Same Day Flower Delivery Parrearra, Villa or Canal House

It's Mum's birthday, or it's simply been too long. You rang her on Sunday, she said she was fine, and you'd like something in her kitchen before you ring again. If she's at Living Choice on Marco Way, the village has both villas and apartments, so say in the notes which she's in, then the number and a mobile. She may be down at the pool. Birthday flowers for Mum cover the first, and thinking of you flowers say the second with less explaining.

I learned what these deliveries are really for in 2008. I took a birthday arrangement from our shop on Marine Parade to a villa off Leisure Drive at Banora Point. She liked the flowers. Then she asked, since I was there, if I'd fix the clock on her video recorder. It had been flashing 12:00 since Easter. Twenty minutes later it was still flashing. She said her son couldn't do it either, and put the flowers on top of the video. She got flowers that day, and a visitor. The visitor was less use than the flowers. On the island, yours will be the knock at the door.

Anna's call: for a villa, pick one of the smaller arrangements. The flowers in a well-made one stand about one and a half times the height of the vase, and on a narrow villa bench anything bigger looks like it's about to tip.

Your brother's operation went well, and now the question is where to send something. If he's already home on the island, send it to the house. If he's still in Sunshine Coast University Hospital on Doherty Street, Birtinya, put his full name and the ward in the notes; in our experience flowers go to the ward's front desk first and the staff take them in from there. Get well flowers suit the house, and hospital flowers are made for the ward. On the card, "Glad it's done. Put your feet up." is plenty.

A box travels better onto a ward: the box is the vase, and nobody on a ward goes hunting for scissors. Wards tend to run on aircon, so the stems that shrug off dry air are the ones to want. In a shared room, go unscented too. Chrysanthemums have next to no perfume, and pollen-free Asiatic lilies give you the lily look without it. One oriental lily fills a whole room, which is glorious at home and a lot for whoever is in the next bed.

Dad's on his own in the house for the first time in forty years, and you're not there. Flowers for the service usually go through the funeral director. The ones to think about are for home, and in our experience they land best in the week after, once the visitors have gone. Flowers are a small thing next to a loss like that. He'll still see them every time he walks past. Sympathy flowers for home are made for exactly this. On the card: "Thinking of you, Dad. Ring me any time."

Anna, on sympathy colours that last

Whites and creams with plenty of green sit quietly in a grieving house, which is what our white sympathy flowers are for. If you want white that lasts, look for disbud chrysanthemums, the big single-headed ones. In a cool, air-conditioned room I've seen them go three weeks, well past the flowers from the funeral.

Some orders don't fit any heading. That's allowed. Florist's Choice hands the decision to the person holding the stems.

Anna's pick: Florist's Choice, and if you know it's going into an air-conditioned apartment or villa, say so in the notes. When a note like that came across my bench, I reached for chrysanthemums, carnations and a bit of leucadendron first, then built the softer stems around them. The tough ones hold the shape, and the pretty ones get to be pretty.