For My Aunt in Osaka

Flowers for my aunt in Osaka: choosing the size before the flower

The For My Aunt in Osaka grid sells one flower at two scales: a Bouquet of 5 Peonies next to a Bunch of 35 Peonies, 11 Lavender Spray Roses next to 25, 15 Lilies next to 51 Lilies in a Basket. So the question that opens the choice isn't which flower she likes, but how close you are to her and how much of a gesture the day calls for.

How big a bouquet for your aunt should be

A single flower can sit at either end of the grid. The five-stem Bouquet of 5 Peonies and the thirty-five-stem Bunch of 35 Peonies are the same bloom in a different size, and the same split runs through the eleven and twenty-five Lavender Spray Roses and the fifteen Lilies beside the fifty-one Lilies in a Basket.

Large-headed flowers such as lilies fill a bouquet with only a handful of stems, since each bloom is wide on its own. Smaller flowers need more of them: a dense, full-looking bunch of spray roses or lavender tends to start around two dozen stems. Treat that as a rough guide rather than a rule.

Where the right size still isn't obvious, describing the occasion and the budget in a chat works just as well. A manager can send back a few options with photos and prices before any payment is taken.

A cat at home rules out lilies outright. Every part of the flower, including the pollen and the water left in the vase, is toxic to cats, so a household with one is better served by something else on the list.

For how long a bouquet lasts, the flowers vary widely. A rose holds for about a week in water, while the 5 Pink Chrysanthemums, the 13 Mixed Alstroemeria and the 15 Dianthus stretch to two or three weeks, and the 51 Jumilia in Airy Wrapping can last close to a fortnight with good care.

Peonies bring a caveat of their own: cut peonies sit in the catalogue for most of the year, but not the whole of it, so a favourite month can fall outside the window. When her taste is a guess, the lavender line, Bouquet "Lavender Smoothie", the 15 Peony Lavender Roses or Bouquet "Blue Field", offers a calm, safe palette that rarely clashes with anything.

A box, a basket or a bouquet, and what to add

A box or a basket needs no vase at home. The stems stand in soaked floral foam instead, and the household only has to water it in a thin stream over the whole surface each day.

A card with a message comes free of charge, and it can carry her name or stay anonymous if the moment calls for a surprise. A basket also takes sweets, balloons or a vase alongside the flowers, for a gift with more than one part to unwrap.

Sending flowers to an aunt who lives elsewhere

Flower delivery for an aunt in Osaka doesn't depend on knowing her address: her phone number is enough for the courier to find her. Nobody rings ahead to check unless the sender asks for it, so a surprise delivery stays a surprise until the door opens.

A photo of the finished bouquet arrives before the courier sets off, and there's still time to ask for a change if something looks off. Sending flowers to several addresses at once, an aunt, a grandmother and a cousin on the same day, can go through as one order, with delivery counted separately for each address.

Exactly how soon a bouquet arrives is shown on its own page, since that detail changes more often than the flowers do; most orders reach the recipient the same day they're placed. Details on timing and coverage sit on the delivery page.

A good place to start is a bunch of peonies if the size is still undecided, or flowers in boxes for a desk or a hallway table with no vase nearby. For a fuller gesture, gifts to go with the bouquet round out the box or basket.