We hear “buy local” everywhere, but it's getting harder when the public is being lied to.

The newest edition of the Lake and Mendocino Counties Valley Yellow Pages, The BUY LOCAL phone book, is putting the local florist at risk.

According to them you have 10 choices of florists in Middletown, 1 in Hidden Valley Lake, 10 in Upper Lake, nine in Nice, four in Lower Lake and 13 in Kelseyville. This is outrageous!

I called every number. They are all answered by a recording saying, “It's a great day to send flowers.” You end up at a florist concierge out of Florida!

Just like 1-800, Just Flowers and all other gathering companies, they just take your order and your local dollars and then they call the “real” local florist and offer a small portion of your hard-earned money. They keep the rest.

Please educate the ones you love who send flowers. It's getting really hard to shop local with scams like this one!

I wrote the following story about three months ago and posted it to my Facebook page to help educate the consumer.

This is a true story; I can't make this stuff up.

A man sits at his desk on a Thursday and thinks: “My wedding anniversary is next Monday. I should get my wonderful wife flowers.”

What happens next? He goes online, thinking he'll save time and money.

He picked a Just Flowers, 1-800-Flowers, FTD, etc. ... He paid $95 for flowers and delivery, received confirmation and forgot about it. What happens next may surprise you.

On Monday at 4:45 p.m. I received a call from the online company. They placed an order with me for $45 including delivery. Yes, you read right, ONLY $45! They kept the other $50.

Online companies are not florists; they are just a gathering place. They don't care about the consumer but I do!

When I delivered the flowers that evening I could see the disappointment on the man's face. So I quietly asked him if this was what he ordered.

“Yes,” he said, “but I thought it would have been larger, given I paid almost $100 for it.”

I was as shocked as he was. I knew the online companies took a portion but more than half?

So it is my goal this year to help educate the consumers on just how important it is to support the local floral businesses. You will save time and money.

Tina Chiotti-Stewart owns Middletown Florist & Gifts in Middletown, Calif.