Flowers in Boxes in Melbourne

Flowers in boxes in Melbourne: hat boxes, jute pots and a box that hangs

In Melbourne a flower box need not sit on a table: beside the hat boxes, flowers in boxes in Melbourne also come as crates and hanging baskets, a line of its own in the section. Which format suits a gift depends on where it will land and what the recipient does with it next, and the flowers inside follow the month.

Hat box roses all year, peonies and tulips from spring

The hat box is the section's main format, and hat boxes carry roses in every month of the year. That is possible because the industry estimates up to nine in ten roses on the Australian market fly in from Kenya, Colombia and Ecuador.

Winter, from June to August, is when local fields empty out and the imported share climbs higher still, so a winter hat box leans on roses before anything else. From October the picture widens: Australian-grown peonies are cut from October through November and into the southern summer, and a hat box can carry them instead of, or alongside, roses. September and October bring a second local flower into reach, when the tulip fields at Tesselaar in the Dandenong Ranges, about 35 kilometres east of the centre, come into bloom; a tulip bought in those weeks is a Victorian-grown one, not a flown-in stem.

The handbag is the section's other paper format, a second way to send the same flowers in something other than a round box.

Jute pots, crates and hanging baskets beside the hat box

A jute pot, a wooden crate and a hanging basket sit as their own subsections, and the choice between them comes down to where the flowers will go: on a desk, on a shelf, or wherever there is something to hang the basket from.

An arrangement in a jute pot is built in foam, and that foam wants water across its whole open surface every day, without tipping the pot to one side. A crate or hanging basket, by contrast, is chosen for the format itself rather than for what is built inside it.

Macarons in a box are their own subsection too, and the sweets can travel as a second box sent alongside the flowers in the same order, since one delivery can carry more than one item. The macarons add a second gift without changing what goes into the flower box itself.

Flower box delivery in Melbourne: the photo before it leaves

Every box is put together to order, and the florist photographs it before the courier leaves, so anything that needs changing can still be asked for at that point. If a flower on the order is not available, the florist substitutes one close in colour and price, and that swap shows up on the same photo; the card that goes with the box costs nothing extra. Delivery to the centre is free, and the delivery terms page covers the rates for other areas; the time it takes shows on the bouquet's own page, and most orders reach the recipient the day they are placed. Sending to a hotel or a hospital ward, and the dates that matter on the city's flower calendar, are covered on the hotels, hospital wards and the city's flower calendar page.

Choosing where to start is a question of format first: the hat boxes for roses, peonies or tulips depending on the month, the arrangements in jute pots for a desk or shelf, and the crates and hanging baskets for anywhere with something to hang from.