Flowers in Boxes in London

Flowers in boxes in London: from hat boxes to hanging baskets

Flowers in boxes in London go well beyond the hat box: handbag arrangements, jute pots, boxed macarons and a separate line of crates and hanging baskets sit alongside it. The right format depends on whether the box will be carried through town or set down on a table, and on which flowers go inside.

Roses for a London hat box: Jumilia and reflexed petals

Roses that end up in a London hat box arrive mostly by plane. Almost all imported cut roses arrive by air, more than a third of them through Heathrow, and Kenya supplies around six in ten of the roses landing there. Kenyan stems tend to be shorter than Ecuadorian ones, though that difference says nothing about which rose suits a hat box better.

15 Jumilia French Roses in a Box has buds up to seven centimetres across, white at the base and pink along the edge, and kept well they hold in a vase for up to two weeks. "French" here describes a technique rather than a variety: the florist bends the outer petals back by hand to open the bloom into that reflexed shape before the box is closed. For a rose arrangement built this way, hat boxes are the place to start.

Lilac in a tote, a jute pot or a crate: boxes beyond roses

Fresh Tote with Lilac follows the flower rather than a season of its own: lilac is cut in May in the northern hemisphere, which makes a bag built around it a spring gift more than anything else. British peonies follow close behind, cut from late April into June.

In Britain, chrysanthemum is an ordinary cut flower, not a mourning flower, and it can be asked for in a mixed box. The florist builds that box to the brief and sends a photo with the price before payment is taken.

Flowers in boxes in London also come as compositions in jute pots and as crates and hanging baskets. A box of macarons is ordered alongside flowers when the gift should include something sweet as well, rather than as a box that holds both.

A handbag for the walk, a hat box for the table

Carried in the hand or over the crook of the elbow, a tote or a hat box needs no paper wrapping on the way. In a city as rainy as London, that is reason enough to reach for a box, and the flowers inside need no attention from a shower at all.

A restaurant table works the same way: the time is agreed with the venue beforehand, and the box arrives right on cue, timed to a dessert course or a toast. The same pattern covers sending flowers to a London hotel or from abroad.

Flower box delivery in London is free to the centre and carries a flat zone charge elsewhere, added before payment. Each box is made to order, with the flowers bought in after payment and a photo sent before the courier leaves; most orders go out the same day, and the timing is shown on the order page. Full zones and charges are on the delivery page.

Carrying the box through town points towards flowers in handbags; wanting something sweet alongside the flowers points towards macarons in boxes.