Same Day Flower Delivery Doonan, Horses and All

It's her birthday, you're in Brisbane or further, and she'll be down at the stables until the light goes. Send it to the house with her mobile in the notes, so the florist can ring from the gate and she can walk up. It's the same drill for a 60th, and the same again if she's your wife and you're the one who's away (there are birthday flowers for a wife for exactly that).

Andrew found out about horse properties the hard way in 2008, at one off Cudgera Creek Road, out behind Pottsville. Nobody at the house, a radio going down at the stables (on for the horses, it turned out). He propped the birthday gerberas on the yard rail to knock at the tack room, and turned round to find a grey mare three gerberas in and starting on the cellophane. The second bunch, from the shop on Marine Parade, went on our tab. Plenty of Doonan blocks run horses, so tell us if there's a paddock between the gate and the door.

A hand-tied bunch sits in a water pack at the base, enough to keep it drinking for a good few hours in the shade. Sun is the problem. On a verandah that faces the afternoon sun the petals warm up, lose water faster than the stems can replace it, and go soft at the edges before anyone gets home. Shade first, then. For someone who's out until dark, a box arrangement holds its water in the foam and waits longer.

You've got a ward number off a text and no idea if they'll still be there this afternoon. First find out: ward, or home already? If they're still in emergency, wait until they've been moved. For Noosa Hospital on Goodchap Street, put their full name and ward in the notes; in our experience the front desk takes flowers in and staff carry them up later. Home is simpler. Get well flowers suit either, and the hospital flowers are put together with a ward in mind.

Andrew and I carried plenty of flowers up to the front desk at Byron Bay Hospital in the shop years, and the ones that went astray were usually missing a ward. Card ideas: "Thinking of you. Home soon, I hope." or "No need to reply. Just rest."

Anna, on flowers that arrive ready to stand

An arrangement in its own vase or box is ready the moment it lands. In my experience wards don't have spare vases, so a wrapped bunch waits until somebody finds a jug. Roses, gerberas and carnations sit happily in a shared room. Lilies are lovely at home, but the pollen travels on clothing and the scent fills a ward, so I'd keep them for the house.

They've sold up in the city, bought a few acres between Noosa and Eumundi, and the house is still mostly boxes. It's the dream, and it's also a long way from everyone they know, which is why flowers from home land so well that first month. Add a mobile, since they'll likely be out the back looking for the water tank. Celebration flowers fit it better than anything formal.

Anna's steer: an arrangement in its own box. Nobody knows which carton the vases are in, and a box sits on the bench drinking from its wet foam while they look.

Maybe it isn't a birthday or a hospital or a move. Maybe it's just been too long since you rang. Anna's pick for these is roses.

People default to roses because they feel safe, and for once the safe choice is a good one. Give them their first drink in cold water: it cools the heads and slows the opening, so they come on over several days. In a room that isn't too warm, roses give you a week to ten days.