Same Day Flowers to Birchgrove, From Wherever You Are

You're in Brisbane or London, and the birthday is in Birchgrove today. Order birthday flowers before the cutoff and we'll send them to the house, or to work if the birthday person is in the city all day. Is it a fortieth? Our 40th birthday flowers are a popular pick. For an office, add the floor and company name to the notes; in our experience the city towers hold flowers at the front desk and call the office upstairs.

Anna's tip: plenty of Birchgrove's old sandstone cottages are narrow inside, and a tall bunch suits them better than a wide one: a mantelpiece takes height happily, while a wide spread crowds the shelf. Once it's in a vase, the flowers look most generous standing about one and a half times the vase's height. Any shorter and the vase starts to look like the present.

Someone you love has lost someone, and you've only just heard. Sympathy flowers can go to the service or to the family home, so if you're not sure where the family will be this week, ask, or check the funeral notice. For a funeral at St John's Anglican on Birchgrove Road, put the date and start time in the notes; in our experience the florist plans the run so the flowers are there before the family arrives. Sympathy flowers for home land well in the quieter week after the funeral. If it was their mum, on the card: "Thinking of you all, and of your mum."

Anna, on white flowers

Most sympathy flowers lean white, and white shows every mark by about day four. Warmth hurries the browning along, so the flowers want the coolest room in the house, out of the sun. In an old sandstone house, that's usually the room with the thickest walls.

Good news travels fast, and the flowers should keep up. Celebration flowers suit a new job or an engagement, delivered at work or at home. Anniversary flowers are best sent for the day of the anniversary dinner, and on a Saturday, get the order in early.

Arrangements come ready to set down. A hand-tied bunch is the one that needs a vase eventually, and a properly made one stands up on its own until then, because the stems cross at one binding point and splay out at the base. Stand it in the kitchen sink with a little water while the celebrating carries on. When someone finds a vase, recut every stem at an angle first; a flat cut sits against the bottom and seals.

Some orders don't fit a category: a thank you to the neighbour who fed the cat, a housewarming, a hello from overseas. Anna has a pick for those.

The Rose, Gerbera & Lilies Bunch. The three age at different speeds, so it never looks finished all at once: the gerberas are bright from day one, the roses open over the first few days, and the lilies keep opening bud after bud into the second week. Pinch off the orange anthers as each lily opens and the pollen stays off the tablecloth.