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Now With Lily's Florist
Now With Lily's Florist
✓ 18+ Yrs Australian Family Business
✓ 22,000+ Verified Feefo Reviews
✓ Real Cairns Partners Florists
✓ Order by 2pm for Same-Day Delivery
✓ 22,000+ Verified Feefo Reviews
✓ Real Cairns Partners Florists
✓ Order by 2pm for Same-Day Delivery
Flowers to Cairns, QLD: Same Day, Built for Tropical Heat by 2pm
You are ordering flowers to someone in Cairns and you are not in Cairns. Maybe you are interstate, maybe overseas, and you have no way of seeing what arrives or what it looks like sitting on their kitchen bench at the end of the day. That is the bit that wakes people up at 11pm. A florist in or close to Cairns will put your arrangement together fresh and deliver it by hand the same day.
Siobhan here. Flowers N Lace in Bungalow was our seventh partner florist, back in 2008. We built her a website, same as the others, because none of them had one, and passed her every order that came through by phone or online. That was the model. The corridor now runs from Gordonvale in the south to Palm Cove on the Northern Beaches, and the florists covering it have been on our network for years. They build for 32-degree air and 80% afternoon humidity. The Hobart palette does not survive a Cairns Tuesday. Andrew and I have been going up there almost every year since 2008, which sounds boring when you say it out loud, but it is the opposite of boring when you have watched your kids go from a capsule in the back seat to taller than you, all framed by the same sticky tropical air. We started Lily's Florist in 2009, two kids, still a mum and dad operation, 800+ partner florists across Australia now. Here is how we got here.
Order Online by 2pm
Flowers from $42.95, $16.95 delivery
Or Phone 1300 360 469
7am-6pm weekdays, 10am Sat
Verified on Feefo
"I didn't look at a website, just googled a florist to Cairns and found Lily's Florist. Great service and beautiful flowers delivered exactly as promised."
Allison · verified customer · delivered to Cairns · Florist's Choice Arrangement
Order Flowers to CairnsAllison did what most Cairns customers do. Googled, found us, picked Florist's Choice Arrangement. She left the stem selection to the florist. In a city where humidity changes what survives, that is usually the right call.
Anna on the Florist's Choice in Cairns
The Florist's Choice Arrangement is a box arrangement, floral foam in a container, no vase needed. With local growers a short freight run away, Cairns florists tend to work with stems that are hours old rather than days. In the dry season, that might include roses and lisianthus alongside tropicals. In wet season, heavier on orchids, gingers, and foliage that will not flinch in the humidity. Allison's order went to a florist who read the conditions that morning and built from whatever was at its best. Tropical city. Tropical stock. That is the whole point.
Browse by occasion
The Stems Other States Airfreight In Are Grown an Hour Above Cairns
Anna, qualified florist | 15+ years on the bench, the call volume from southern senders ordering long-stem roses north every February and the conversation that followed
Most of Australia airfreights tropical stems in. Cairns sources them from the Atherton Tableland, an hour or two up the Gillies Range. Mareeba and the surrounding region cut anthuriums, heliconias, ginger and frangipani at altitude, then truck them down to Cairns wholesale in a few hours. The standard supply chain looks different. Cut flowers travel overnight from Melbourne or Sydney, a full day in a refrigerated truck, arriving stressed. In Cairns the freight is short and the stock is built for the climate it lands in. Different world.
The order most likely to give me trouble in February was the long-stem rose order from a southern sender. Sydney mostly, sometimes interstate, once from Oslo for a mother's birthday. The pattern was the same. A dozen long-stem reds because that is what they would order back home. My answer was the same too. Roses in a Cairns February brown from the petal edges within three days. Tropical stems outlast them by a week. The Oslo caller let me change her order. That is the difference between a florist asking you to change the order and a florist quietly swapping it. Orchids, tropical gingers, a few spray roses for the colour she wanted. Some callers said no, they wanted the roses regardless, and that was their call to make. Most let me steer. Her mother sent a photo on day eight, arrangement still standing.
November through April changes everything. I learned that from the complaint calls, not the textbooks. Afternoon storms roll in fast and the air is thick enough to swim through. A cut flower left on a doorstep in direct sun during wet season is finished in 90 minutes. Gerberas bend at the neck inside 48 hours up there without wiring, because the stems are hollow and humidity does not help. A florist who has worked tropical for any length of time wires them. They also plan morning delivery runs, because by two in the afternoon the storm window is open and the doorstep is not where you want flowers sitting. The tropical stems you see in Cairns arrangements are not exotic imports. Anthuriums, ginger lilies. They grow in people's back gardens.
Anna on what Cairns actually orders
Three Bunches That Outsell Everything Else on the Cairns Run
If I ranked every order that went out the door to a Cairns address by volume across our years on the network, three products would sit at the top. They are not the same three that would top a Sydney or Melbourne list. Here is what they are and why each one keeps winning the click on the days a bunch has to land right in Cairns heat.
No. 1 in Cairns volume
Australian Natives Bunch
Banksias, a king protea or two depending on the budget that day, leucadendrons, eucalyptus or kunzea for filler. Every stem is woody. Woody stems drink slowly and they do not bruise. That is most of what makes this the Cairns pick. The bunch handles a Cairns Tuesday without complaining and it holds shape on a sunny doorstep for the forty minutes it might wait between delivery and the recipient getting home. Anna's longevity rule: most cut flowers buy you a week. A native bunch buys you two, then dries in the vase and stays on the shelf for another month looking intentional. The king protea is the price point. Protea cuts run $8 to $15 a stem wholesale depending on size and season, which is why a native bunch reads more expensive than its stem count suggests. The other Cairns advantage: most of these stems are grown an hour or two up the Gillies Range on the Atherton Tableland. The freight from grower to florist is short, the stems hit the bench fresh, and what arrives at the door has not been sitting in a refrigerated truck overnight. That is the receipt. Shortest supply chain in Australia for these stems, longest vase life on a Cairns kitchen bench.
No. 2 in Cairns volume
Bright Arrangement With Chocolates
Square grey-foam box arrangement built from hot pink and orange roses through the centre, yellow tulips when they are in season, gerberas if they are not, deep violet statice filling every gap, and a row of chocolates tucked along the edge. The foam is the whole point in Cairns. Soaked floral foam holds water in proportion to stem count, which means a foam arrangement gives the stems passive hydration for forty-eight hours whether anyone touches it or not. A hand-tied bunch in this climate either gets put in a vase within the hour or starts wilting. A foam arrangement holds. That is why hospital wards, aged-care reception desks, and offices order this format. The recipient does not have to do anything on arrival. Day one is the photo. Day five the roses fade and the tulips finish. Day seven the statice and the chocolates are what is left, which most callers told me is when the recipient eats the box. The chocolates take a cut of the flower budget. At the listed price the stems are working at around $75 to $80, but the format earns the cost because the foam keeps the arrangement standing through a Cairns afternoon that would flatten a wrapped bunch in three hours. The one thing I told every caller about a foam box: a small amount of water poured into the foam every second day extends the whole thing by three days.
No. 3 in Cairns volume
Colourful Bunch With Chocolates
Our biggest seller nationally, and the Cairns version of it is one of the few where the order looks distinctly different from a Sydney or Melbourne build. The bigger budget on this one gives a Cairns florist room to use the local tropical stock. Heliconia bracts, ginger flower spikes, anthuriums, bird of paradise leaves running the back of the arrangement, with a smaller core of cerise roses or gerberas through the front for the recognisable colour palette. Most callers had no idea this was even an option. They were ordering the photo they saw on the website, which was shot in a Melbourne studio. What arrives in Cairns at this budget is bigger, more architectural, and built around stems the recipient probably has not seen in a bunch before, because most southern florists pay airfreight for heliconia and run it sparingly. A Cairns florist has it on the bench at wholesale tableland pricing. The vase life reads like this. The core roses do five to seven days. The gerberas finish first at four if they are in there. The heliconia bracts hold for two weeks. The bird of paradise leaves are still structural well after the soft flowers have gone. Strip the spent stems at day eight and what is left looks like a different arrangement entirely, mostly architectural, mostly green and red, still photograph-worthy. The chocolates are usually gone by day three.
How Your Flowers Get to Cairns
You place your order online or by phone, we pass it to a florist in or near Cairns, and they build it by hand from whatever is at its best. Not a warehouse. Not a box from an airport. Someone with a bench and a cool room, putting your arrangement together while the kettle boils.
* How it works. You order, we connect with a florist covering the Cairns area, they deliver fresh. No post. No boxes.
1
You order online or by phone
2
We connect with a partner florist near Cairns
3
They make and deliver your flowers fresh
What to Send to Cairns
You have seen the flowers. Now the question is timing, addressing, and what to write on the card. Reef-day romance flowers at a Palm Cove resort need different coordination than Sorry Business arrangements for a family in Manoora. Cairns covers a lot of ground, and the tropical natives in someone's back garden need different handling to a long-stem rose order from Sydney.
Sympathy flowers to Cairns carry more cultural range than most cities deliver into
Ordering flowers when someone has died is one of those tasks you do on autopilot. You are not thinking about stems or colours. You just need something to arrive that says what you cannot say from wherever you are. Flowers will not fix it. You know that. They carry the message anyway. In Cairns the cultural range is wider than almost anywhere else we deliver, so the first thing to decide is where the flowers are going. A sympathy arrangement for a family home in Edge Hill is a different delivery to a community-scale tribute for a PNG family's mourning in Manoora. Mention the cultural background when ordering so the florist can match the protocol. If flowers are going to a funeral home, address them to the deceased's full name. If to the family home, address them to the family. There are no right words for the card. "Thinking of you and your family" is enough.
Anna, Qualified Florist
The Indigenous community in Cairns is close to 10% of the population, the highest of any major Queensland city. Sorry Business protocols vary between communities and between families. I would never assume. White chrysanthemums are common in Japanese Buddhist traditions, and the Japanese community in Cairns has been established for decades. For PNG and Pacific Islander families, the tributes tend to be community-scale, often delivered to a church hall. From what callers told me, families would tell the florist what was needed and the florist would build accordingly. There is a crematorium and memorial park in Mount Sheridan, and a number of culturally-aware funeral directors covering the region. I always told callers to mention the background and let the florist take it from there. A funeral spray or a wreath can be built to suit.
Sending birthday flowers?
Most birthday flower orders to Cairns come from interstate or overseas. Someone's mum retired up there, or a mate took a job on a reef boat, and the person ordering has not seen the inside of their home in two years. Birthday flowers from a distance are half celebration and half apology for not being at the table. Both halves land.
If the recipient works during the day, include a mobile number so someone can call ahead rather than leaving flowers on a doorstep in the heat. Morning delivery is better than afternoon in Cairns for anything sitting outside.
If you want the flowers there when the person wakes up, order the day before and note "morning delivery" in the card message field. If the birthday falls on a Sunday, order by 10am Saturday and note the occasion (we get a lot of panicked Saturday morning calls for this, you are not the first). Card message ideas for a distance birthday: "Still thinking of you from [city]" or "Happy birthday from everyone down south" work better than something generic.
A Cairns birthday is a longevity question, not a colour question. A 70th wants something that holds shape for the two weeks the recipient will look at it. Long-stem roses brown fast on a hot kitchen bench. Statice and tropical natives sit at room temperature for two weeks without complaining. A 30th can take more risk. Brighter, looser, more disposable. Either way, the florist will use what came off the morning truck.
Address hospital flowers to the patient's full name and ward
Sending flowers to a hospital when you cannot visit yourself is a strange kind of helpless. You are trusting a stranger to carry something on your behalf into a building you have never been inside, and you will probably never see the moment they receive it (which, if you are anything like me, is the bit that matters most). It works. The florist passes the arrangement to reception. From there it makes its way to the bedside, usually within the hour. Cairns Hospital on the Esplanade is the biggest facility in Far North Queensland, and our partner florists near the area deliver there regularly. Cairns Private on Upward Street covers day surgery, coronary care and renal dialysis. Cairns Private no longer offers maternity, so all births now go through the public hospital. Address hospital flowers to the patient's full name and ward. If you do not know the ward, reception will look it up.
The biggest risk with hospital delivery is discharge. If the patient goes home before the flowers arrive, the arrangement sits at reception uncollected. Include the recipient's mobile number in case nobody is at the ward when delivery arrives. For maternity, address flowers to the mother's name, not the baby's. A get well arrangement with a short card message ("So glad you are here" works for new baby, "Thinking of you" for surgery recovery) is usually better than trying to be clever.
Anna processed thousands of hospital orders from the Pottsville office. Her standing rules for the wards:
No lilies. The perfume carries the whole ward by day two, and other patients on the floor have allergies or chemo nausea. Compact vase-format arrangements, not hand-tied bunches. Nobody on a maternity ward has scissors and a kitchen for the wrapping. The flowers go straight onto the bedside table, which is about eight inches wide.
Bright Mixed Bunch from $79.95. Delivery $16.95.
Order Before 2pm for Same DayAnniversary flowers to a Palm Cove resort have a concierge in the middle
Cairns gets a steady run of anniversary flowers ordered by people who are on holiday and want something delivered to their hotel room, or by someone interstate marking a date for parents who retired up north. Palm Cove and Trinity Beach resorts generate a lot of this. The reef-day proposal flowers are a thing too (we have had a few of those).
Hotel delivery needs coordination. If the recipient is out on a reef tour all morning, note the hotel name and room number in the order. Concierge is the first stop. Most Palm Cove and Northern Beaches resorts will hold flowers at reception or place them in the room if the concierge has the room number. If you want the arrangement waiting when your partner walks in the door, call us on 1300 360 469 and we can coordinate the timing with the florist directly. For romance orders, a card message beats no card message every time.
The reef-proposal arrangements were a category of their own. I steered callers off anything that would shed petals or wilt before the engagement photo. Cymbidium orchids in a vase travel well, take a hotel room's air conditioning without complaining, and last the rest of the holiday. The trick is the vase, not the wrap. A wrapped bunch handed to someone in a hotel room dies on the hotel desk because there is nowhere to put it.
Six months since you called and the flowers are easier than the conversation
You do not need a reason. Maybe it has been a while. Maybe you heard something and you are not sure what to do about it from a distance. The flowers say what calling after six months cannot. A thinking of you arrangement delivered to reception at an aged care facility is one of the most common orders we process for the Cairns area. Regis at Redlynch and Bolton Clarke at Westcourt take most of these arrivals, with reception desks staffed for parcel and flower deliveries every weekday. Address the arrangement to the resident's full name and the facility name. FIFO families order regularly too, someone working a roster out west and wanting flowers at the house for a partner having a rough week. For FIFO, a card message that says something specific ("Halfway through the swing, thinking of you") lands harder than "Just because."
Aged care rooms run on a different rule than home delivery. Bedside tables in a nursing home are crowded with medication, a glass of water, the call button, and family photos. A big bunch takes up half that real estate and the staff move it. Compact vase arrangement, not a wrapped bunch. Soft palette, low scent. The colour is what the resident sees from the bed at five in the morning before the room lights come on.
When you do not know what to send, tell us the occasion and let the florist pick
Pick Florist's Choice and tell us the occasion in the card message field. Most people who order from us do not know flowers, and they do not need to. Tell us who it is for, what the occasion is, and whether the delivery address is a home, hospital, aged care, hotel, or workplace. Everything else is taken care of. The under $60 range is there too if budget is the main concern.
Anna's specific Cairns pick
If I had to pick one for Cairns without knowing the occasion: a Florist's Choice in tropicals, built from whatever came off the Tableland truck that morning. Anthuriums, heliconias, ginger lilies, with cymbidium orchids if they came in fresh. The wholesale runs from the Tableland happen three or four times a week. Tuesday and Friday are the strongest morning stock. Tell us the occasion in the card message field and the budget you are working with. The florist near Cairns will build from there.
Seventeen years of the same holiday. The Esplanade lagoon, the Palm Cove walks, the croc sign photos. You can line up the pictures and watch the girls grow.
* Some of our many Cairns trips over the years. The lagoon, Palm Cove, Trinity Beach, Fitzroy Island, and the same croc sign photo every single time.
How to Order Flowers to Cairns
Phone
1300 360 469
7am to 6pm weekdays
10am Saturdays
Our Australian team takes the calls. Order online any time.
Same Day Cutoff
2pm weekdays, 10am Saturdays. Saturday is tight because partner florists run reduced rosters. No Sunday delivery. Sunday orders queue for Monday. Tuesday and Friday orders catch the freshest stock off the Tableland truck.
Delivery $16.95
Flat rate, subsidised. A run from the CBD to Palm Cove is 27 kilometres. South to Mount Sheridan is about 12. The partner florist absorbs the difference between $16.95 and what either of those runs actually costs.
Wet Season and Doorstep Timing
In November-April wet season, partner florists run morning routes so the flowers are inside before the afternoon storm window opens. If nobody is home, the florist will look for a shaded spot or leave with a neighbour. Include the recipient's mobile number on the order. That is the difference between flowers that arrive and flowers that wilt waiting. Order before 2pm today and your flowers are there this afternoon.
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After You Order
Your order goes straight to a florist close to the area. They build it fresh and a driver runs it to the door. The Cairns corridor is wide: Gordonvale 25 kilometres south, then up the Captain Cook Highway to Palm Cove. Whoever covers your delivery knows the route, the traffic pinch points around Smithfield, and the resort access procedures for the Northern Beaches resorts. You will get a confirmation email from us and a delivery notification once it is done.
If something goes wrong, call us on 1300 360 469 or email [email protected]. You get a person. Not a ticket system, not a chatbot.
Andrew, Siobhan's partner and the other half of Lily's Florist
When something goes sideways with an order, I would rather hear about it by phone. You can fix a problem in one conversation that would take four emails. Damaged flowers, missed timing, the wrong arrangement. Whatever it is, we deal with it directly with the florist. We have been working with florists in the Cairns area since 2008 and the ones on our network know our standards. The cutoffs are on the order page. We put them there because hiding them means a panicked phone call later, and nobody wants that.
The pattern that taught us most about Cairns was tropical doorstep timing. We used to get complaints about flowers arriving wilted on hot afternoons. The answer was not "your florist failed." It was that we were letting people order without warning them about the doorstep risk. The fix was operational, not creative. The order page now mentions wet-season timing up front and asks for the recipient's mobile number. We did not invent any of that. The complaints did.
Siobhan again. Cairns is one of the places we know well enough that when someone rings about an order, we can picture the suburb, the road, the conditions. Seventeen years of going back to the same city and raising your kids in it, even just for a week at a time, does that. One more thing: if you do not hear from the recipient straight away, that is normal. Most people do not call the sender the moment flowers land on the table. They call that evening, or the next morning. The flowers are there. Give it a day.
ABN: 17 830 858 659
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About the Author
The shop in Kingscliff where we started. We bought it in 2006 and everything that came after, including the Cairns partnership, grew from that front door.
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