Cart is empty
Shop By
Often the news reaches the UK overnight. Someone in Australia has died, the funeral is days away, and you are in England with no flight that gets you there in time. When Terrie ordered from the UK after her uncle died, she wrote afterwards that she crossed her fingers and hoped.
Ordering flowers for a death from the other side of the world means paying for something you will never see, for people you cannot hold. Flowers are a small thing against that. They are still what the family will see every morning that week, and that counts for something.
This is the order we would place if it were our own family: when to send it from the UK, where it should go, what it should be, and what to write. Andrew has the clocks. Anna, the qualified florist who has been with us since 2010, has the lilies.
01
I crossed my fingers and hoped
Terrie's review, the photo her family sent her, and what we wrote back.
"I ordered these flowers from the UK, as my uncle passed away. I crossed my fingers and hoped. Absolutely lovely flowers and my family loved them. Very nice job thank you."
Terrie Mayo · ordered from the UK · Read it on Product Review
Our reply · Siobhan & Andrew
Thank you, Terrie, and I'm so sorry about your uncle. I'm sorry too that it has taken us five months to write back.
Crossing your fingers from the UK is about all anyone can do when they can't be there, and it's a horrible feeling, sending something for a loss like that and just hoping.
I had a look at the photo your family sent you. All white, one lily wide open and the rest still in bud, which means they'd have kept opening on that bench in Hervey Bay through the days after, once everyone had gone home and the house emptied out (that's so often the hardest stretch). A few more flowers coming out then is only a small comfort, but it's something.
Thank you for trusting us with it.
Siobhan & Andrew, Lily's Florist
What Terrie could not see from England was what her family saw. That arrangement, one lily out and the rest waiting, is the one we suggest first from overseas, for reasons Anna explains further down.
Terrie's order went to Hervey Bay. If that is where your family is too, our page for flowers delivered to Hervey Bay has the full range for the town.
02
What time to order from the UK
Before you go to bed on a weekday is early enough, wherever in Australia the family lives.
Andrew Thomson
Co-founderRunning the network since 2009
An order placed at 11pm in London on a Tuesday lands in Queensland at 8 or 9 on Wednesday morning, depending on the season. It goes to a partner florist near the address, they make it that morning, and it goes out that afternoon. Nobody had to stay up.
Our same-day cutoff is 2pm on weekdays and 10am on Saturdays, Australian time. In the UK that falls somewhere between 3am and 7am, depending on the state and the month, because four Australian states and the ACT move their clocks and the UK moves its own on different weekends. I worked through every combination before writing this down. Midnight UK time on a weekday clears all of them.
Weekday
Before midnight, UK time
Goes out that same day in Australia, on the afternoon run, while it is still night or early morning in the UK.
Friday
Before 10pm, UK time
Makes the Saturday run. Saturday's cutoff is 10am Australian time, which from late October to late March is 11pm Friday in the UK for the east coast, so 10pm leaves an hour to spare.
Weekend
Saturday or Sunday
Goes out on Monday. There is no Sunday delivery in Australia, except Mother's Day in May, the one Sunday the network runs. That is not the UK's Mothering Sunday, which usually falls in March.
A service
Flowers for the funeral
Order at least the day before, with the funeral home, the date and the start time in the notes, so the florist can have it there before people arrive.
03
The house, or the funeral
Two different gestures, and from overseas one of them usually does more.
The funeral is one afternoon, and your flowers stand with everyone else's. The house is where the family is all week, before the service and after it, and from the UK it is the one I would send first (it can land today, and it is still there when the visitors have gone and the place goes quiet).
If you want something at the service as well, send a sheath to the funeral home and put the service time in the notes. Our guide on how to send flowers to a funeral covers the rest.
One thing to check first, if you are not sure. Most Jewish families do not have flowers at a funeral or at the house afterwards, and some Muslim families would rather have none, so a quick message to someone close saves the family an awkward moment.
04
Why the lilies arrive mostly in bud
Green buds in the box are deliberate, and they are what carries the arrangement through the week.
Anna
Qualified floristWith Lily's since 2010
People open a box of lilies, see mostly green buds, and think the florist sent them short. Those buds are the point. An Oriental lily stem carries several of them and they open in turn, so an arrangement that arrives with one flower out gets fuller for days.
Warmth speeds all of it up. In a warm Queensland room the buds open sooner, and in my experience you get closer to a week of good looks than the fortnight a cool room gives. Sending them in bud, with colour just showing, buys those days back.
Two jobs for whoever is at the house. Pinch the orange anthers off as each flower opens, because dry pollen stains anything it touches. Lift it off with sticky tape, never wipe it. And keep the box away from the fruit bowl: ripening fruit gives off ethylene, and lilies read it as the signal to drop their youngest buds. There is wet foam inside the box, so a splash of water every couple of days keeps it drinking.
A few more flowers coming out then is only a small comfort, but it's something.Siobhan & Andrew · from our reply to Terrie
05
What to write when you can't be there
The card is the part the family keeps after the flowers have gone.
From that far away you do not need anything clever. Say where you are, say you are sorry, and sign your full name, because a house in mourning gets a lot of cards and the relatives who have not seen you for years will want to know which one was yours.
- So sorry I can't be with you. Thinking of you all from London.
- He was one of a kind. Holding you all close from England.
- Wish I was on that plane. All my love, and I'm so sorry.
- No words from this far away. Just love.
- Thinking of you every day this week, from the other side of the world.
06
Ordering from the UK
The few things that work differently when you are ordering from overseas.
Andrew Thomson
Co-founderOrdering and delivery
Our 1300 number does not work from outside Australia. From the UK, ring +61 2 8090 0577. The team answers 7am to 6pm on weekdays, Australian eastern time, which in the UK runs from the evening before until about breakfast.
Put the recipient's phone number in the order, so the florist can reach someone if nobody answers the door.
Changes after you have ordered go to [email protected]. It is quicker than waiting for Australia to wake up.
07
After you order
What the silence afterwards usually means.
Then comes the waiting, and from the other side of the world it is its own kind of awful. You get an email confirming the order. After that, hearing nothing from the family is normal. Nobody in the week of a funeral is sending thank-you texts, and it can be days before anyone mentions the flowers.
If you want to know they landed, ask a cousin or a friend for a photo, the way Terrie's family sent hers. And if something is not right, send us that photo the same day and we will sort it out with the florist. A photo is as close as you get to standing in that kitchen.
08
Quick answers
Can I pay in pounds?
The order is charged in Australian dollars. Your bank does the conversion, and some UK cards add a small foreign transaction fee, so check yours if that matters.
Will the family know the flowers came from England?
Only if you say so on the card. The family sees your message and your name, never the order details or the price, so writing where you are is the simplest way to tell them.
Can I send flowers to the funeral and to the house?
Yes, as two orders. Send the service piece to the funeral home the day before, and the house arrangement on the day of the service or the day after, so something arrives once the service is over.
What if nobody is home when the flowers arrive?
Put a phone number and anything useful in the notes: a side gate, a neighbour, a shaded spot. A boxed arrangement copes with a short wait better than a wrapped bunch, because it carries its own water.
Flowers still opening after everyone has gone home
Order before midnight UK time on a weekday and the lilies are with the family that afternoon, mostly in bud, so they are at their best in the quiet days after the funeral.
See our sympathy liliesSame-day cutoff 2pm weekdays and 10am Saturdays, Australian time. From the UK, ring +61 2 8090 0577.
