the event! The person who made the arrangement was so nice and took great care to make sure it was exactly what I was looking for. She called and even offered to come in on Sunday (when they were closed) so I could pick up the arrangement. We ended up holding the celebration on Saturday, one day early, and made the change at the last minute. It was no problem for them — they happily made the arrangement one day early! I am very grateful for the excellent service!

Took 5 days to deliver flowers! No calls, communication or attempt to get in touch about delivery. Was ordered through Teleflora online, and they could not get an answer at the shop either. I did not know who the florist was till after delivery, after I cancelled. The flowers were hideous, not even close to what I ordered. I will never have flowers delivered in Truckee again. Better to buy in Reno and take them yourself.

An absolutely terrible driver. A female driving a silver SUV was swerving all over hwy 80, couldn’t stay in one lane, nearly took out separate cars on two occasions. I realized she had a sticker on her door with this business name. Either she was driving distracted (i.e. texting) or she was under the influence. Regardless, she put lives in danger this morning and I could never support her business. We had to honk at her to make her realize she was in two lanes about to hit a car. After that, she sped off going over 80 mph. She needs to know that she needs to drive more safely!

TL;DR: I never got my flowers, and it took 3 weeks to get a refund. This is one of the worst-​run businesses I have ever interacted with. The people are friendly, but their execution is almost comically bad.
Sadly, this is my first time writing a one star review. I ordered the easiest arrangement ever. I just wanted something simple for my girlfriend to add some life to our hotel room on Valentine’s Day. The idea was for it to be delivered to the hotel front desk, where the receptionist had told me she was happy to receive the delivery and put the bouquet in our room so it would be waiting for us.
However, none of this happened. I paid for the flowers over the phone and was told that they would be sent to my hotel on Friday, February 13, so they would be waiting for us when we checked in. The flowers never appeared.
A quick aside: A missing delivery sucks, but doesn’t by itself warrant a one-​star review. When I finally got in touch with Flower Power employees (emphasis on «finally»), they remembered making my bouquet and sending it. Their delivery guy had also logged that he delivered it, and they said they suspect the delivery guy was to blame, as they had several other missing deliveries.
Now, here are the other things that Flower Power did to compound their original mistake, and these are almost a bigger driver of my 1-​star review than the original missing flowers:
— On Saturday, I was skiing with my girlfriend. In the afternoon, about 45 minutes before they were scheduled to close, I managed to get a moment alone at the top of the mountain (there was no reception at my hotel or at the ski lodge) and called Flower Power. Turns out, they close an hour early on Saturdays, even when that Saturday is Valentine’s Day, so I missed their closing by 15 minutes. My call went to their voicemail, but on the assumption there must still be employees around, I called again. And again. After a few calls, an employee answered the phone — accidentally. I assume they had meant to press the «ignore» button, but answered it instead. So now I can hear at least three employees talking amongst themselves, but they can’t hear me yelling at them to pick up the damn phone. I called several more times, and was ignored every time, including one additional time that an employee accidentally answered the phone. It is beyond frustrating to be trying to salvage a Valentine’s surprise and have someone actively sabotaging your efforts like this.
— I didn’t get in touch with a Flower Power employee until Monday. At this point, my Tahoe vacation was over and all I wanted was a refund. The employee was super apologetic (this is the part where they blamed it on the delivery guy and/​or my hotel). She promised me a refund
— Several days later, the refund still hadn’t come. I called again, and this time I was told that actually they couldn’t process refunds because the owner, Karan, was the only one able to do that and she was out for a while for a medical procedure. It seems to me that if Karan were going to delegate management of her business for a couple of weeks, this should have also included the authority to do refunds, particularly since these were the weeks after Valentine’s Day
— I received a call today, more than two weeks after my original missing delivery, to tell me that they had processed my refund (and apologize profusely again). Those take a few days to show up, but I’m hoping this time it’s really coming
In sum:
General incompetence with Flower Power and/​or their deliver guy resulted in my Valentine’s Day flowers getting lost. Borderline malicious incompetence then kept me from being able to rectify the situation before Valentine’s Day was over. And truly baffling incompetence required 4 separate conversations with Flower Power employees and nearly 3 weeks to get my payment refunded.
Other reviewers all seem to have either really good or really awful experiences here. You can take a chance if you like, but I think I’d prefer a place where my odds are better than a coin toss.

My friend received the most pathetic flowers. I felt so bad for her. They were called in from out of state. Money not well spent. We should have taken a picture of the sad arrangement. Flowers were old.

Five stars for service: Stopped by apparently after they closed (but before the nice woman left) and asked for a special item, she asked me to come back after she had some time to put it together. I was really impressed that she stayed after they closed to do something special for me. Honestly, I was about 15 minutes late for the time she asked me to come back but she was really nice about it and didn’t seem upset with me at all.
Five stars for flower staying power: There is another review on here that their flowers wilted. I kept my flowers in the fridge with a spritz of water just like the florist recommended and they stayed fresh and wonderful for 24 hours.
The product: The flower crown I had her create with dainty white and pink flowers is so perfect for my niece. She truly looked like a princess. The florist put a ribbon to tie on the back of the wreath because we weren’t sure what would fit, great idea.

I have used Flower Power many times in the past. I call her directly, except for this one time.
I live in the Bay Area, but grew up in Truckee and my parents still live there.
I want to support a local shop. The flowers in the past have been hit or miss. Some times they last a week and sometimes a few days.
It was my Moms 70^th birthday and wanted something special for her.
I found out they were the florist chosen to work with Pro-​Flowers. I ordered a Premium Birthday cake made out of flowers. What a perfect idea! Flowers that look like a cake.
I get a call 3:00pm on the delivery day from Proflowers and they notify me that Flower Power can not make it and if they can substitute with a flower arrangement of the same dollar amount. ($ 95.00) I said fine but they have to be delivered that day as requested.
My Mom emails me a picture of the flowers. I was absolutely furious. I could have had
my Dad pick up flowers from Safeway and they would have been bigger and better for $ 10.00.
I left a message to hear back from Karen and have not received a call.
What a shame. My years of business with her is done. I feel like she stole
my money. I called Pro Flowers and emailed the photo to them and they were
shocked with what was delivered. They gave me a 100% refund.

We used Karen for our wedding flower arrangements and couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out. The entire experience with Karen was so great and we highly recommend her to anyone planning their wedding. We had our initial meeting where she helped us brainstorm our vision and provided recommendations based on our taste. She was able to work with us to ensure we stayed within our budget and that was so helpful. She has years of experience and it showed. The day of could not have been more beautiful! Thanks Karen!

Walked in to Flower Power two days before my wedding looking for someone simple and elegant but with color. They were able to pull together a beautiful small arrangement of flowers that was perfect as I walked down the isle for the wedding.

We had friends staying in Tahoe shortly after they lost a close family member. We wanted to brighten their long-​planned trip with some champagne and flowers. The folks at the condo place they were staying at couldn’t really help, but they connected us with Flower Power.
The team at Flower Power came through big time. For a reasonable price, they made a bright and cheery bouquet, picked up a nice bottle of champagne, and delivered it to our friends in Tahoe.
The flowers looked great and the service we top-​notch.

We bought some flowers from her for Mother’s Day 2013. We payed over $ 50 for a VERY small bouquet that died 2 days after our mom received it, don’t get me wrong the flowers looked beautiful but they were old and died much too quickly. We have had bad experiences in the past with her sending old and already dieing flowers. The flower petals were dieing and falling off a day after my mother received them. I do not suggest spending your money here, you will definitely not get healthy and fresh flowers.

words cannot explain how happy I am with the work that karen did for our wedding in Squaw Valley this weekend. Everything looked AMAZING and she did a FANTASTIC job of making all my visions happen! Thanks so much for making all my dreams come true and she also put up with my mom who can be difficult :) when I walked into the room and saw everything I just cried! The Bouquets were exactly how I pictured them but more beautiful!!!
Thanks so much Karen!!!
–Bunnie Qualley
Roseville, CA

I used Flower Power (Karan) for flowers for my wedding in Tahoe this past weekend and she was great. I found her to be sweet and helpful from the very beginning. Planning a wedding is overwhelming and finding helpful and nice vendors just makes everything better.
The prices were unbelievably reasonable and the flowers turned out amazing! Everyone couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful the centerpieces were. We used mason jars and the flowers Karan chose definitely went with the «country chic» theme I chose. I was sad that I couldn’t keep the flowers (I live in SF and they wouldn’t make it on the journey in the heat) but I couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out.
Karan did an amazing job, stayed within my budget, truly listened to what I wanted and delivered it and was prompt and professional throughout the planning process. I highly recommend her!

My bridal bouquet looked like something I could have made on my own. Centerpieces were okay, but small. My bridesmaids bouquets were AWFUL!!! Not only were they the wrong color, they were drooping and dead an hour after the ceremony. The groomsmen boutonnieres fell apart and the bridesmaids had to take flowers from their already dying bouquets to fix them. Finally, I was told to RETURN my centerpieces. What bride is required to return centerpieces?! I would avoid this vendor at all costs. I was extremely disappointed and my bridesmaids all agreed they were the WORST bouquets they’d ever seen.

A day before Mother’s Day I arrived in the store an hour before it closed, I walked into a tropical oasis with wonderful fragrances and two very busy florists. The owner directed me to her able assistant, who put together two beautiful bouquets for my mom and sister in no time at all, mindful of my budgetary constraints. The fresh bouquets, put together in no time at all, were breathtaking and original, with matching tissue paper and ribbons for a final touch. What a lovely experience! My recipients were thrilled, and the flowers lasted about twice as long as grocery store blooms.
Note: the store will be moving soon to Donner Pass Road in the same shopping center as Wild Cherries coffeehouse. Next year I will pre-​plan and order a bouquet or two!