Flower Delivery Mount Sheridan Today

Two jobs, a school run, and the birthday is today, with nobody home until five. Put a mobile in the notes. In our experience the florist rings it before leaving anything on a step in the sun. For Mum, our birthday flowers for mum include arrangements that sit in their own water until she gets in.

If it's a bunch, whoever gets home first should fill the vase from the tap at room temperature. The cold jug from the fridge is slower, because warm water climbs a cut stem faster. Recut the ends at about forty-five degrees and get them into the water at once.

A new baby, and you can't get there yet. Stays after a birth are often short, so unless you know they're still on the ward at Cairns Hospital, send to the house a day or two after they're home. Pick from our new baby flowers and set that date at checkout.

Anna, on a house with a newborn

Nothing heavily scented, nothing that needs a vase, nothing to look after. The Blush Pinks Arrangement With Chocolates sits in wet foam, and its lilies are Asiatics, with next to no scent. A top-up from a glass every few days keeps it going, and the chocolates are for whoever is awake at three.

A funeral notice with Foster Road on it. Forest View Cemetery is at 65 to 77 and the Cairns Crematorium is next door at 79 to 85, so write which one, the service time and the funeral director in the notes, then choose from our funeral flowers. In our experience the director has them placed before the family arrives. After the service, sympathy flowers for the home go to the family instead, and "So sorry. Thinking of you all." is enough on the card.

I learnt the director part in February 2008 at the Tweed Valley Lawn Cemetery on Eviron Road, near our Kingscliff shop. I parked at the wrong end and carried a white wreath the length of the lawn in thirty-odd degrees. The director had been standing at the gate the whole time.

Anna's call: whites, creams and soft greens suit almost any service. For an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander family, ask them first, because customs differ, and where flowers are welcome, natives fit beautifully.

Plenty of orders have no heading: a thank-you to the neighbour who fed the dog, a hello to a sister in Forest Gardens, a rough week of hospital shifts. Our mixed flowers cover most of them.

Anna, on the all-rounder

The Rose, Gerbera & Lilies Bunch. The lilies open a bud at a time, so there is something new in the vase later in the week. Pinch the anthers off each one as it opens, before a school shirt brushes past. If any lands on fabric, lift it with sticky tape. Dry pollen bonds to cloth, and a wipe only smears it.