Surroundings

I had heard great things about Surroundings and my wife has used them several times for events. I ordered an arrangement for our 10^th anniversary and as I write this they have not been delivered — it is 4:45. They had a question about the address, but didn’t call me until 3:30 to get clarification (I ordered the flowers days in advance) and now are saying they are held up in traffic.
Had I ordered the flowers «just because» or it was a rather inexpensive arrangement, no big deal, but I would have appreciated a several hundred dollar arrangement for a special occasion being delivered while someone is still at my wife’s office to accept the delivery — not to mention while my wife is still there to receive them.
UPDATE: The flowers, which do look nice, were delivered shortly after 5:00 and the owner called to give me his personal cell phone for the future — but we still had to alter our drinks /​dinner plans so she would be at the office to get the flowers.

I called surroundings at 4:30 pm asking if they could send flowers to my house to put on a grave site the next morning. They talked me through what sort of potted flowers would do well given the weather at the time (it was January), and had the loveliest bunch of potted purple hyacinths at my house by 6 pm. They were sensitive, professional, and offered customer service I don’t often experience. They’ve earned a loyal client in me.

Called them for a bouquet of various purple flowers to surprise my girlfriend with. She happened to be landing at DCA in 2.5 hours and these guys really came through on short notice. The arrangement was lovely (picture uploaded), well priced, and 2 days later the flowers look just as wonderful. I’m confident they’ll be my go-​to Hill florist going forward.

Flowers last forever. Charles and everyone in the store are charmers!

My husband has been ordering my birthday, Valentine’s Day and «just because» flowers from here for years now and we LOVE them! Once he had a hiccup with an order, but it was quickly fixed. I always enjoy their arrangements and they last for quite some time. Definitely recommend!

As others have commented, the owners are sweet/​friendly, but we lost $ trying to work with them and ultimately came away super frustrated. Either not attentive to or just unable to follow directions, won’t stick to a timeline/​respond in a timely manner…
Aside from this, their designs skew toward VERY modern (I just thought odd) and are probably better suited to business orders rather than arrangements for a specific/​personal occasion.
Last word of warning: I’ve been given loose-​stem flowers picked up same-​day from their storefront, and found them molded, and the petals fell off immediately. Couldn’t believe they sold in such dreadful condition!

Surroundings completely transformed my Capitol Hill front yard! They removed the old ground cover, pruned back the oak leaf hydrangeas and the Japanese maple, removed weeds, added topsoil and mulch. The plants Charles and Francisco put in are excellent — dwarf mondo grass, ajuga, hostas, Japanese anemones, and gold splash euonymous. They also installed easy to work in-​ground sprinklers. The entire job was done in two — yes, 2 — days!
The guys did the work while I was at the office and I am more than happy! All debris removed, nice lay-​out of plantings, expert understanding of what I was looking for — low maintenance plants and a variety of color. Charles and Francisco are a delight to work with. I highly recommend Surroundings for your landscaping needs!

I called on Sunday morning to have flowers delivered that day. The owner said that he would do it. The flowers never arrived and when I called Monday morn they say said that she was working on the arrangement now. Obviosly I cancelled the order. Too late,

I was looking for a corsage and boutonnière for my son’s senior prom. Out of all the other florist in the area Surroundings were the ONLY ones to return my call. I speak with Glenda and she is a true professional. She knows her flowers. I make it to the shop and it is SO beautiful. On the spot for me, Glenda made the two beautiful pieces and in 15 minutes I had two fresh flower accessories and a HUGE smile. I will be using them every chance an opportunity arises! THANKS SURROUNDINGS you did a PERFECT job!!!

I find it incredibly suspicious of Unilocal that they seem to have filtered only the good reviews for this adorable little local flower shop. We live down the block from Surroundings and it’s our go-​to place for birthday, anniversary and all-​occasion flowers. Charles, the owner, is nice as can be and the flower arrangements he and his staff do are beautiful. Plus, they last for weeks. We recently had them landscape our front lawn and couldn’t be happier with the prompt, efficient and beautiful work his team did. Two thumbs up for Surroundings.

Their floral arrangements and loose stems are extraordinary. I can’t say enough good things. A little pricey; and you get what you pay for.

I came in to make a consultation appointment for landscaping. I requested a time of 2:30pm, but the person helping me apparently wrote down 2:30−3pm (but neglected to mention that to me).
When I called at 2:45 on the day of to inquire where they were (um, because in my book they were 15 mins late), I was told Charles just left was on his way. When I asked why no one called me to let me know he was running late, they said, «oh, I dunno. He was doing other stuff.» (At this point the person on the phone should have checked the calendar and told me according to them the window was a half hour & he wasn’t actually late.) I don’t have patience for companies who (in my book) are late, so I canceled the appointment. I immediately received a call from Charles who kept saying he wasn’t late because he has 2:30−3pm written down. Um again, no one bothered to confirm that time frame with me… And, did it ever occur to him they actually wrote down a half hour appointment starting at 2:30?
I told him point blank that being late isn’t ok with me and after some bs back and forth he finally said, «It’s probably best we don’t work together. I’ve made *thousands* of people happy but clearly you’re very different from *normal* residents on Capitol Hill. Other people are more laid back. I’m sorry we couldn’t make you happy.» (Click went the phone.)
Any owner who’s petty enough to insult a potential customer isn’t one I want to give my dollars to.

Charles and his team are very capable and excellent at their work. The only drawback is just how busy they are. It took us a couple of months from the design appointment to getting the work done, but once it was finished it looked great! Surroundings replaced the sod in the front yard and tree box, dug up the backyard and put in all new shrubs and grasses, including wire for climbing vines and a remaining wall. They did a great job overall making everything look nice and the plants are healthy and of great quality Even more importantly, when my daughter’s elementary school was doing a study unit on flowers, her class was able to visit Surroundings and learn all about what a florist does for a living. Charles is a great contributor to the community and we love supporting Capitol Hill businesses.

I am floored by the negative reviews of this neighborhood shop. I also find it a bit suspicious that every single 5 star review has been filtered (thus why I only gave them 4, although I find the service to be 5 stars).
I only had my first personal experience with Charles and Surroundings recently but for months my fiancé has been bringing home arrangements from them almost bi-​weekly on his way home from Eastern Market. They have always been lovely and lasted quite sometime and even when one began wilting sooner than expected, we called and were told to come get a new arrangement on the house. We recently stopped in on our way home and I got to meet Charles and being a typical Capitol Hill neighborhood shop he had struck up a friendship with my fiancé as, I presume, he does with most of his customers. We were looking to get an indoor palm and he helped us select the perfect one. We had also recently purchased a beta fish and were hoping to give him a vase with some water plants to swim in — Charles sold us a great vase and gave us some spider plant babies for free. They have a great selection of plants and flowers and some of the arrangements I have seen around the shop are simply lovely. We are certainly life-​time customers!

I actually had a wonderful experience with this florist. I ordered a large main table arrangement and two smaller end table arrangements for a party one week in advance, and they were beautiful and ready for pickup on time. When ordering, they were very helpful; we had a lengthy discussion about the colors of my home and the placement of the flowers so everything could be coordinated. I gave them my total budget and they divided it accordingly among the 3 arrangements based on the size and detail of each. I will definitely use them again.

I stopped in the store and bought a birdhouse, and also paid for it to be shipped to my mother out of state. The birdhouse never arrived. I kept stopping in the store and asking for the shipping number so I could check w/​UPS online. They never gave it to me, and kept promising they call me with it, and I stupidly believed them. Enough time went by that I could no longer dispute the credit card charge (bad on me), but what a joke. I highly recommend that you don’t shop here.

Same day delivery my ass! If same day is after 6 at night, delivered to someone’s house, rather than their office. After calling 4 times to confirm delivery of flowers, only to be told each time that they were «just about ready to leave.»
The arrangement was nice, but seriously guys, I could have waited for you to put it together, then dropped them off myself, if that’s what I was going for.

Cute shop, owner very nice and my flowers were lovely.

I so wanted to write a good review after my initial meeting with Dennis. I stopped by, having driven past the place several times. I needed flowers for a friend’s courthouse ceremony. I talked to Dennis and I layed out in detail what I wanted. He seemed excited and said he would make something wonderful. He asked how much I wanted to spend and then charged me that amount. I thought that was kind of weird but I went with it. The flowers were supposed to be ready Thursday at 3 pm. I didn’t have time to pick them up that day so I went Friday morning. When I arrived, no one was there. There was a note on the door saying he was working upstairs and to call this number for assistance. I called the number and no one answers. I needed the flowers that day because the ceremony was in about 45 minutes. I called the number back 3 times and left a message, while waiting outside. Dennis called back finally and said someone would be there in a half hour. I told him I needed to pick them now and couldn’t wait til then. He asked me if he could deliver them to the courthouse and I told him I wanted to carry them with me. As we were talking one of his employees arrived, I told Dennis someone was there and he said that guy would let me in. I told that guy that I needed to get an arrangement and then I learned it had not been made. The employee offered to make it right there but I was floored. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t done when it was supposed to be ready the day before. I asked for my money back and the employee gave him some birds of paradise complimentary.

Stay far, far away. Charles is a charming owner, but cannot deliver on his promises.
I had been planning my wedding and after a lengthy discussion we had agreed on a timeline for a proposal and next steps. He delayed and delayed until I was seriously nearing the date. He made excuses as to why he could not deliver and then in the end blamed me for asking him to stick to the timeline he had offered.
I would not trust him or his business for your floral needs. There are many terrific florists in DC, I would seriously recommend you go elsewhere.
Philippa Tarrant Floral Design, who we contracted with in the end, was just amazing!