Amazon's New Flower Shop Disappears Just in Time for Valentine's Day

A few months back, I stumbled upon a new category of goods Amazon was selling directly to shoppers: Fresh flowers.

Other flower companies, such as 1-800-Flowers and ProFlowers, have long sold through Amazon’s marketplace, but this marked the first time Amazon was handling the flower sourcing and selling process itself. It was dubbed the Amazon Curated Flower Collection and shipments were free for Amazon Prime members.

At the time, there were just six arrangements to choose from. But when I checked back in around the holidays, that number had quadrupled to 24. I took that as a sign that the company would likely continue to expand the offering.

There was another hint that the shop was part of Amazon’s permanent plans. When I first wrote about it, I noticed this bit of information in the frequently asked questions section: “We are not able to offer scheduled delivery yet, but are working to bring you this feature as soon as possible.”

So I was surprised when I visited the site a few days ago to find a blank page where the Amazon Curated Flower Collection used to live. Yes, I was going to test the new scheduled-delivery option to send some flowers to my wife for Valentine’s Day.*

I dug around Amazon’s entire flower selection of third-party vendors to see if maybe the page had been moved. But, alas, it seems like it is gone for now. If it’s just out of stock, it seems like the worst possible time for that to happen.

I pinged Amazon PR last night and this morning to see why the page is gone and whether it’s coming back. I haven’t gotten an answer.

In the meantime, I ordered a bouquet of ranunculus from a new online flower shop called The Bouqs. FedEx’s tracking page tells me it’s currently on a delivery truck as I write.

* Even though my wife and I aren’t big “Valentine’s Day people,” she does enjoy receiving some nice flowers on this day. As long as they’re not roses. Normally, I’d go to a local shop to pick them up and deliver them myself. But I’m on crutches after I lost a battle with Mother Nature’s east coast onslaught.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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