Roses in London

Roses in London: a dozen stems, Kenyan or Ecuadorian, and the shape to choose

Britain stands outside the Eastern European habit of giving the living an odd number of stems and the dead an even one, so roses in London are counted by occasion and budget, not by superstition. What's left to decide is practical: how many stems to send, how long the stems are, and what shape the bunch takes.

A dozen, eleven or fifty-five: how London counts its roses

A dozen is an ordinary order for roses in London, and nobody reads anything into the even number. Twelve red stems for an anniversary or twelve white ones for someone leaving a job: the count signals nothing beyond the obvious.

A recipient raised in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus or elsewhere in the former Soviet Union may still hold the belief that an even number belongs at a funeral, not a doorstep. For that person the safer order runs to eleven or nineteen rather than twelve. The habit tends to travel with family and friends ordering from abroad, since most buyers in London never think about the count at all.

The occasion usually sets the number, from a first date to a fiftieth birthday, and nobody keeps count beyond that. For something far larger, a run of giant rose bouquets arrives as a wall of colour rather than a handful of stems.

Colour narrows the choice further: red, white, pink and deep magenta are the colours on offer, and the shade matters more to most recipients than the count ever does.

Kenyan stems or long Ecuadorian ones: choosing roses by height

Ninety-three per cent of the roses Britain imports travel by air, and more than a third of that traffic lands at Heathrow. In 2015, Kenya supplied sixty per cent of the roses passing through the airport, with Colombia, India, Tanzania and Ecuador making up the rest.

Kenyan stems tend to run shorter than Ecuadorian ones, and Ecuador's longest varieties stretch from seventy centimetres to a metre or more. That gap in height matters less for the flower than for where it ends up.

A short stem suits a low vase on a kitchen table, where it won't block the view across the room. A long one wants a tall vase and a more formal setting, a hallway console or a reception desk. Either length works well as a gift; the difference only shows once the stems are standing somewhere specific. 19 White Ecuadorian Roses is built around that extra length, and the height is really what the order is for.

English-bred blooms, French petals or a mix: the shape of the bouquet

A peony-shaped rose is usually an English-bred variety, the kind associated with David Austin and the breeders who followed him, even though the stems themselves may have flown in from far away. Julietta Peony Rose Bouquet is one example built in that shape.

A "French" rose isn't a variety at all, it's a technique: the outer petals are turned back by hand to open the bloom wider than it would manage on its own. That's exactly what sits behind 11 Red French Roses.

Where a rose should sit alongside other flowers, the mixed rose bouquets section pairs them up. The full spread of petal shapes and colours sits under roses by type.

Every bouquet here is put together once the order comes in, and the florist photographs it before the courier leaves. Most orders go out the same day they're placed, though the exact timing shows on the bouquet's own listing rather than on this page; the detail sits on rose delivery in London.

Start with roses by stem count if the occasion fixes the number, or with roses by height if the vase at home is the deciding factor. For anything beyond a straight rose order, a hotel delivery, an office reception or a gift that needs to survive a cold January, Flowers in London covers the wider catalogue.