Flower Delivery Dicky Beach Today

Mum or Dad has moved into care, and the birthday still comes round. BlueCare on Coolum Street runs a care home and a retirement village side by side, so the notes need to say which one, plus the name the staff know them by. From what we have seen, flowers go to reception, get signed for, and a carer takes them through. The 80th birthday flowers are a good place to start.

Secure wings run their own doors, which I found out the hard way. Around 2008 I carried an eightieth-birthday bunch into the secure wing of a nursing home in Tweed Heads, followed a nurse through the keypad door, handed the flowers over, and then found the code only worked from one side. Ten minutes between two doors, waving through the glass. The birthday girl asked if I was staying for cake. Coolum Street has a memory support unit of its own, so if that is where they live, say so in the notes and the flowers go to the right door and the right staff.

Anna's steer: familiar flowers suit a care room best. Roses or daisies, in a box arrangement that sits flat, cannot tip and needs no vase. Keep it small enough to share the bedside table with the water jug and the glasses.

They are down for a week at the beach, and the anniversary lands in the middle of it. The holiday park on Beerburrum Street has reception open 8am to 5pm, and the cabin or site number in the notes gets the flowers past the desk. For a rented unit by the surf club, add a mobile; people on holiday are usually on the sand. Look for an arrangement in the anniversary range or the love and romance flowers.

A hand-tied bunch is lovely once it is in water, but a holiday cabin rarely has a vase big enough, and left in its wrap on the bench it is thirsty by evening, the heads dropping first. An arrangement brings its water with it. The foam holds it, the stems drink from it, and a splash from a drink bottle every second day carries it through the week.

They are home from Sunshine Coast University Hospital in Birtinya, and the visitors have thinned out. Still on a ward? Send hospital flowers with the ward name, and the florist will usually leave them at that ward's desk. At home, ask in the notes for a knock and a minute's wait, because someone recovering is slow to the door. A card line that works: "Rest up. Dinner is on us Thursday."

Anna, on a bedroom with the door shut

A strongly scented stem fills a small closed room fast, and by the second morning the person in the bed is asking for it to be moved. Gerberas, chrysanthemums and most roses carry very little scent, which suits the bedside. Keep that in mind when you pick from the get-well flowers.

Plenty of orders fit no heading: a new job, a neighbour who fed the cat, a mate who had a rough week. Anna had a standing answer for those, and I have never argued with it.

Lilies. A stem opens one bud after another, so there are new flowers on day five. Pinch the orange anthers off as each one opens: no pollen on the tablecloth, and the bloom tends to go on longer. They are happiest in a lounge where the air moves. Start with the lily range.