Callas are never tied tightly across the middle or pushed into a narrow sleeve, and a courier carries them upright and apart from other orders. The same rule applies at home whenever the vase is moved to another table. Three things damage this flower, and none of them is heat:
- a fold at one point on the stem, which is permanent;
- a stem left standing half submerged, where the tissue goes soft;
- cold in transit, which leaves a brown rim on the edge of the spathe. That last one is worth a sentence of its own. The rim does not spread and does not fade, so it is permanent and obvious on a white cultivar, while on a dark burgundy one the same damage is nearly invisible. It is a real argument for choosing colour by where the flowers have to travel. #### Roads, villas and the length of the box
Distance is the local complication. Seminyak, Canggu and Sanur sit in a 90 to 150 minute window, while Uluwatu, Tabanan and remote villas take up to 3 to 4 hours, and the whole of that time the box is lying in a vehicle on roads with a lot of turns in them. So the box travels standing up. We secure it so the stems cannot slide against a wall, and for the longer runs we book the earlier part of the day rather than the end of it. Reloading a van on a hill road is where creases happen, and a crease costs the stem. Humidity works on the flower more gently than it does on softer material. Above 30 °C and in high humidity we use firm wrapping and a cooling element, though firm wrapping and a band across the stems are two different things and the second never touches a calla. Delivery hours run 9 AM to 10 PM, and during the rainy season from November to March we agree the departure time with the sender instead of promising a fixed hour. 
Ocean villas and the resort addresses in Seminyak and Canggu take most of these orders, with dinners in Ubud and wedding venues around Jimbaran behind them. Hotels handle it differently between them: The Legian Seminyak and The St. Regis Bali Resort accept a delivery on site, while Alila Villas Uluwatu and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve sit far enough out that we treat them as a separate run. Water goes in shallow at the other end, two fingers of it. The cut turns soft and slimy if half the stem is submerged, so shallow clean water changed often, plus a fresh trim every few days, keeps the stem firm enough to hold its own curve. They last well for a flower this soft. A calla does not shatter or drop petals; it loses tension slowly over a week or more until the funnel slackens, and by then the line it was bought for has done its work.