Writing bouquet and product descriptions

A good listing tells the buyer what they'll receive, in words they'd use themselves. The risk with AI is that it adds pretty claims you never made. This page covers how to prevent that.

Start with a fact sheet, not a request for copy

Before you ask a tool for anything, write a short fact sheet for each product. Keep it to things you can see or look up:

• The flowers and foliage in it, by name.
• The wrap or vase, and whether the vase is included.
• The size in your own measurements, from the bunch on your bench.
• The price and the currency.
• Which days and areas you deliver to, and any pickup option.
• Substitutions you may make if a stem isn't available.

Paste that in and tell the tool to use only those facts. One maker's guide recommends telling the model to work from the documents you give it, not from what it picked up in training¹. Without that instruction, gaps get filled by guesswork, and that's where invented details creep in.

Claims to cut

Tools tend to write lines that feel nice and prove nothing. Strike these unless a supplier's note or your own records back them:

• How long flowers last. "Fresh for two weeks" is a promise. Your wholesaler's care sheet, or what you've seen across many orders, is the only real basis. If you can't point to either, leave it out.
• Where flowers come from. "Locally grown" or "ethically sourced" needs a paper trail.
• Meanings and symbolism. "Roses mean undying love" is folklore. If you want to mention it, say "traditionally" and keep it light.
• Health or mood effects. Don't say a scent relieves stress or helps sleep.
• Safe-around-pets language. Leave pet safety to a proper source such as your vet or a poison-control service, and say nothing if you're unsure.

Advertising rules differ by country, and this site doesn't give legal advice. Read your own consumer regulator's page before you publish claims. That's the ACCC in Australia, the FTC in the United States and the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK. Don't rely on a tool to tell you what's allowed.

OpenAI's help page lists "overconfident answers to ambiguous or complex questions" among the ways its tool can be wrong². A flower-care question is the kind of thing it can answer with confidence and still get wrong. It also tells readers to check data and technical details themselves².

Seasonal and local details

Flower traditions differ by country, and a tool may mix them up. Wikipedia notes that white chrysanthemums are the traditional Mother's Day flower in Australia³. A draft written with another country's customs in mind could suggest the wrong flower for your customers. If your tool defaults to another country's customs, tell it where your shop is. Then check the result by hand.

What a listing should state plainly

The UK government's distance-selling page lists what a seller must give before an order is placed. It includes a description of the goods, plus delivery arrangements, costs and timing⁴. That's UK guidance, and other countries differ. Check your own government's page. As a habit it suits any shop: show the description and delivery details before the buyer pays.

A tidy listing usually has:

1. A short title that names the main flowers.
2. One or two plain sentences on the look and the occasion.
3. A fact list: contents, size, wrap or vase.
4. Delivery and pickup details, linking to your delivery and pickup wording.
5. A substitution note.

Ask for a retraction pass

The same guide suggests asking the tool to find support for each claim and drop any it can't back¹. You can use that with your fact sheet. Try: "Go through your draft. For each sentence, point to the line in my fact sheet that supports it. Remove any sentence with no match."

That pass won't catch everything. Read the result yourself, side by side with the actual bouquet or a photo of it. If a listing says "pastel", your photo should look pastel.