From the Maternity Hospital in Milan

From the maternity hospital in Milan: flowers for the day she comes home

An order for flowers from the maternity hospital in Milan can be changed right up until the bouquet leaves for the recipient, and no later than six hours before delivery. The date, the time slot, the address, the recipient and the card text all move with one message to the manager that gives the order number. That matters because a discharge date rarely holds firm, so it helps to settle where and when the flowers should arrive before choosing which ones to send.

Which flowers suit a new mum coming home

The section leans on a soft palette: lavender spray roses, peony-shaped roses such as Peony Lavender and Juliet, the blue-toned Blue Field bouquet and the pink-and-white Blash. In the language of flowers a pink rose has long stood for a gentle, tender feeling, though there was never one fixed dictionary for what colour means.

Some flowers simply last longer once they're home. Dianthus and chrysanthemums hold in a vase for two to three weeks, while roses last around a week. The Bunch of 35 Peonies brings a flower with its own calendar: peonies in Europe are in season from late April to June, and hard to find the rest of the year.

Choosing between the bouquets on this page comes down to three things: the colour tone, how many stems feel right, and whether a hand-tied bouquet or a box suits the address better.

Many clinics don't allow fresh flowers on the ward, and the manager checks in advance whether this particular hospital does. Where it doesn't, the bouquet goes to the nurses' station instead, or is timed to arrive on the day of discharge.

Inside a hospital, handover follows whatever the building requires: a nurses' station, a reception desk, sometimes a pass to get any further. None of that needs an address from the sender — a phone number for the recipient is enough, and the manager works out the rest from there.

For home rather than a ward, a box suits the moment better than paper. The stems sit in floral foam, and flowers in a box keep going for about as long as a vase would if the foam is watered once a day, in a thin stream over its whole surface.

Ordering for a discharge date that may move

Orders for a set date and time slot are taken into any delivery zone, and booking earlier leaves more slots open nearer the day — useful when a discharge is still uncertain. Most orders are handed over on the day they're placed, though the timing for any bouquet shows on its own page.

Before the courier sets off, a photo of the finished bouquet goes to whoever placed the order, and there's still time to ask for a change if something needs fixing. The card that travels with the flowers costs nothing extra and can carry a message or stay blank, whichever the sender prefers.

The basket at checkout can carry more than flowers: balloons, chocolate and other gifts sit alongside the bouquet, along with a soft toy or a vase. A latex helium balloon floats for around half a day, a foil one for several days longer.

A good place to start is peonies, while they are in season, or a box for a bouquet headed home rather than the ward. Gifts to go with the flowers can join the same order, and the delivery page lays out how zones and time slots work.