Same Day Flower Delivery Coolabine, All the Way Out

It's Mum's birthday, and she could be down the paddock or in Kenilworth when the flowers arrive. You won't know from where you are.

In 2008 I took a birthday bunch from our Marine Parade shop to a house in Koala Beach, the estate at Pottsville. No answer, so I went round the back, and in the gum over the gate sat a koala, asleep at about head height. My first in the wild, two years into living on the Tweed (a bit embarrassing, that). I stared far too long, then left the flowers in the shade under him. The birthday girl rang the shop that night: lovely flowers, and did I know I'd left them with Kevin.

Coolabine's name comes from an Aboriginal word for the place of koalas, so the shade may already be taken. Put a mobile in the notes, or name a shady spot, and the florist will ring first or leave them right there.

Anna's call: where nobody may be home, go for an arrangement over a bunch. An arrangement carries its own water, in soaked foam or a vase, so a few hours waiting in the shade cost it very little.

They've slipped away for a couple of nights, and you want anniversary flowers or something romantic waiting in the cabin. If they're at Coolabine Retreat on East Coolabine Road, which does anniversary and proposal stays, or one of the other holiday cabins around the valley, put the booking name, the cabin and the check-in day in the notes. In our experience it's the host who opens the door at a farm stay, so add their name if you have it.

A hand-tied bunch wants a vase about two-thirds its height, and a holiday cabin can't be counted on to have one. The Blue Mist Including Vase & Chocolates comes in its own glass and goes straight on the table.

Someone in Coolabine has died, and you can't get to the service. Funeral flowers go to the funeral director ahead of time, so put the director's name and the service time in the notes. In Kenilworth, name the church too: St John Bosco and St Luke's sit almost side by side on Anne Street. Sympathy flowers for the home can wait until the visitors thin out. Nothing you send fixes it, and the family still notices who sent something. "Thinking of you all" on the card is plenty.

Anna, on a sheath for a small church

A sheath is a flat spray that lies on the coffin, no vase needed. For a small church I leaned to whites and creams, and the White Lily & Rose Sheath sits in that same quiet register. Any lily in a sheath wants its anthers pinched out, so the orange pollen never reaches the coffin or anyone's good clothes.

A thank-you for the neighbour who fed the dogs, a friend who's had a rough month, a new baby down the road: lots of orders fit none of the above, and they go out the same day too.

Anna's answer is the Florist's Choice Bunch. It's built from whatever the florist has best that day, and if there are chrysanthemums in it, they can go three weeks in a cool valley room.