Flower Delivery to Alton Downs, Up and Down Ridgelands Road

You're marking a birthday from somewhere else, and the house is a long way off the road. Andrew learnt what that means back in 2007, out on Clothiers Creek Road on the Tweed, with a birthday bunch for a woman whose directions said white gate, big mango tree. Every gate was white. He opened four before he found her (she'd been watching him from the verandah the whole time, I'm sure of it).

So put the number on the letterbox, anything that sets that gate apart from the others, and a mobile in the notes. Birthday flowers for Mum and our best-selling birthday flowers both go out same day.

Anna's call: if it might wait on a hot verandah until someone's home, the Australian Natives Bunch. If there's banksia in it, the stems are woody, so split the base a few centimetres and they'll drink properly.

Someone from Alton Downs has died, and you're working from a funeral notice and a phone. From what we've seen, the service is usually arranged through a Rockhampton funeral director, such as Tucker & Nankivell on Alma Street or Harts Family Funerals on Ford Street, so add the director and service time for funeral flowers, or send sympathy flowers for the home once the visitors thin out. "Thinking of you all, with love" is enough on the card.

Even after the visitors thin out, the kitchen bench stays crowded for weeks with casseroles and cards. A low, wide arrangement sits safely there. A tall vase is top-heavy, and the first elbow takes it over.

You haven't rung in a while and there's no occasion. You don't need one. And if they're laid up in Rockhampton Hospital on Canning Street rather than home on the block, add the ward; in our experience the ward desk takes the flowers through. "Thinking of you, talk soon" covers the card, and our thinking of you flowers come soft or bright.

Anna, qualified florist

For a shared ward, go unscented: an Oriental lily fills the whole room, and the next bed didn't ask for it. At home lilies are lovely. Pinch the orange anthers off as each one opens and, in my experience, they go longer, with no pollen on the tablecloth.

Plenty of reasons to send flowers don't need a label: a neighbour who watched the cattle while you were away, a new grandchild, a no-reason Tuesday.

Anna's pick: Florist's Choice. With no theme to match, the florist builds from whatever came in looking strongest, and a word in the notes leans it bright or soft.