East Mackay Flower Delivery, Same Day

A birthday in East Mackay, maybe at a house a few streets back from the beach, maybe in a room at Good Shepherd Lodge on McIntyre Street, and you can't be there for the cake. Pop a mobile number in the notes for a house, or their full name and room number for the Lodge. Turning ninety? Our 90th birthday flowers are a lovely place to start.

Andrew learned what a delivery means in a place like that at Noble Lakeside Park, the retirement village just up the road from our old shop in Kingscliff, back in 2008, lilies in one hand, pollen down his shirt, and Asha (nine months old, not on the books) howling in the car. Half the residents came to the windows to see what the fuss was. One lady in a cardigan told him they'd had grandchildren quieter than that. Different coast, but I'd imagine a delivery at Good Shepherd draws the same little crowd.

Lilies suit a big birthday because the buds keep opening through the week, so there's something new most mornings. Pinch the anthers off as each one opens. Pollen on a cardigan stains if you wipe it, so if it lands, lift it off with sticky tape.

A funeral notice for someone from East Mackay, and the service is on before you can get up there. You want the flowers to say everything and to be quiet, both at once.

If it's a wreath or sheath for the service, at Mackay Funerals on Alfred Street or City Funerals on Sydney Street, pop the chapel and the start time in the notes, so the funeral flowers are there before people start arriving. Or you might send sympathy flowers to the home a few days later, when the visitors thin out and the house goes very quiet. On the card, something simple: "Thinking of you all. With love."

Anna, on what's still standing in week two

In a warm house, disbud chrysanthemums, one big bloom per stem, are still going at ten days and often a fortnight, in my experience. For the house, that's the stem I'd want in the bunch.

Mum's in hospital in Mackay after a fall, or a friend at the Bicentennial village on Creal Street has had a rough month and you can't get up to see her.

For the hospital, pop her full name and the ward in the notes, and say whether it's Mackay Base on Bridge Road or the Mater on Willetts Road. For the village, her unit number. Get well flowers or thinking of you flowers, keep the card short; something like "Rest up. We'll visit soon." is plenty.

Anna's call: something that arrives ready to stand, like the Blue Mist Arrangement. A wrapped bunch needs scissors, a vase and someone to strip every leaf below the waterline before it rots. An arrangement just needs a top-up.

Sometimes there's no occasion at all, or you don't really know their taste, and you end up scrolling through everything from roses to purple flowers. Anna has a favourite for exactly that.

The Lovely Lilac & Lime Bunch. Soft purple against green looks like somebody thought about it. Keep it out of a west window, though: strong light breaks the purple pigment down and it fades in a couple of days. Anywhere else it holds its depth.