Florists across the UK have expressed their relief at the news that Tesco has decided to discontinue its online flower delivery service .
From tomorrow customers will no longer be able to place orders for flowers from the Tesco Flowers website .
The supermarket giant dismissed rumours that the decision was prompted by poor Valentines Day sales and insisted it had made "a long-term decision rather than a knee-jerk reaction".
In a statement, a Tesco spokesperson said: "Having looked carefully at the performance of online flowers we don't think it's working for customers or for Tesco and so reluctantly we have decided to discontinue the service ."
The news has been welcomed by smaller retailers which have had to compete with the Tesco juggernaut.
"Personally I hope this is the beginning of the trend we need to set," commented a member of Colchester-based Jennifleur Floral Design.
"Thankfully our sector is hard to replicate for the multiples and I hope this is a realisation for some of the smaller ones to cotton on that people just don't want flippin, boxed flowers ."
