For the Family in Brussels

Flowers for the family in Brussels: bouquets that live on a shared table

The grid's White Tulip Bouquet "Bianco" keeps growing after it is cut, about one to two centimetres a day, and leans towards the light, so its silhouette can shift within a day or two on the table. Flowers for the family in Brussels sit in a shared room for weeks, in view of everyone in the house, so the choice comes down to how long a stem lasts in the vase, which format suits the room and who else lives there.

Which flowers suit a whole household

Chrysanthemum, carnation and alstroemeria are the household's long-lived flowers, standing two to three weeks in a vase, while a rose lasts about a week. The grid carries them as 5 Pink Chrysanthemums, 15 Dianthus and 13 Mixed Alstroemeria. A chrysanthemum's leaves yellow before the flower does, and they simply get stripped off.

A tulip bouquet such as Bianco wants cold water, a vase filled only about a third, and a quarter turn once a day, since the stems keep bending towards the window. Lilies, in 51 Lilies in a Basket or the Giant Mixed Basket with Lilies, are toxic to cats in every part, including the pollen and the water in the vase, so they are not the flower for a house with a cat. The pollen also marks fabric: the anthers come off once a bloom opens, and fresh pollen lifts away with sticky tape rather than a rub.

A basket or a box stands without a vase, its stems pushed into floral foam. The foam takes a daily watering across its whole surface, without tilting the container, since once it dries out it barely takes water back. The grid holds this format in 25 Mixed Roses in a Box, Box "Bright Melody" and the two lily baskets, and the hat box shape itself comes from nineteenth-century hat boxes.

The armful of Bunch of 35 Peonies follows a season: a peony is in cut flowers for most of the year, though not quite all of it. Chrysanthemums, alstroemerias and carnations are greenhouse flowers, which is why they stay on the list whatever the month. For rooms where a vase is easily knocked over, flower baskets and flowers in boxes hold their stems without one.

Sending flowers to your family from another city

An order for the family in Brussels needs no street address, only the recipient's phone number to reach them. One order can also carry several bouquets to different addresses, with delivery counted separately for each, so parents and a sister can be sent flowers the same day from a single checkout.

The card message is free, whether signed or left anonymous, and a vase or sweets to go with the bouquet can be added to a basket order. A photo of the finished bouquet goes out before the courier leaves, and any change to the order is still possible up to that point. A set date and time is taken for any zone, and the earlier the order goes in, the more slots are still open.

Payment runs through Visa or Mastercard, and the total shown in the cart is final. The network behind the order covers 113 cities in 59 countries, and delivery time is shown on each bouquet's card rather than promised in the text; the delivery page has the current slots.

Start with the long-lived chrysanthemums, alstroemerias and carnations already in the grid if the bouquet has to outlast a busy week. A hat box or basket suits a home where nobody remembers to top up a vase, and a vase or sweets to go with the bouquet can be added at checkout. Check the delivery page for the zone and slot, then pick the format that matches the room it will stand in.