Same Day Flower Delivery in Haberfield, Birthday or Mass

She's turning 80, the family is at her place for lunch, and you can't be there. Birthday flowers for Mum or Nonna, or an 80th birthday bunch, can still go out today if the order is in before the cutoff.

A knock on the front door doesn't carry to a back garden. I learnt that in 2008 on Kennedy Drive, Tweed Heads West: an 80th, twenty cars outside, and me at the front door with roses for ten minutes. Everyone was out the back. Haberfield's original blocks were laid out 150 feet deep, so put "try the side gate" in the notes.

Anna's call: roses that arrive half open are at the right stage. Once the green sepals under the bud have folded back to about ninety degrees, the rose has stored the sugar to keep opening all week.

Someone has died, the Mass is booked, and you're sorting flowers from wherever you are. Funeral flowers go to the church before the service, St Joan of Arc on Dalhousie Street or wherever the family has booked, with the time in the notes. Same-day flowers can land after a morning Mass has finished, so for a morning service, order the day before. Flowers for the house can follow that week.

Flowers change nothing about a funeral, and the family still reads every card. "Riposa in pace" is enough, or "With love, from all of us."

Anna, on the traditional choice

White lilies and white or pale pink sympathy roses are the traditional Italian funeral flowers, and they work at the house too. A lily stem carries several buds that open one after another, so flowers sent to the house are still filling out a week after the funeral.

Mum has moved into care, and most weeks you can't get there. Give us the home, her full name and her room: St Vincent's Care on Tillock Street or Uniting Annesley on Haberfield Road. In our experience reception takes thinking of you flowers or get well flowers through to her room. A card line: "Thinking of you, Mum. See you Sunday."

In a care room the vase water may not get changed for days, so send an arrangement. Floral foam is a sponge: it holds a couple of days' drink, and a cup of water poured in at the edge every second day keeps the whole thing going.

Plenty of orders don't fit a heading: a thank you to the neighbour who keeps an eye on Mum, a new grandchild, a just because.

Anna's pick: the Pastel Pink Lilies & Roses Arrangement. Soft pink roses and white Oriental lilies sit in a silver cube that holds its own water, so there's no vase to find. The roses lead for the first few days, then the lily buds open as the roses fade.