Red Bouquets in Bali

Red bouquets in Bali: distance, damp and the occasions that need all of it

Two things decide how a red bouquet arrives here. The first is distance: Seminyak, Canggu and Sanur take 90 to 150 minutes, while Uluwatu, Tabanan and remote villas run to 3 or 4 hours. The second is air. Above 30 °C in high humidity every head in a bunch opens at once, so a rose cut tight for the long run can still reach the door already wide.

We use firm wrapping and a cooling element in that weather. On the long routes we also take a tighter bud on purpose, which is the only reliable way to have red look strict at the moment it is handed over.

Rain adds the other problem. From November to March the box stays closed until it is indoors, because water drying on a dark petal leaves a mark, and on a deep red variety that mark reads as damage. Deliveries in those months get timed around showers more than around traffic.

"On the Uluwatu run we pack red tighter than anything else. It has three hours of afternoon to get through before anyone sees it."

— JFLOO florist

Orders start from 650000 IDR, and payment goes through QRIS, GoPay, OVO, DANA or cash to the courier. We deliver 9 AM to 10 PM. Villas in Berawa, Legian and Jimbaran are easiest to time directly with whoever is staying there.

The material carries the colour well. Imported roses at 60 to 90 cm and Ecuadorian stems up to 120 cm cover the range from bright scarlet through to a cold deep red, while ranunculus, lisianthus and seasonal peonies supply that same colour at three completely different weights.

When red is the right answer

Most advice about this colour is about restraint, which makes it easy to forget that red is sometimes the only correct answer. An anniversary between two people who have been together a long time is one of those. A declaration somebody actually means is another. Holding back is the error in both cases, because a half hearted red bouquet is worse than a cream one and everybody in the room can tell. Full volume, long stems and a plain wrap are what the occasion is asking for.

Three occasions on this island regularly take the whole colour:

• A wedding at a Jimbaran venue, where red has to carry across an open space and hold its own against a sunset competing with it.
• An anniversary dinner in Ubud, where the table is small and the bouquet is looked at closely for an entire evening.
• A villa arrival in Seminyak or Canggu, where flowers are the first thing in the room and nobody has read a card yet.

Each of those wants a different length. A venue wants Ecuadorian stems, a dinner table wants short and dense, and an arrival wants something that survives being set down and forgotten for an hour.

Sombre occasions stay out of this.

The other case for full red is performance. Somebody coming off a stage needs a colour that carries to the back of a room, and nothing else in the trade does that as reliably. Red bouquets in Bali go out for that reason more often than the calendar would suggest.

Everywhere else a third of the volume is plenty. Cream, white and green around it turn the same flowers into a celebration that commits to nothing at all.

Say the venue and the distance, and we will settle the bud stage from there. Ubud and Sanur can take an open flower, and Uluwatu cannot. If the date is fixed and the bouquet has to look the same at eight in the evening as it did at noon, say that as well, since it changes what we cut and when we cut it.