Gifts to Go With Bouquets in Barcelona

Gifts to go with bouquets in Barcelona: the rose and the second gift

Gifts to go with bouquets in Barcelona draw on a Catalan custom: on Sant Jordi, 23 April, a rose with an ear of wheat was exchanged for a book; today either partner gives either. Here the second gift travels in the same order as the flowers and is chosen by what it leaves behind: words, a treat, an evening or something for the home.

A rose and something more: how a gift joins the bouquet in Barcelona

Here the add-on gift goes straight into the bouquet's basket, not into a separate box. One courier carries both, hands them over in person together with the card, and keeps to exactly what the sender wrote, nothing more.

The bouquet is photographed before the courier sets off, so the sender can see what is actually on its way. Nobody calls the recipient ahead of time unless the sender has asked for that. In the centre, delivery itself is free, and the time for any bouquet is shown on its own product page. The rest of the policy is spelled out on the delivery terms page.

Gifts are sorted two ways, by type and by recipient, so you can start from the object or from the person.

On Sant Jordi, the rose traditionally travelled with an ear of wheat and a ribbon in Catalan-flag colours, and the book that answered it was a gift of words. The bouquet card keeps that second half of the custom alive, and the text written on it costs nothing extra.

For an occasion that calls for a printed design rather than a blank card, a separate section holds ready-made greeting cards for bouquets. A topper takes the opposite approach: a short line on a pick, set straight among the stems so the message shows at once, with no envelope to open.

Whoever writes the card can sign it or leave it anonymous; the courier only ever sees the recipient's name and address, never who sent it or why. Other flower dates in the city, from Sant Jordi to Día de la Madre, sit on the flowers page.

Marshmallow stems, or a performer timed to the dessert

A second bouquet in the same order can be built from something other than flowers, a marshmallow bouquet rather than a stem one, for whoever would rather unwrap something sweet. Entertainers are a gift that isn't kept afterwards: something to watch rather than own.

If the flowers are headed to a restaurant table, the delivery team agrees the exact time with the venue in advance. That way delivery lands at the right point: with the dessert, with the toast, or just before someone walks on stage. In the hot months, any chocolate in the order should go somewhere cool straight away.

A vase, a candle, reeds: the accessories that stay in the flat

At Mercabarna-flor, the wholesale flower market in Sant Boi, next to El Prat airport, the trading floor splits into three zones: cut flowers, plants and accessories. The flower trade here keeps accessories close to the flowers themselves.

A vase bought with the bouquet means there is already something to stand the flowers in once they are unwrapped. A candle is the other half of that pair: it stays in the home once the flowers are gone. Reed diffusers run on a longer calendar than the flowers beside them: the bottle lasts weeks or months, where a rose in water keeps for about a week.

Start with greeting cards made for bouquets when the point of the gift is the words themselves. Choose a marshmallow bouquet instead if the order needs a treat as well as a flower. Decorative candles and vases are the better pick when something has to stay behind once the bouquet is long gone.