Housewarming in Dubai

A housewarming in a city where everyone has just moved

Dubai runs on annual leases, so a housewarming here is a regular event rather than a once-a-decade one. Most orders for housewarming flowers in Dubai go to someone who moved in the last two years — one Marina tower to another in Business Bay, or a flight in with three suitcases.

That changes what the gift has to do. It lands in a flat where the boxes are still taped shut. Whatever you send has to work without what a settled home takes for granted: a vase, a jug, a clear shelf.

A new flat has no vases.

What to send when the cupboards are empty

This is the one occasion where we talk people out of cut stems. A wrapped bouquet needs a vessel, water and a flat surface. On day one of a move the flat has none of the three. The flowers end up in the sink, which is where a fair number of these bouquets spend their first night.

The fix is simple. Anything that arrives in its own container solves that before it starts, because nothing has to be found, washed or filled first.

• A basket — foam-lined, watered before it leaves, ready for a worktop.
• A planter — the vessel is half the gift and stays in the flat.
• A flower box — holds its shape on a shelf and needs a splash of water.
• A potted plant — an orchid, a zamioculcas, a sansevieria: still there next year.

Potted plants are the ones people still have a year later. A phalaenopsis orchid does well in a Dubai flat, since the air conditioning holds the room at the temperature it likes. Zamioculcas and sansevieria forgive an owner who travels for weeks at a time. Ficus is the gamble: it drops leaves whenever it is moved. With any of them the trip is riskier than the destination, because a pot left in a car park in July will scorch before it reaches the lift.

"Ask whether they own a vase. If the answer is a pause, send a basket."

— JFLOO florist

Why the big bouquet is the wrong move

Scale is the second mistake, and it is a generous one. A 120 cm Ecuadorian rose piece is fine in a finished living room. In a flat where the floor is the only clear surface, it is one more object to carry around. Send the large piece a fortnight later, once the flat is finished, and the same money buys something they keep out where visitors see it.

Mid-size is the range that works on the day. Something one hand can lift, set on a worktop and forget for a week is worth more to a new tenant than any piece that needs staging.

Getting into the building

The building is the real work. Many towers in Downtown, Marina, Business Bay and Palm Jumeirah ask for a move-in permit, and the service lift is booked in slots. So the goods lift is full of somebody's wardrobe. Our courier goes to the concierge desk, not the flat door, unless a pass has been left in the resident's name. Give us the tower, the flat number and a phone that will be answered, since a new tenant is not in the building's system and the desk has no record.

Timing beats all of it. New tenants are in and out all day — collecting keys, signing Ejari paperwork, chasing a movers' van. So late afternoon lands better than morning, and on a moving day we would rather be given the hour than guess: we deliver 9 AM to 10 PM in a 2–4 hour window.

"On a move-in day I ask two things: the tower name and the hour the van leaves."

— JFLOO florist

Heat, price and what goes in

Heat sets the outer limit. From June to September the city runs to 40 °C with high humidity, so we pack insulated and keep nothing in the sun. A concierge desk in an air-conditioned lobby holds a basket for hours. Outside is where things go wrong, so we call ahead to a villa on the Palm rather than leave anything standing at a gate in August.

What goes in matters less than where it goes. Colour is open, though white, green and soft peach sit better against bare walls than a strong red. Dutch roses at 60–90 cm, chrysanthemums and tulips from UAE greenhouses, and Dutch peonies out of season all sit happily in a basket, a box or a planter.

Housewarming flowers in Dubai start at 250 AED, by card, Apple Pay or cash to the courier. Tell a manager the tower, the floor and the hour the movers finish, and we will build something that fits in a lift and lands on the one worktop that is clear.