Flower Delivery The Entrance: Same Day

Why Your Flowers Might Not Match the Photo (and Why That Can Be a Good Thing)

Most people assume they can order any flower they see online, any week of the year. Peonies are the one I got asked about most during my years on the bench. People find them on Pinterest and fall in love. The problem is they exist for about four months in Australia, roughly October through January. Someone rings in June wanting peonies and I have to tell them: they don't exist right now. I can't grow them. No florist can.

I learned early on to ask a different question. Not "which flowers do you want?" but "what are you trying to say with them?" A soft, romantic look can come from lisianthus or garden roses or ranunculus in the months when peonies are out of season. The colour palette, the texture, the movement of the arrangement. Those qualities transfer between varieties. The disappointment comes when a florist promises peonies in winter, substitutes with something else, and never tells the customer. That's where the one star reviews come from.

A partner florist covering The Entrance and sourcing from Flemington Markets will work with whatever stems are genuinely at their peak that morning. That changes week to week. Early spring brings tulips and ranunculus. Summer shifts to tropicals, sunflowers, bright gerberas. Winter is natives, textural foliage, structural pieces that hold warmth even when the palette runs cooler. The florist who explains this upfront gives you a better arrangement than the one who pretends everything is always available.

One more thing people underestimate: conditioning time. Stems arriving at 6am need two to three hours minimum in conditioning solution before they're stable enough to arrange. A florist who skips that step sends flowers that haven't fully rehydrated. You'll notice it by day three when the heads start drooping earlier than they should.