Same Day Flower Delivery Shelly Beach, Monday to Saturday

It's their birthday, you're nowhere near their kitchen table, and all you have is a street and a beach. When you order the birthday flowers, put the postcode, 4551, and a mobile number in the notes, because Australia has more than one Shelly Beach.

I learned that in June 2007, in our Kingscliff shop, on a day so quiet Andrew would have driven anywhere for a sale. A man rang for his mum's birthday at Shelly Beach. We knew the East Ballina one (Andrew and his dad have had lunch at the cafe there), and Andrew had the car keys in his hand before I thought to ask the postcode. 4551. Caloundra, well past Brisbane, and a long way outside anywhere we could drive to (which stung, on a day like that). Calls like that one are a big part of why the network exists.

Anna, on the vase: in warm weather, change the water every second day and recut the stems on an angle, or bacteria block the base and the heads droop while the petals are still good.

The funeral notice says Our Lady of the Rosary, and you can't be there. Flowers for the Mass usually go through the funeral director, so add their name and the service time; flowers for the house can follow a few days later, once the visitors thin out.

They won't make the week any easier, I know that. People still remember who sent them, though, sometimes for years. 'Thinking of you all, with love' is plenty for the card.

Anna, on the house afterwards

White and cream, with chrysanthemums through it. Even without air conditioning they hold their heads for about a fortnight, in my experience, long after the church flowers have gone.

End of the school year, the class card is signed, and somehow you're organising the flowers. Send the thank-you flowers to the office at Our Lady of the Rosary School on Edmund Street, with the teacher's full name and year level in the notes.

A school office has no vase. A boxed arrangement sits in its own wet foam, rides home on the passenger seat and still looks right on the kitchen bench a week later. The stems drink from that foam, so top it up with water every few days or it dries from the top down and the flowers go thirsty.

Plenty of orders have no heading: a new job, a rough week, a friend who finally moved to the coast.

Anna's pick for a beach house: a mixed bunch built on chrysanthemums and carnations, softened with roses. Carnations keep opening new buds into the second week, so it fills out as it goes. Keep it away from the fruit bowl.