It's their birthday, and you're only fairly sure of the unit number. Put it in the notes with their mobile, because a name alone leaves the florist pressing every buzzer on the panel. In 2007 that was me, in the foyer of Calypso Plaza on Griffith Street, Coolangatta, reception shut for lunch, Asha on my hip, working down the intercom until a man came down in his socks to say the birthday girl lived next door to him and was at work. A mobile number would have saved us all.

Anna's call: for a birthday in their twenties or thirties, go bright. Gerberas and chrysanthemums shrug off a warm unit with the windows shut.

They're old enough to live out of home and young enough that flowers from home still land like a hug. International House on Porter Street and Campus East on Innovation Way are both here, so add their full name, room number and mobile. For a graduation, have the flowers land at their room the day before the ceremony; for a rough exam week, thinking of you flowers do the talking.

Chrysanthemums and daisies are the forgiving stems for a student desk: happy in a small jug, and they'll ride out a day without a top-up.

The address you have for them is suddenly a ward. At Wollongong Hospital on Loftus Street or Wollongong Private on Crown Street, in our experience flowers go to the front desk and staff take them up, so give their full name and ward, plus a home address in case they're discharged. A short card does it: "Thinking of you. The beach will keep." Our get well flowers and hospital flowers are the place to start.

Anna, on ward flowers

Keep the arrangement compact and light on scent. Strong perfume fills a shared room fast, so gerberas, roses and chrysanthemums are the kind choice there. From what the florists I worked with saw, some wards, oncology among them, don't take flowers at all, so check with the ward first.

Some orders don't fit a neat occasion: a friend's first flat, a hard week, the flatmate who fed the cat for a fortnight. That's what just because flowers are for.

Anna's pick

The Natives Flowers With A Vase. Natives like a bright room, the vase means nobody goes hunting for a jug, and once the softer stems finish, any protea heads and leucadendron cones dry on a shelf for months.