Same Day Flower Delivery to Macgregor ACT, Ward or Chapel

Mum's at work or on the school run, and you want the flowers waiting when she walks in. Send them to her office, or to the house with two things in the notes: a shaded spot and a mobile that answers. Our birthday flowers for Mum are a good place to start.

I learned to time it in 2008, on Casuarina Way in Casuarina, with a birthday bunch for a mum, Asha asleep in her car seat (which was the whole reason I didn't want to hang about) and nobody home at one o'clock. I went back at half past three, just as the whole family came up the drive from school pickup, and her seven-year-old read the card out loud on the step, slowly, with feeling, while Mum pretended she wasn't crying. These days a shaded spot and a mobile in the notes do the waiting for you, because plenty of Macgregor houses empty out the same way until Macgregor Primary lets out.

A gerbera stem is hollow, and left standing in deep water it goes soft at the base until the head tips over. A few centimetres of water is plenty. The 3 Gerberas In A Vase from our birthday range come in their own vase, so all anyone has to do is keep the water shallow.

A new baby means a room full of visitors, at the hospital and then at home, and whatever you send has to earn its spot. Still at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children in Garran? Mum's full name and the ward go in the notes, and our hospital flowers are sized for a bedside. Once Mum and baby are home, send to the house instead. On the card, "Welcome to the world, little one" says it.

Anna, on what a new baby's room can take

The lilies I'm happy with in a family home are a lot for a newborn's room. Nothing that sheds and nothing heavily scented here. One Oriental lily stem fills a room, and the scent builds as each new bud opens over the week. Roses and gerberas bring the colour without the perfume, and the Blush Pinks Arrangement With Chocolates from our new baby flowers comes in its own container, so nobody is hunting for a vase at two in the morning.

Someone has died, the service is in a day or two, and you want to get it right from wherever you are. For the Bluegum Chapel at William Cole in Belconnen, or Norwood Park Crematorium in Mitchell, choose from our funeral flowers and put the service time in the notes. For the family, sympathy flowers to the home a few days later. Flowers are a small thing against what has happened, and they're still what you send. "So sorry. We're here." is enough on the card.

Anna's pick for a Hindu family: warm oranges and yellows, sent to the house after the cremation, because in my experience the family looks after the marigold garlands for the service. Start with the Florists Choice Bright Mixed Bunch and ask for warm colours in the notes. For a Muslim family, keep it simple and white, and send to the home once they've said flowers are welcome.

Plenty of orders don't fit a heading: a new place, a neighbour who fed the cat, a friend you haven't rung since winter. A housewarming or just because order needs no explaining.

Anna's pick is the Australian Native Arrangement. It comes ready in its own container, so nobody living out of boxes has to find a vase, and the woody stems in it, protea or banksia depending on the season, dry in place and keep on a shelf for months.