Home Hill Flower Delivery, Same Day South of the Burdekin

You've heard they're in hospital and you're a long way away. Home Hill Hospital on Tenth Avenue has fourteen beds, so their full name matters more than a ward, and if they're only in for dialysis, send get well flowers to the house. Back in 2007 we were running hospital flowers into Murwillumbah Hospital ourselves (Asha screaming in the back, thirty-seven degrees, nowhere to park), and it was always the front desk that got them to the bed. Small country hospitals tend to work that way, and in our experience Home Hill's is no different.

A boxed arrangement is its own vase, and on a ward that matters, because nobody there has scissors or a spare one. Keep it compact; bedside tables are small. On the card: Thinking of you. Home soon.

The service is at St Stephen's on Eighth Avenue, or St Colman's, and you can't be there. For a Greek Orthodox funeral the wreath goes to the church ahead of time, in our experience about an hour early, so the family sees it walking in. Put the church and service time in the notes. Missed it? The family home is never wrong, and the forty-day memorial is another chance. Flowers are a small thing next to a funeral, I know that, and families still notice every one. On the card: Thinking of you all.

From Anna, on wreaths in the heat

Wreaths sit in wet foam and carry their own water, so white roses and lilies hold their faces right through a hot service.

It's her birthday, maybe her ninetieth, and she's at Ozcare Home Hill, which shares Tenth Avenue with the hospital, so put Ozcare and her room number first in the notes. If she's in the memory wing, the flowers may mean more to you than to her that day. Send them anyway.

Anna, on memory wings: an arrangement that comes in its own container, like the Blue Mist Arrangement, suits those rooms, because nobody has to find a vase. I'd save lilies for somewhere a person can pinch the anthers off, before the pollen ends up on fingers and cardigans.

Plenty of orders don't have a heading: a thank-you to the dialysis nurses, a just because, a note that says you heard. Anna has a view on this.

The 3 Gerberas In A Vase arrive already in water, so nobody hunts for a vase. Set it out of the aircon's draught and top the water up each morning, and the colour holds for days. For the same cheerful family, try daisies.