Lenaghan is on today's delivery run: order before 2pm on a weekday, or 10am Saturday, and the flowers reach the house today, however far up the drive. For a house on Lenaghans Drive, describe the gate in the notes. Choose the Australian Natives Bunch, our bestseller since 2013, from our same-day range below, or call us and our friendly, Australian-based team will put the order through for you.
Natives out to a Lenaghan block go the distance, as long as the jug stays full
A protea is a heavy drinker. In a house that runs warm in summer it can empty a vase in a few days, so use the big jug, fill it to the brim and check it every morning for the first week. Natives forgive nearly everything except an empty vase.
The leaves under the flower go black after a few days. That's the head pulling sugar out of its own leaves, and the flower is fine. The first time I saw it, at Salt in Kingscliff, I nearly binned a whole bucket of protea. Snip the black leaves off and carry on.
When the protea is finally done, pull it out. The brunia barely changes, and it dries where it stands and sits on a shelf for months.
A birthday, a funeral and a new house each get a card below, and the last card covers get well, thank-yous and no reason at all. For a quieter message, there are thinking of you flowers too.
You know exactly which house it is; you've just never had to describe it. If they work somewhere easy to find, send the flowers there. If it's the house, the number on a Lenaghan block is usually on the gate, if it's anywhere, so put the gate, the colour of the house and their mobile in the notes. I learned that in 2007, when Siobhan and I still did our own deliveries around the Tweed. Cudgera Creek Road is acreage a lot like Lenaghan's, and I spent twenty minutes driving up and down it with a birthday bunch for somebody's mum. Her number was painted on an old milk can by the gate.
Anna's call: if a gerbera in the birthday bunch bends at the neck, cut 2cm off the stem and stand it in shallow warm water for an hour. The stem is hollow, and it folds at the neck once the water pressure inside drops. A fresh cut gets it drinking again, and it usually comes back up.
You've got the funeral notice, a time and a venue. If the service is at Newcastle Memorial Park on Anderson Drive, put North or East Chapel and the start time in the notes; anywhere else, the venue and when it starts. For a morning service, order the day before. Funeral flowers go to the service; sympathy flowers for the home suit a few days later. Flowers don't fix any of it, and families still remember who sent them. A card might read: Thinking of you all, with love.
For the family home, send something already in wet foam, like the Florists Choice Sympathy Arrangement: no vase to find, no stems to recut. Pour a little water into the foam every couple of days. Foam looks damp right up until it's dry, and then the whole lot wilts in an afternoon.
Someone you know has bought a few acres in Lenaghan. Settlement dates slip, so check they're in before you order, then put the new address and the gate in the notes. Celebration flowers suit a new house.
On moving day a wrapped bunch can sit in its cellophane on a box marked kitchen until somebody finds a vase, and the cut ends seal over while it waits. Recut them and it drinks again. If the vases are still packed, the Blue Mist Including Vase & Chocolates comes with its own, so there's nothing to hunt for.
Home from John Hunter Hospital, the neighbour who minded the dogs, a mate who helped with the fencing: get well flowers, a thank-you bunch or just because flowers cover the lot. Anna has a view on what to send.
Send the Australian Natives Bunch. It suits a man or a woman, a dining table or a lounge room, and in my experience the pincushion in it holds for about a fortnight with barely a change.
More ways to choose
Sending flowers out to Lenaghan? Order before 2pm on a weekday and they're delivered today.
Shop Australian NativesBefore 2pm on a weekday, so our partner florists near Lenaghan have time to make the order up and drive it out.
Before 10am Saturday, a shorter trading day.
No Sunday delivery, except Mother's Day.
After that, pick another day at checkout.
A house: the gate, the house colour, their mobile, and a shady spot if nobody's home. A hospital: their full name, the ward, and which one, John Hunter or Maitland Hospital on Metford Road. A funeral: Newcastle Memorial Park, which chapel, and the start time, and for a morning service order the day before.
At a house, whoever's home, or the shady spot you named. At a ward, or an aged care home like Calvary St Joseph's in Sandgate, in our experience the front desk takes them in. At Newcastle Memorial Park, from what our florists tell us, the funeral staff set them out before the service. Order before 2pm on a weekday and the house, the ward or the front desk has them today.
A confirmation email comes through once you've paid (check junk if it doesn't). One of our partner florists near Lenaghan makes up the flowers and drives them out. To change the card or the date, email [email protected] or ring our team on 1300 360 469, 7am to 6pm weekdays and from 10am Saturday. If anything turns up wrong, send a photo the same day and we'll put it right.
I took the worried calls myself from 2006 until Ivy came along in 2011, and the people sending out to farms and acreage always said the same thing: I haven't heard a thing. Well no, their mum or their mate was probably down the paddock (or feeding something), with the phone back on the kitchen bench. I used to tell callers to give it till dark, and you could hear them breathe out. The thank-you nearly always came after tea. When a delivery does go wrong on acreage, it's nearly always the wrong gate, which is why Andrew keeps banging on about the notes.
Usually the next thing you get is that call, or a photo of the flowers on their table.
ABN: 17 830 858 659