Whole Foods roses: Again the best online prices for Valentine's Day

LOS ANGELES — You'll pay dearly for Valentine's Day roses if you shop at the usual online suspects, from $40 to over $80, with delivery and fees.

But once again, Whole Foods Market has a sweetheart of a deal, $19.99 for two dozen roses, after factoring in a discount for being a member of the Amazon Prime expedited shipping and entertainment service. (It's $24.99 if you're not a Prime member.)

Add around $5 for local delivery. Prime membership costs $119 yearly. 

The Whole Foods offer is way cheaper than we found at the online floral companies. However, it's not available for delivery nationally. (More on that below.) So, what if you're in a California and want to send flowers to a relative in Kansas? You'll need to spend more and use one of the online flower retailers. Their pricing: 

FTD

Range: $30-$299. Our $30 order of a dozen red roses came in at $34.99 with tax and free delivery and an offer to spend an extra $15 to have them delivered before noon. 

The Bouqs Co. 

Range: $48-$78. The $48 dozen came in at $42.66 once coupon discounts were added in at checkout.  

Costco

The discounter has a $49.99 offer for 50 roses, with free delivery charge, but is only open to Costco members. Memberships start at $60. 

Urban Stems

Range: $65-$149. The $65 dozen had free delivery and was still $65 at checkout. 

ProFlowers

Range: $40-$99.99. The $39.99 dozen roses clocked in at $74.42 once the $14.99 delivery fee, $9.99 "guaranteed" delivery fee, $2.99 "care and handling" charge and taxes are added. Reader alert: ProFlowers is owned by FTD, which as you can see, has a way better deal on its website. 

1-800-Flowers:

Range: $34.99-$519.99. We tried to order the cheapest dozen we could find at $34.99, and it grew to $63.47 by the time of checkout, after a $14.99 shipping fee, $7.99 Valentine's surcharge and $5.50 in taxes.

The company points out that like Amazon, it too offers a $29.99 loyalty program, Celebrations Passport. Subscribers would save on the $23 in delivery and surcharge fees, and get the $63.47 down to $34.99 plus taxes. 

The online sellers promise farm-to-table flowers of higher quality, and they say they will last longer, while others, like 1-800-Flowers, deliver from local florists in your area. But there's no denying the huge price difference between local markets, florists and markets. 

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While reporting this story, we stopped at our local Trader Joe's market in the Los Angeles area and couldn't help noticing the advertised price for a dozen roses there: $14.99. 

Valentine's Day is historically the second-biggest day of the year for the floral industry, after Mother's Day, which is considered the "Super Bowl" of flowers. 

Whole Foods

The Amazon-owned organic market will deliver flowers to your loved one, bringing the $19.99 offer to just over $26 with tax and delivery charges. But it's only available in markets where the Amazon Now food delivery service is offered, and that's 60 cities, including big ones like New York, Los Angeles and Austin, but missing smaller cities like Provo, Utah, Reno, Nevada, Toldeo, Ohio and Albany, New York.

To order, go to Amazon.com, click on the Whole Foods tab, type in the desired zip code and order the flowers. Once you've ordered, you can select the delivery address. The checkout system will only accept delivery hours within a 48-hour period, so if you want to get the stems there for Valentine's Day, you'll need to wait for Tuesday to put in your order.  

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.