Occasions in Bangkok

Occasions in Bangkok: a teacher's tray, Songkran and family news

At Wai Khru, the school ceremony that honours teachers, pupils bring trays of ixora, an eggplant flower, Bermuda grass and puffed rice; the eggplant flower bends low as it opens, and the bend stands for humility. Occasions in Bangkok split into two kinds along similar lines: citywide Thai dates, and private news, such as a birthday or a new baby, that calls for its own bouquet.

Songkran next to a birthday: Thai dates and private news

The section is organised by occasion, so the fastest way in is to know the date. Songkran, the Thai New Year, runs across 13–15 April and brings three public holidays with it, and close by sit Teacher's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day and Family Day, citywide dates in their own right. Next to them stand the private ones: a birthday, an anniversary, a housewarming.

14 February is not a public holiday in Thailand, yet it is marked widely. Along with Mother's Day, it is one of the two dates the delivery page names as its busiest. Orders run far above the usual number, delivery windows widen, and nobody promises an exact minute, so either day is worth arranging a few days ahead rather than on the morning itself.

Wai Khru is a school ceremony, not a florist's calendar. Pupils assemble their own trays of ixora, an eggplant flower, Bermuda grass and puffed rice; these plants are not in the JFLOO catalogue, so the tray itself should not be promised.

The Teacher's Day subsection offers a bouquet as a separate gift instead, not a stand-in for the tray: a small bouquet or a box suits a teacher's desk better than anything large. The custom in Thailand is to hand a gift over with the right hand, and the recipient will usually set it aside rather than unwrap it on the spot.

Father's Day on 5 December, in the cool dry months

Father's Day falls on 5 December, a public holiday. Something sturdy rather than delicate suits the occasion, and roses or a basket are an easy choice.

December sits inside Bangkok's cooler, dry months, roughly November to February, which treat cut flowers far more kindly than the rest of the year. Mother's Day on 12 August sits on the other side of the parental calendar; jasmine is its traditional symbol, though it isn't something the catalogue carries, so a different flower stands in for the day.

A newborn, a discharge, a golden wedding: family news in flowers

Family news in Bangkok runs from a newborn to a golden wedding, and the section follows that whole stretch. It covers the birth of a child, flowers sent to the maternity ward, a discharge from hospital, a housewarming, a golden wedding anniversary and get well wishes for someone still in bed.

One flower worth leaving out of all this is tuberose: in Thailand it carries funeral associations, so it has no place as a gift for a new baby or beside a sick bed. Lilies, or roses in white and pink, make a safer choice, and a box holds its own water in foam, so it can wait at a nurses' station without needing a vase.

Many Bangkok hospitals keep fresh flowers off the wards altogether, so a delivery is usually left at the nurses' station or timed for the day of discharge instead; how a hospital or hotel handover works sets out what to expect. Get well flowers and the new-baby bouquets both sit in this part of the section, each suited to a different stage of the same news.

A date, a confession, an apology or simply a thought sent for no stated reason: these occasions share one thing, flowers that say what the sender would rather not say out loud. A lotus is a temple flower in Thailand, used in worship rather than courtship, so a rose or a mixed bouquet reads as the romantic choice instead.

Anonymous flower delivery in Bangkok works the way the name suggests: the courier is given only the recipient's name and address, nothing about who sent the flowers or why, and the card can go out signed or left blank. Nobody calls ahead to warn the recipient, and a phone number is enough to place the order even without a street address. A photo of the finished bouquet goes to the sender before the courier leaves.

Delivery is free within the central zones and charged at a flat rate further out, covered in full on the delivery zones page. Most orders go out on the day they are placed, and the exact timing is best checked on the bouquet's own page rather than promised here.