### Hydrangea bouquets in Dubai: the colour is decided in the soil Pink and blue hydrangeas are frequently the same cultivar. The pigment in the floret shifts with the acidity of the ground the plant grew in, so acid soil pushes the heads towards blue and alkaline soil towards pink, while the ground between them produces lilac and the muddy shades that photograph badly and look excellent in a real room. White cultivars sit outside all of that. They stay white whatever the soil does, which makes white the one colour anybody can promise by name. Blue is the least repeatable shade in the trade. Two deliveries under one label can differ enough to notice, so when a bouquet has to match a dress or a table setting, we check the shade against the batch that came in that morning. Green heads are a stage rather than a variety. A head is green before it takes colour and green again once it starts to age, and the late green is the more useful of the two. > "Somebody always asks for a particular blue. We ask what it has to stand next to, then look at what actually arrived." > - JFLOO florist #### Water, in short The evaporating surface on a hydrangea head is enormous, so the flower drinks heavily and gives up quickly when it cannot. Left out of water on a table, the head softens within the hour and the petal edges curl inwards. Put the stem back and it usually recovers, faster still if the whole head goes into cold water for half an hour, because hydrangea takes water through the florets as well as the stem. The cut wants to be long, angled and made with a blade, since the stem is woody and seals within minutes of being trimmed. A crushed stem end will not drink however deep the vase is. Use a heavy vase with a wide neck. The head outweighs everything below it, and a narrow opening puts the whole bouquet on the floor. #### Where the city gets involved The climate here works against this flower harder than against most of the bench. Summer runs up to 40 °C and the coast adds humidity on top of it, so a head that leaves the workshop in good condition can lose the argument in the minutes between a car and a lift. Delivery takes 2 to 4 hours and we work 9 AM to 10 PM. In summer we add insulated packing and keep the bouquet out of direct sun, and the box stays shut until the recipient opens it. Distance matters less than the shape of the last hundred metres. A courier reaching a Downtown or Business Bay tower parks underground and walks a corridor, while the same order to Palm Jumeirah crosses open air on foot. DIFC offices order hydrangea for a particular morning: partners arriving, a signing, a handover with people watching. The air conditioning on those floors treats it better than the street does. What nobody does on those floors is top up a vase on a Thursday evening, which is why we push these orders towards the start of the week. Orders start from 250 AED. Payment goes through Apple Pay or cash to the courier. Guests staying at Address Downtown or Atlantis The Palm are the case where the delivery hour matters most, because a box left waiting at a desk is a box this flower does not survive. Tell us when somebody will actually be at the address, and whether there is a deep vase already standing there. If nobody is in until evening, we will book hydrangea bouquets in Dubai for another day and send something with a tougher head for this one.