Tulip bouquet in Johannesburg: the flower that keeps growing in the vase
A tulip bouquet in Johannesburg keeps growing after it is cut, about a centimetre or two a day, and turns its heads towards the light. The shape you see today will not be quite the shape you see tomorrow, which is why colour, stem count and the spot it will stand in matter more than a single photo.
Pink, white or lavender: what goes into a tulip bouquet
The palette here runs from soft pink and pink through white to lilac and lavender, with red and a pale shade called "Marshmallow" alongside them. Most bouquets keep to one colour, but the range also holds mixes. Tulips are paired with mimosa for a burst of yellow, and with waxflower.
A handful of designs carry names rather than descriptions, among them "Bianco", "Lolita" and "Lollipop". However the flowers are arranged, they come in one of two ways: gathered and hand-tied for carrying, or set into a basket that stands on its own without a vase. That basket option sits within all bouquets, alongside taller arrangements for the same address.
In the northern hemisphere, the tulip is a spring bulb flower alongside daffodils and hyacinths. Cut tulips reach the market far outside that window. Dutch tulip cutting runs from December to May, because the bulbs are given a spell of artificial winter in the cold before they are forced into flower under glass. What arrives in a bouquet in January has already lived through its own miniature winter indoors.
Mimosa follows a shorter season of its own, flowering from January to March, and it has long been the flower most associated with the eighth of March. The "Tulips and Mimosa Bouquet" pairs two flowers that both belong to the tail end of winter rather than to spring proper.
Nine stems or 151: choosing the size and the format
Stem counts in the names run from nine up to a hundred and fifty-one, and every number on the list is odd. Twenty-five tulips is worth using as a mental picture of a dense, generous bouquet built from a medium-sized flower rather than a rule anyone has to follow.
The odd numbers are not arbitrary. In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and most of the former Soviet countries, an odd count is what you give to someone living and an even count is what you bring to a grave; outside that tradition, an even number of stems is entirely ordinary. One line usually settles it: the recipient's address tells you which custom applies.
A basket carries its own logic. Woven cane does not hold water, so the basket is lined and the stems are set into damp floral foam rather than a vase. That foam is watered daily over its whole surface, so every stem keeps drinking.
Tulip care: cold water, a shallow fill and a daily turn
Tulips want cold water and a shallow vase, filled to about a third: in deep, warm water the stems soften and start to bend under the weight of the heads. A few habits keep the bouquet looking its best:
- Turn the vase daily, because tulips keep reaching for the light, so yesterday's front becomes today's side.
- Cut the stems at an angle with a sharp knife rather than snap them.
- Strip any leaf that would sit below the waterline.
- Change the water every day or two, since tulip stems cloud it fast.
- Keep the vase away from radiators, direct sun and a bowl of ripe fruit.
Daffodils are the one flower tulips should not share a vase with straight away. Cut daffodil stems release a sap that shortens a tulip's life and turns its petals yellow. Daffodils need to stand alone in their own water for about a day, and once that wait is over they are not recut before joining the tulips.
Tulip bouquet delivery in Johannesburg begins once payment clears: the flowers are bought only after the order is placed, and every bouquet is put together for that order alone. Before the courier sets off, the finished bouquet is photographed and sent over, so any change of colour or size can still be requested from that photo. If one variety is not available on the day, it is swapped for something close in shade and price, and that swap is visible in the same picture.
The courier does not call the recipient unless the sender has asked for it, and a phone number is enough to deliver even without a full address. A card goes in free of charge, and payment is taken by Visa or Mastercard before anything is bought. Delivery in the centre costs nothing, and most orders go out the same day they are placed. The exact speed for a given bouquet is shown in its own card rather than promised here, and the delivery page is the place to check it.
A first look at bouquets by flower is the easiest way to compare tulips against the season's other options, and all bouquets sets them beside larger arrangements for the same address. For anything beyond tulips, the full flower catalogue covers the rest of the range.