Same Day Flower Delivery Toowoomba

Andrew: You've had a text, maybe a ward number, and you're nowhere near Toowoomba. If they're in for a few days, send flowers to the hospital; if they're home tomorrow, send get-well flowers to the house. For a new knee or hip, "Thinking of you. Do the exercises." does the job on the card.

I learnt how hospital orders go wrong the embarrassing way. In 2008 a get-well order came through with a name, a ward number and the word "hospital". I carried it into Tweed Hospital on Powell Street, because in my head there was only one. No patient by that name. From the car park I rang the woman who'd ordered it. John Flynn, the private hospital up the road at Tugun. I drove up, and it was on the right ward by lunch. Toowoomba has three main hospitals, Toowoomba Hospital, St Vincent's and St Andrew's, so put the hospital's name in the notes, then the ward.

Anna, on what suits a ward

An arrangement in its own foam, because nobody on a ward is hunting for a vase. Keep the scent low. The next bed didn't choose it.

Siobhan: When someone in Toowoomba dies, a lot of the people who loved them are a long way off (one of our reviews below came all the way from California). Flowers for the service go to the funeral director, and if it's a morning service, order the day before. The funeral notice will say who's looking after it, maybe Burstows (doing Toowoomba funerals since 1900) or Hiram Philp (since 1903). Sympathy flowers for the family go to the house a few days on, when it's gone quiet.

Traditions differ across Toowoomba, from Lutheran families at St Paul's on Phillip Street since 1859 to Australia's largest Ezidi community, so if you're unsure, ask the family first. Sending flowers from that far away is the least you can do, and somehow the most. On the card: "So sorry. Thinking of you all."

Anna: White reads as respect in nearly every tradition; red is the one colour I'd leave out. For the funeral home, an arrangement copes better than a bunch with being carried in and moved about before the service. The Gorgeous White Arrangement is the one I'd send.

Siobhan: It's their birthday, you're not in Toowoomba, and you can't be at the table. For a house, put a phone number in the notes that someone actually answers. If it's Mum's birthday and she's in aged care (a big one, maybe her 80th), the flowers go to reception with her full name and room or wing; at Lourdes on Spring Street, in our experience, staff carry them through from the front desk.

Anna's pick: the Australian Native Arrangement. It needs no vase, has next to no scent for a shared room, and the woody stems hold their shape long after the cake's gone.

Andrew: Plenty of orders don't fit a heading. Thank-you flowers for the midwives at St Vincent's. Just because, for someone who's had a rotten month. If you're stuck, start where Bev did, in the review further up.

Anna's recommendation

The Florists Choice Bright Mixed Bunch. The florist builds it from the best of what's in the cool room that day, and when you don't know their taste, a mix covers it, because there's no one colour to get wrong.