Occasions in London

Occasions in London: from Mothering Sunday violets to an anniversary bouquet

Before Mothering Sunday became one of the busiest occasions in London for flower deliveries, it was a day off: servants went home to their mother church and family, and newspaper reports describe children picking violets on the way for their mothers. Which occasion it is decides the format and the colours, and each one keeps its own date on the calendar.

Mothering Sunday: from roadside violets to a March bouquet

Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter, so it lands in March or, in a late year, early April, never in May, unlike the American and German Mother's Day on the second Sunday of that month. Cornish daffodils are the flower of these weeks: growers in Cornwall cut them from January to April, and Mothering Sunday and Easter are their two biggest markets. British peonies are not out yet, since the home crop runs from late April to June, so florists reach for peony roses instead, most often English varieties bred by David Austin. A hand-tied bouquet, built to be carried and handed over rather than arranged, suits the day best, whether it reaches a mother at the table or is pressed into her hands on a walk. See Mothering Sunday bouquets for the full range.

A woman hands a bouquet of coral and blush peony roses to her older mother on a bench on the hill in Greenwich Park, the towers of Canary Wharf silhouetted across the river at sunset — Peony roses are most often English varieties bred by David Austin and similar.

From 14 February to an apology: roses, a card and a secret sender

The earliest known link between 14 February and lovers is Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls, written in 1382. A date night, a first confession or an apology needs no fixed day at all. Flower dictionaries read red roses as passion and pink as something gentler, white as simplicity, though no single list of meanings is agreed on, so the choice comes down to what feels right. Sending flowers without a name attached is straightforward: the courier is given only the recipient's name and address, and a card can go out signed or left blank, with the sender's own details kept out of it either way. On 14 February and on Mothering Sunday, order numbers run well above an ordinary week, so delivery windows widen and no courier promises an exact minute; booking a few days ahead avoids the rush. A photograph of the finished bouquet is taken before the courier leaves, and most orders placed for flower delivery in London go out on the day they are placed. Delivery is free in central London, while other areas carry a fixed charge shown before payment; see delivery zones and terms. For 14 February itself, Valentine's Day flowers covers what is in stock.

Top-down view: a florist's hands lower the last kraft-wrapped bouquet into a row of galvanised buckets of water where a dozen identical bouquets already stand, stem offcuts scattered on the workshop floor — One design in a dozen identical bouquets, each made again for its own order.

A new baby, a christening, a get-well wish: flowers for family news

A new baby, a christening, a hospital discharge or a first evening in a new flat are often marked with a low box or a basket, since both stand on a shelf or a windowsill without needing a vase. Lilies are worth a second thought here: every part of the plant is toxic to cats, so a home with one is better sent something else, and the pollen marks fabric if it is not caught in time. NHS intensive care units do not allow flowers at all, and for other wards it is worth checking with the florist beforehand, since rules vary from one hospital to the next; see hotel, office and hospital deliveries. Chrysanthemums carry no funeral association in Britain, which makes them a fair choice for a get-well bouquet as much as for a birthday one. For the newest arrival in the family, flowers for a new baby sets out the options.

A dark silhouette of a figure in a corridor against a tall dusty window with one cracked pane; a low box of white flowers, lit from the side, held in both hands — A low box of flowers stands on its own, with no vase to find.

Myrtle from Osborne, paper and gold: anniversary flowers in London

A sprig of myrtle from a bouquet of 1845 was rooted at Osborne House, and cuttings from that same bush have gone into royal wedding bouquets ever since. Princess Victoria wore it in 1858, Elizabeth II in 1947, Diana in 1981, Catherine in 2011 and Meghan in 2018. Diana's wedding, at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981, carried a cascade bouquet roughly a metre long, and the style became the one brides reached for through the rest of the 1980s. One idea for an anniversary, rather than a fixed custom, is to echo the flowers from the original wedding bouquet, roses included if that is what it held. Twenty-five years is marked as the silver anniversary and fifty as the golden; English-speaking countries later added paper for the first year, wood for the fifth and tin for the tenth, conventions that settled in the nineteenth century. Wedding anniversary bouquets cover the format for each.

25 December, 8 March and an Eastern Easter: whose calendar you follow

London's main winter date is Christmas, 25 December, while Russian-speaking Londoners wait for New Year's Eve, 31 December, as the day for gifts. Among the occasions in London shaped by more than one calendar, 8 March stands out: it is an ordinary working day in Britain, kept instead by the Russian-speaking community. In a spring already busy with Mothering Sunday, it adds a second peak of its own. Western and Eastern Easter fall on the same date in roughly three years out of ten, and in close to half of all years the Eastern date follows a week later, which is worth checking before booking. Easter flowers lists what is ready for either date.

Birthdays make the largest section listed here, and a thank-you bouquet covers the days with no name on the calendar at all; birthday flowers and a thank-you bouquet are a reasonable place to start choosing.