Same Day Flower Delivery to Russell ACT, Defence Offices

Their birthday lands on a workday and they'll be at Russell till late. Send the flowers to the office. In our experience reception takes them in, and the whole floor sees them carried up (the house can have the weekend).

Our birthday flowers run from soft to loud, and the birthday range for him suits a bloke who'd rather nobody made a fuss.

Anna's call: office flowers often go home in a car on Friday. A vase rides on the floor, wedged with a bag. On the seat it tips at the first roundabout.

Defence moves people around, and farewells pile up from November into January, the peak posting months. If there's a morning tea, order the day before so the flowers beat the speeches (same day can land after the cake's gone, believe me).

Retirement flowers for Canberra's government offices were some of the first Canberra orders I took over the phone at the Kingscliff shop, back in 2007. Thank-you flowers suit a farewell, and our celebration flowers suit a promotion.

For a retirement, choose natives with banksia, brunia or leucadendron in them. Those three are woody. When the soft flowers in the bunch finish, the woody stems dry on a shelf without losing their shape, so the farewell bunch is still there in winter.

Someone in the branch has lost a family member and the office wants to send something. A desk, in front of everyone, is a hard place to be handed sympathy flowers, so send them home or to the service (and if no one has the home address, the desk is fine, just keep it small).

For a service, put the venue and time in the notes: Norwood Park Crematorium in Mitchell, say, or St John the Baptist on Constitution Avenue in Reid. Our sympathy flowers for the home and funeral flowers cover both, and "From all of us in the branch. Thinking of you." says enough on the card. Flowers are a small thing against a death, and people still remember who sent them.

Anna, on colour

Whites, creams and soft greens sit quietly in a grieving house. Ask about the family's tradition before you choose white, because it isn't the mourning colour in every faith.

Plenty of office orders fit no heading: a welcome back, a good result, a rotten fortnight finally over. Anna's pick for those comes with chocolates for the desks around them.

The Bright Arrangement With Chocolates. The stems sit in soaked foam in a grey cube, so no vase, and nothing slops on the drive home. Pour a little water into the foam every couple of days; once it dries right out it won't take water back properly, and the roses droop at the neck.