Birth of a Child in Munich

Birth of a child in Munich: one order, several doorsteps

Flowers marking the birth of a child in Munich rarely go to one door: a single order can carry the Pinky Peony Bouquet for the new mum and 5 Pink Chrysanthemums for a grandmother, with delivery counted per address rather than per basket. Who gets the flowers, and where, usually gets decided before which flower does.

Which new baby flowers to choose, and one to check first

Two colour lines run through this section. One is lavender: the Lavender Smoothie bouquet, lavender spray roses and Peony Lavender Roses. The other is pink, led by the Pinky Peony Bouquet and Juliet peony roses. Both are monochrome schemes, built from shades of a single colour rather than contrast, which is why they read as calm and coordinated rather than busy.

Peony-shaped roses are usually English varieties bred in the style David Austin made famous, with dense, many-petalled heads that look like a peony. The distinction matters for timing: a peony is seasonal, a rose is not, so a peony-shaped rose fills that shape when true peonies are out of season. Pink chrysanthemums and dianthus last two to three weeks in a vase, noticeably longer than a rose, which holds for about a week.

One thing is worth checking before you order. In France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary and Croatia, large chrysanthemums are associated with funerals rather than celebrations, so a family with roots there might prefer peonies or peony-shaped roses instead. Whatever the choice, the stems keep longer with a diagonal cut and water changed every day or two.

Many hospitals keep live flowers off the wards, so the florist's manager checks the ward's own rule before the order goes out. Where flowers aren't allowed inside, the bouquet is left at the nurses' post or brought to the new mum on the day she is discharged instead.

Not knowing the exact address is not a problem: a phone number for the recipient is enough to arrange the handover. Nobody calls ahead to warn them unless the sender asks for it, the one exception being a building nobody can enter without ringing first, where the courier calls from the door.

A boxed arrangement needs no vase of its own, since the stems sit in floral foam that holds water when it's watered daily across its whole surface, which suits a ward or a bedside table better than an open bouquet. See flowers in boxes for that format. A photo of the finished bouquet goes out before the courier leaves, and the delivery window itself is shown on the bouquet's own page.

A card, a balloon or sweets in the same order

A written card comes free with the order and can be signed or left blank; either way, the courier only ever knows the recipient's name and address, not what the card says. Anonymity, in other words, is entirely the sender's choice.

Balloons, sweets or a small toy can all be added at the basket stage. A latex balloon filled with helium keeps floating for about half a day, while a foil one holds its shape for several days, which suits a bouquet arriving ahead of a discharge date.

Choosing where to start usually means picking peonies or roses first, then looking at the gifts to go with the bouquet if the order is heading to more than one address. Zones, timing and how each extra address is charged are on the delivery page.