### Daffodil bouquets in Phuket: the one rule about the vase Daffodil stems leak a thick sap from the cut. It is harmless to the flower itself and hostile to almost everything else, because it settles on other cut stems and blocks them from drinking. Roses sharing that water give up long before their time. Florists deal with it by standing the stems in their own bucket for several hours before assembly, then changing the water and leaving the cuts alone. A second cut afterwards starts the whole process again, which is why nobody trims a conditioned daffodil. The sap is easy to see once you know to look for it. A cut stem left on a board leaves a clear, slightly slippery ring under itself within minutes, and that is the same material that coats every other cut in a shared jug. The simpler answer is to let them stand on their own. A bunch of daffodils in its own jug asks nothing of anybody. Every stem is leaking the same thing, none of them is harmed by it, and the bunch runs its natural course without taking anything down with it. It also goes together in minutes, which is not true of the mixed version. > "Daffodils in with roses means the bucket first, and that is half a day of workshop time. We put it into the order before we agree a delivery slot." > JFLOO florist If you do want them mixed, the neighbours that cope best are the ones with firm woody stems and the ones that are undemanding about water in the first place. Anything soft stemmed sitting in the same jug is the first thing to suffer. Take a bunch home to add to an arrangement already in a vase and the same rule applies. Stand the daffodils separately for a few hours, change that water, and put them in without recutting. Skipping the step costs the roses rather than the daffodils, which is what makes the mistake so easy to miss. #### On this island Daffodils are one of the least demanding things we drive anywhere. The heads are light, they do not knock against each other and they do not lose shape over a long run, so the 90 to 180 minute west coast window and the separate slots for villas, marinas and airport routes are all comfortable for them. Heat is the exception. At 25 to 33 °C a bunch left in the sun opens every bud within a couple of afternoons and finishes early, so boxes travel out of the light and the vase wants a shaded corner indoors rather than a terrace table. During the rains from May to October and on the evening climbs we add route time, which costs this flower nothing. Take a narrow jug over a wide one. The neck of a daffodil is soft, and in a wide opening the stems splay until the heads tip outwards over the rim, which undoes the shape the bunch was tied in. Cold water, and not much of it. The stem is fleshy and hollow, and any length of it standing submerged goes pulpy from the outside in. Deliveries run 9 AM to 10 PM, orders start from 2200 THB, and payment goes by bank card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PromptPay, bank transfer or cash to the courier in baht. Hotels along the coast take the box on site, so Rosewood Phuket, Trisara, The Slate Phuket, Banyan Tree Phuket and Veranda Resort Phuket all work the same way, and Rawai, Chalong, Mai Khao and Phuket Town go out earlier in the day. Say on the order whether the bunch is going in with anything else. If it is, we book the bucket time before we take the delivery slot, and the two together decide which day the flowers can actually arrive.