Flower Delivery Lane Cove: Lily's Florist

One of our recent customers said our website was "easy to negotiate" with "clear pictures" that help make confident choices. That matters when you're picking flowers for Lane Cove, Chatswood, or Artarmon at 10PM because you just remembered your anniversary. But, in my opinion, here's what really matters and that is when you hit 'order', it goes to an actual partner florist with a real shop on the North Shore, not some warehouse out in Blacktown.

What Happens When You Order for Lane Cove

Right, so you place an order for Lane Cove, it could be 5AM before work, it could be midnight panic mode as sometimes is the case. Our system looks at where exactly in Lane Cove it needs to go and which of our North Shore partner florists has the right flowers fresh that morning.

For example, let's say you want roses delivered to Royal North Shore Hospital. If our St Leonards florist is running low on roses, the order automatically shifts to our Chatswood partner who's got plenty. They make your arrangement that morning, their courier knows exactly where the hospital flower drop-off point is (not the main entrance, trust me), and sorted. No pre-made arrangements sitting in boxes for days, just proper florists doing their thing.

The Valentine's Day That Nearly Killed Us (But Taught Us Everything)

I've banged on about how we started in Kingscliff, the Yellow Pages calls, the baby bottles saga. But here's a bit I haven't shared much. Valentine's Day 2011, home office in Pottsville, 8.5 months pregnant with Ivy (who ended up being 10.2 pounds, bloody hell).

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We'd converted our double garage into this proper office - carpet, desks, coffee machine, the works. Had Anna and Will, both ex-florists we'd hired to give us credibility. Plus two mates we'd roped in to help, who thought we "sent a few flowers around" occasionally.

Valentine's week hits. Every phone starts ringing at 6:30AM and doesn't stop. Not exaggerating. Eight people crammed in what was meant for four, me ready to pop, everyone sweating bullets despite the aircon. One mate from Pottsville, Jody, looks at us around day three, completely bedraggled, and goes "what the hell have you created?"

That week we processed more Sydney orders than we'd done in the previous month. Lane Cove, Chatswood, North Sydney, everywhere. Our fax machine (yes, fax, this was 2011) literally caught fire trying to send orders to our partner florists. The smell of burning plastic mixed with my morning sickness that hadn't actually stopped being evening sickness. Magic times.

But that chaos of that day taught us everything. We needed better systems, more florists, proper software. No more faxing. Within six months we'd built our current system where orders route automatically. Lane Cove orders flow seamlessly to the right North Shore partner florist without anyone manually faxing anything.

Why Lane Cove Gets Proper Service

Our Lane Cove partners know the area inside out. They know Burns Bay Road gets mental during school pickup. They know if you're delivering to the Lane Cove Private Hospital, you need to use the Osborne Road entrance. They know North Ryde business park addresses can be trickier than they look on maps.

This local knowledge plus our routing system means your flowers get there fresh and on time. Not like those operations where everything ships from a central warehouse and the driver's never been to Lane Cove before.

The Review Game (Real Talk)

We signed up with Feefo in 2013 and it properly scared us. See, we can't fake reviews (nor would we), can't delete bad ones, can't get cousins to write glowing testimonials. Only people who actually bought flowers can review.

22,479 reviews later, we're still standing. Got our Feefo Trusted Service Award again this year - needed 50 reviews of 4 stars or better to qualify, we got 2,466. That's real Lane Cove customers, real Chatswood orders, real feedback we can't manipulate.

> Read all Lily's Florist reviews

The Practical Bits

Need to change your Lane Cove delivery address to Artarmon? 72 hours notice please. Order before 2PM weekdays for same day. Saturday? Before 10AM. No PO Boxes (flowers need real addresses and signatures).

Still the same family operation, just bigger reach now. From panicking about $20 in the till to delivering across Lane Cove and beyond. Mental journey really.