Mother's Day in Mumbai

Mother's Day in Mumbai, days after the results: which flowers for her

Maharashtra's state board releases Class 12 results in early May, then Class 10 results a few days later. Within the same fortnight comes Mother's Day in Mumbai, the second Sunday of May, unofficial and not a public holiday. A household with a school-leaver ends up choosing two bouquets inside a couple of weeks, and the one for mum turns on colour and on where it will stand once it arrives.

Lilies and gerberas for a May Sunday in Mumbai

Lilies and gerberas are the safest starting point for Mother's Day in Mumbai, and hydrangea works well alongside them for extra volume. Lilies, gerberas and lisianthus are greenhouse-grown and available through the year, so a bouquet built from them never depends on which Sunday in May the holiday falls. A lily carries a large head, and a handful of stems already reads as a finished bouquet rather than a few flowers tied together.

Pairing lily with gerbera keeps that same year-round reliability and adds a rounder block of colour beside the lily's open trumpet, a pairing that suits a family gathering as easily as a delivery to the door.

Pink beside white: roses for a mother rather than for condolence

White bouquets in Mumbai are more often chosen for condolence than for a family gift, which is why Mother's Day in Mumbai leans towards pink and red rather than white. At a Hindu funeral the garlands can include marigold, white rose and jasmine strung together, and that association carries into everyday buying.

Red French roses such as the bouquet of 11 Red French Roses get their fuller, rounder head from a florist's hand: the outer petals are folded back one by one rather than left as they grew. Roses with Lisianthus is another option among the mixed bouquets, and suits a Mother's Day table when a bouquet of roses alone would look too formal.

A box of Jumilia or a basket for a table with no vase

15 Jumilia French Roses in a Box takes its name from the bud: Jumilia opens large, with a white base shading into a pink edge, so the white here already comes with colour. With good care the stems last up to two weeks in a vase.

A box or a basket stands on a table without a vase, which suits a home where nothing spare is free on a Sunday morning. Where the arrangement sits in floral foam, water it daily in a thin stream over the whole exposed surface and never tip it to one side. May in Mumbai runs to an average high of around 34°C, and what May heat does to a bouquet comes down to two habits: keep it off direct sun and change the water every day.

When to book mum's bouquet for the second Sunday of May

Mother's Day flower delivery in Mumbai sits on the same page as 14 February and 8 March: orders on all three days run to several times the usual number, windows are wider than on an ordinary day, and nothing is promised to the minute. The date and time window are picked at checkout for any zone, and the earlier the order goes in, the more windows stay open.

Before the courier leaves, a photo of the finished bouquet is sent ahead, and a card carrying your own words is added at no extra cost. Current windows are on the delivery page.

A good place to start is colour rather than format. Red or pink points towards roses, and the address decides the rest: flowers in boxes travel well to a flat with no vase to spare, and flower baskets do the same for a table meant to hold the whole family.