Same Day Flower Delivery to Kaleen, Home or Aged Care

You won't be at the table this year, so the flowers go to the house they've had for decades. If they might be out, their mobile in the notes gets them a call before anything is left on a hot step. Browse our birthday flowers, or birthday flowers for Dad.

Roses in a Pastel Pink Lilies & Roses Arrangement should turn up half open. At the market I'd look at the sepals, the little green leaves under each bloom. Folded back to about ninety degrees, the rose has stored enough sugar to finish opening. Clamped tight, it can sit closed for days and then drop its head.

Mum or Dad is in care now, and a birthday, or any Tuesday, deserves flowers just the same. At Mona Tait Gardens, the room number is what gets them to the right door. See our 90th birthday flowers or thinking of you flowers, with a short card: "Happy 90th, Dad. Save me a chocolate."

I learned what a vase means in aged care in 2008, at Blue Care's Amaroo home on Keith Compton Drive, Tweed Heads. A big hand-tied birthday bunch from the Kingscliff shop, no vase. A nurse went looking and came back with the water jug off the tea trolley. The birthday girl was thrilled. I winced. For a room at Mona Tait, I'd send a boxed arrangement and spare the staff the jug.

Anna, on a room in care

If the heater's on in their room, the warm dry air pulls water out of the petals faster than the stems can replace it, and the petal edges crisp and curl. Keep the box off the windowsill and clear of the vent. And if their memory is slipping, send flowers they'd know from their own garden: roses, daisies. Familiar lands better than clever.

You've been asked to sort the flowers, and the notice gives a church and a time. Send a funeral wreath or sheath to the service and sympathy flowers to the house afterwards. Put the start time in the notes: St Michael's on Tyrrell Circuit holds 9:30 Masses during the week, so "morning" isn't enough. At All Saints on Rubicon Street, in our experience the wreaths go in well before the family arrives. A simple card works: "Thinking of you all. Love, the Sydney cousins."

Anna's pick for a Greek Orthodox service: a round white wreath, because the circle stands for eternity. The White Funeral Wreath in the Sympathy tab is built in foam to hold through a long service. The tradition holds memorials at forty days and again through the first year, so expect to send again.

Not every order needs a big occasion. The end of term is reason enough: send flowers to the office at Kaleen Primary on Ashburton Circuit or Maribyrnong Primary on Alberga Street, with the teacher's name and class. Try our thank you flowers or just because flowers; Anna would send the same bunch for either.

The Lovely Lilac & Lime Bunch works in relay: the roses open first, the lisianthus carries the middle, and the green trick dianthus outlasts both by about a week with fresh water, so it never looks finished all at once.