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Graduation in Bangkok: a bouquet kept long after the gown comes off
For graduation in Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University is the place to begin: it held Thailand's first degree ceremony in 1930. The university now asks guests to leave behind gifts that end up as waste, balloons among them. Graduates in the city are still given bouquets, soft toys and balloons, and the question is which of them the graduate takes home rather than throws away.
Instead of balloons: a bouquet the graduate can carry all day
Balloons are on Chulalongkorn's list of gifts to skip; a bouquet remains the usual gift for a graduate.
A degree ceremony keeps both hands busy, between a scroll and a phone for photos, so the bouquet that works best is small enough to rest in the crook of one arm. Mini Bouquets are built to that size, and a bunch of lavender spray roses or peach roses stays just as easy to carry through a long afternoon on campus.
In Thailand, a gift is offered and received with the right hand, another reason a compact bouquet beats an armful: one hand stays free for everything else. A balloon or a soft toy fits better among the gifts to go with a bouquet saved for the family celebration at home.
Roses hold for about a week in water, sometimes stretching to ten days with a clean vase and a fresh cut on the stems.
51 Jumilia in Airy Wrapping carries buds up to seven centimetres across, white at the base and pink at the edge, and with regular care those buds stay open for close to two weeks. The Chrysanthemum and Lily Bouquet pairs a long-lasting flower with lilies: the chrysanthemums alone last two to three weeks in a vase. A peony, by contrast, is shorter-lived and usually lasts five to seven days.
Lily pollen marks fabric on contact, so the anthers are best removed once a bloom has opened, and a household with a cat should skip lilies altogether, since the flower is toxic to them. Bangkok's heat and air-conditioning both cut into a bouquet's time in the vase; see a bouquet's life in Bangkok's heat and air-con.
Box, basket or flower handbag: graduation flower delivery in Bangkok
A celebration that continues at home or in a condo calls for a gift that needs no vase waiting nearby. Flowers in boxes, a flower basket or a flower handbag stand on their own, with no vase to find, so nothing needs arranging the moment the door opens: see flowers in boxes and flower baskets.
In Thailand a present is usually not opened in front of the giver, and tearing the wrapping is thought rude — one more reason flowers that need no unwrapping suit a home party.
Graduation flower delivery in Bangkok is free in the centre and a fixed zone rate elsewhere (delivery zones); most orders arrive the day they are placed, and the bouquet's page shows how fast. The florist photographs the bouquet before the courier leaves, and the card is free. Hotel deliveries and orders from abroad are covered in a bouquet's life in Bangkok.
A simple way to start choosing is by stem: roses work for the ceremony itself, while flowers in boxes suit the celebration that follows at home.