Almost every order that leaves our studio is a gift. Someone in Melbourne, or often ringing from interstate wishing they were in Melbourne, wanting to send flowers to someone they care about, for a reason they cannot quite put into words. Choosing flowers for yourself is easy. Choosing for someone else is the part people find hard.
After nearly twenty years of these conversations across the bench, I can tell you the answer is almost never about the flowers first. Here is how we talk it through.
Start with the room, not the occasion
The most useful question I ask is not what happened. It is where the flowers will sit.
A hospital bedside needs something small and low that arrives in its own water and asks nothing of anyone. A reception desk takes height, because it is seen from across a room. A kitchen table in a busy house wants something robust that will forgive a missed water change.
If you know the room, you are halfway there before we have spoken about a single stem.
When it is good news
Go brighter than feels natural. People underestimate this constantly. A new job, a new baby, an engagement, a first exhibition. The arrangement is doing the work of a hug, and restraint reads as half hearted. Our congratulations flowers are built exactly for this, and they are made the morning of delivery, never pre-made.
When it is hard news, or no news at all
Send less colour and more structure. White, green, soft tones. Nothing that looks celebratory sitting in a room where nobody feels like celebrating.
And say very little on the card. "Thinking of you" has survived because it works. I have written more about this in what to say on a sympathy card, because the card is often the harder half of the gift.
If someone is unwell rather than grieving, our get well flowers lean the same way. Quieter, and easy to look after.
When you genuinely have no idea
Tell us to choose. It is the single most common instruction we get, and honestly, it produces the best arrangements, because what came in from our growers that morning is always better than what was on a list a fortnight ago. Our Melbourne flower bouquets are where most people land, and seasonal is always the answer I give my own friends. We are only ever a phone call away, and love nothing more than being able to help make your choice perfect.
The card is the part people rush
The flowers are remembered for a fortnight. The card gets kept. Write it the way you speak, use their name, and if they know you well, sign off the way you would in a text.
A few questions I am asked every week
Can flowers still arrive today?
Yes, across Melbourne, Monday to Saturday, if the order is in by 1pm. Delivery starts from $19 and is calculated by suburb at checkout. We are closed Sundays.
What should I spend?
Whatever the relationship calls for, not what the occasion supposedly demands. A modest bouquet chosen with care lands better than a grand one chosen in a panic.
What if they are in hospital?
Ring us or note the ward at checkout. We keep hospital arrangements small, low and in their own water, and our courier knows the Melbourne hospitals well. Check the ward accepts flowers first; some wards do not.
What if I get it wrong?
You wont. In nearly twenty years I have never once heard of flowers being the wrong call. The gesture is the gift. We just make it beautiful.
If you are still unsure, look at what is in the studio this week and let the season decide.
Kate x
Ask Kate a question