Flowers to Ararat for the Birthday You Cannot Be At

Someone in Ararat is having a birthday and you are two states away. That is most of our orders here, if we are being honest. I am Siobhan Thomson, co-founder of Lily's Florist. We started delivering to Ararat in 2009, after people kept ringing our Kingscliff shop asking if we could reach it. Not a flood of calls, but enough. It is our 33rd most popular town in Victoria, and that ranking says something true about a place this size: the families have moved on to Melbourne and Adelaide, but the birthdays back home have not been forgotten.

The thing about Ararat that took us a while to learn is the air. It is dry inland country, no coast to soften it, and in a January heat that dry air pulls the water out of petals fast. You cannot stand on the doorstep and check what arrives, so we do that worrying for you: summer orders go out in the morning, built from hardy stems that travel rather than soft ones that wilt by lunchtime. In winter the cold does us a favour and holds flowers for days. Most of getting an Ararat order right is just knowing which way the weather is running that week.

Order Online by 2pm

Flowers from $42.95, $16.95 delivery

Or Phone 1300 360 469

7am-6pm weekdays, 10am Sat

Bestsellers

A real customer review

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I have used you twice, from New Zealand. Fantastic service."

Sylvia, verified customer, 12 March 2026

Anna on what worked here

Sylvia ordered the Florists Choice Bright Mixed Bunch from New Zealand, and then she did it again. The second order is the one that tells you something. The first time you are taking a chance. The second time you know what landed. She trusted a florist she had never met to pick the stems, and they delivered something worth repeating.

The Florists Choice label gives the florist building it near Ararat the latitude to work from whatever was freshest at the Epping market that morning. Sylvia didn't pick the roses or the tulips herself; she trusted the system to. The callers who rang back happy were the same: they described the colour first, the size second, and never once the stem list. With 23,947+ verified reviews behind it, that system is the part you are actually paying for when you cannot see the bunch yourself.

Why I Learned to Ask About the Room Before I Picked the Stems

Anna, qualified florist | fifteen years on the bench, ten thousand calls off the Pottsville phones

Early on at the Pottsville office I processed an 80th birthday order for a nursing home in a regional town about the size of Ararat. The caller was a daughter in Brisbane who wanted to go big, so I upgraded the stems, talked her into the larger size, and felt good about it. Two days later she rang back. The flowers were gorgeous, she said, her father loved them, but the bedside table in his shared room was the size of a dinner plate, and the nurses had moved the arrangement to the communal dining room because it would not fit. He could see it at lunch, not from his bed. I had not thought to ask about the room. I had been so busy with the flowers I forgot where they were going.

After that, every aged care order I took started with the same question: their own room, or shared? Over eleven percent of Ararat is 75 or older, so a lot of these go to places like the Gorrinn Village facility on Albert Street or the nursing home on Lowe Street, where the surfaces are small. A box arrangement is the safe call there: nothing to tip, no vase to find, no water to change for someone who might not get to it. For the dementia wing I kept to familiar flowers, roses and daisies, in a container that will not go over. Premium and tall is the wrong instinct for a bedside, however good it looks on a screen.

The other thing that catches senders out is the air. Ararat is dry inland country, not coastal, and that dry air pulls the water out of petals faster than the coast ever does. A hydrangea that gives you ten days in a Melbourne living room can collapse to a day or two on a hot Ararat doorstep, five if it is kept cool inside, because the summer humidity sits under fifty percent. So I steered people toward stems that hold up in the heat: chrysanthemums, carnations, and the proteas and leucadendrons that grow happy in Grampians country anyway. Waxy and woody beats soft and thirsty out here. One thing works in your favour, though: a lot of the older weatherboard homes around town run no air conditioning, and a still, cool room is gentler on a bunch than the constant draught of an air conditioner. Come winter it flips, the cold is kind to flowers and most stems hold a week or more. And a stem that lasts a fortnight buys you something better than value: two more weeks of them looking at something you sent.

What Happens After You Hit Order

The florist who builds your Ararat order is not sitting in a warehouse in Melbourne. They are in or near the town, sourcing from the same Epping wholesale market as a city florist, cutting stems at their own bench that morning. No box. No airport. No cold chain interruption.

* The chalkboard in our Kingscliff office showing how an order moves through the Lily's Florist network.

Chalkboard showing the Lily's Florist order process

You order online or call 1300 360 469 before 2pm

We send it to a partner florist near Ararat as a paid order

They build it from that morning's market stems

A driver runs the route across town that afternoon

Hand-delivered to the door, same day

What to Send to Ararat

You have seen the bestsellers. Now the question is how to get it right. The occasion changes everything: where the flowers go, what you write on the card, when to order. Ararat's most ordered category is birthday flowers, but sympathy and hospital runs are close behind.

Birthday Flowers That Arrive This Afternoon

Missing a birthday when you cannot be there. The flowers will not replace you at the table, but they arrive before the family does and they are still there after everyone has gone home, which is about as close to being in the room as a parcel gets. Order before 2pm on a weekday and a florist close to Ararat builds and delivers them that afternoon. Saturday orders need to be in by 10am.

If you are ordering for a milestone, 70th or 80th birthdays are the ones we see most for Ararat. The card is the one personal thing you control from this far away, so use it: "Happy 80th, Nan, wish I could be there to cut the cake" lands harder than "HBD." It is the same pull on Mother's Day, our single busiest day for Ararat, a son or daughter in Melbourne sending back to a mum who stayed. If the recipient is in one of the aged care facilities, include the room number on the order. It saves the staff having to look it up.

Anna, qualified florist

Birthday orders for regional towns followed a pattern on the phones. The caller was usually a daughter or son, interstate, ordering for a parent or grandparent turning a significant number. They wanted something cheerful, they did not want to spend fifteen minutes choosing, and they needed it there that day. If the person is in aged care, keep it to a standard size. Bedside tables in shared rooms are small and you do not want the nurses relocating it. And if you are not sure whether they moved rooms, call the facility before you order. Wrong room numbers do not stop the delivery but they slow it down.

Sending Condolence Flowers to a Home or Service

Flowers are not enough. You know that. They are what you can do from where you are. The first decision is where they go. Condolences to the family go to their home address. Flowers for the service go to the funeral director.

If you are unsure about routing, include the service date and the deceased's full name on your order and we sort it from there. Send within two or three days of the news. Sympathy flowers sent to a home a week later can feel like an afterthought, even when they are not. Keep the card to one line, something like "Thinking of you, from David." Do not try to frame the loss as a positive; "at least they are at peace" sounds reasonable until you are the one reading it. The family will keep that card in a drawer long after the flowers are gone, so a line in your own words carries further than the bunch does. Where those flowers actually go on the day is Anna's ground more than mine.

John Dunn Funerals on Campbell Street has been the funeral director in Ararat for generations, and most services run through their Memorial Chapel or one of the town's churches. In my experience flowers for a service want to arrive 45 to 60 minutes ahead of it, and the Ararat General Cemetery on Nott Road is an easy run for a florist who knows the town. For a Catholic service, white lilies are the traditional choice; for an Anglican one, soft whites and creams sit right. That cemetery also holds a Chinese burial section, around 300 interments from the 1860s Canton Lead gold rush, so if the family keeps a particular custom, ask before you settle on colour and we will check it for you.

Your Person Is at Ararat Hospital and You Are Not

They are in a hospital bed and the only thing you can do from where you are is send something. From a few hundred kilometres away that can feel like a small gesture. To the person in the bed, a vase on the windowsill is often the one good thing in the day. Flowers go to reception, not the ward. Include the patient's full name and ward number on your order, and keep the card short; "thinking of you" does the job.

Anna, qualified florist: The hospital in Ararat is East Grampians Health Service on Girdlestone Street. The question came through dozens of times from people sending to regional hospitals like this one: would the flowers actually reach the patient? They do, but not instantly. A staff member logs the patient's name at reception and walks them through to the ward, so allow an hour or two depending on who is on the floor. Most general and surgical wards take flowers; intensive care is the usual exception, so if your person is in ICU or just out of surgery, hold off until they have moved to a ward. If you do not have the ward number, ring the switchboard, give the patient's name, and they will point you to the right one. Without it, the arrangement waits at the front desk unclaimed.

Two more things worth knowing. Skip lilies for a ward; the pollen is a problem in a closed room, and in our experience most wards would rather they stayed out. Ask for a box or a vase arrangement rather than a hand-tied bunch, because a ward rarely has a spare vase to stand one in. And if the timing is yours to choose, send on the second day rather than the first. Day one after surgery or admission is chaos, the patient in and out of recovery; by day two they are sitting up, and there is somewhere to put them.

Order before 2pm on a weekday and a birthday bunch is at the door in Ararat this afternoon.

Browse Birthday Flowers

Still Not Sure What to Send?

Plenty of orders do not fit a neat occasion. A thinking-of-you. A quiet thank-you to someone who helped out. A parent in aged care for no reason other than it has been a while.

When a caller could not name the occasion, the Beautiful Pastels Bunch was the answer nine times out of ten: lavender roses and soft pinks read warm without committing to anything, and the lisianthus opens in stages so it keeps changing for days. For an aged care room, a Cymbidium orchid in a box holds for weeks even if nobody changes the water. If you would rather something that belongs to this landscape, native stems from Grampians country travel well in the heat and look like the place they are going. And if you would rather hand the whole choice to the bench, a Florists Choice lets the florist build from whatever came in strongest that morning.

How to Order Flowers to Ararat

Phone

1300 360 469
7am to 6pm weekdays
10am Saturdays
Or order online any time.

Same Day Cutoff

2pm weekdays, 10am Saturdays. No Sunday delivery. Ararat is a regional delivery zone and the florist needs lead time to source, build, and drive. Sunday orders queue for Monday morning.

Delivery $16.95

Flat rate, subsidised. The actual cost of delivering to a town 200 kilometres from Melbourne is higher. We absorb the difference.

Summer Heat, and Why We Deliver in the Morning

Ararat is dry inland country with no coast to soften it, so a January or February afternoon is heat in the mid-thirties and low humidity that strips moisture from petals fast. We push summer deliveries to the morning, so the flowers are indoors before the doorstep turns against them. If nobody will be home, add a note with a shaded spot: a covered porch, a carport, a side door out of the sun, and the florist reads it before the run. Winter swings the other way and in your favour, the cold holds stems for days, though a hard frost on an exposed step still earns a sheltered-spot note. Order before 2pm today and the flowers are at their door this afternoon.

Order Before 2pm, Same Day Delivery

23,947+

verified customer reviews on Feefo

2024 2025 2026

After You Order

Your order goes to a florist in or close to Ararat. They build it from whatever came in strongest that morning and deliver it the same day. If a stem from a photo is not in the cool room that day, the florist swaps in something of the same value and vase life rather than hold the order back. You will not get a tracking number or a photo of the finished bunch; the trade-off with a handmade product is that you trust the person at the bench to get it right.

If something goes wrong, or if you need to update a detail after you have placed the order, ring us on 1300 360 469 between 7am and 6pm weekdays, or email [email protected]. We hear you first, then we ring the florist.

From Andrew, co-founder

I check the florist confirmations myself on busy days. Birthday orders to regional towns spike on Fridays and into Saturday mornings, and Ararat follows that pattern. If something looks off with the timing or the delivery detail, I ring the partner florist directly. I have done it more times than I can count. You will not see that happen, but it happens. And when the confirmation comes back clean, that is you in their kitchen for a minute, sent from a few hundred kilometres off.

The florist delivers to the door. If nobody is home, they find a safe spot out of the weather: a covered porch, a side entrance. Through an Ararat summer that means out of the direct sun, because an afternoon doorstep is the one thing the dry heat can ruin; in winter the cold is no enemy, but a hard frost on an exposed step is still worth a note. The delivery note you add is what prevents both. If the flowers are good, the photo back to you tends to come within the hour. If you have not heard anything yet, give it a day; Anna took enough of these calls to know the shape of it, that the photo comes when it comes and the silence is rarely the verdict you fear. Hospital patients are resting, aged care residents do not always have their phone to hand, and the gesture has already done its work in that room whether they have managed to tell you yet or not.

ABN: 17 830 858 659

We Also Deliver Nearby

Stawell Ballarat Horsham

Or Browse Other Categories

Thank You Funeral Get Well For Mum Native Flowers 80th Birthday

About the Author

Siobhan Thomson

Co-founder, Lily's Florist

Ararat was our 19th partner area when we set it up in 2009. Not because we had mapped out western Victoria on a whiteboard. Because people kept ringing our shop in Kingscliff asking us to send flowers there. Not dozens of calls, but enough. Andrew and I had never been to Ararat. We just knew people wanted to reach it, and that was reason enough.

Lily's Florist started in 2009 as a way to connect people with florists in towns they could not get to themselves. Seventeen years and 800+ partner florists later, we have not changed the model. Andrew and I run it from Kingscliff with our two daughters. Read more on our About Us page.

The original Lily's Florist shop in Kingscliff, NSW

* The original Kingscliff shop, bought 2006. The brand and network came three years later.