### Mimosa bouquets in Phuket: the bunch that survives drying out Most cut flowers end in the bin. Mimosa ends on a shelf, because the fluffy yellow balls keep their shape and most of their colour once the branches dry, and a bunch that has finished its life in water carries on as dry material for months. Nothing special is needed to get there. Take the branches out of the vase when the water has stopped helping, stand them dry in the same vase, and keep them out of direct sun. The colour fades a little and goes duller, closer to old gold than to the fresh yellow of the first day. The balls shrink slightly and stay round. After that the bunch asks for nothing at all and sheds slowly, so it can sit on a shelf or over a door frame through the rest of the year. There is no trick to the transition and no right moment for it. Some people lift the branches out while the bunch still looks fresh, others wait until the balls have started dropping, and the dry result comes out much the same either way. The only difference is how much shedding happens on the table in between. The one thing dry mimosa dislikes is handling. Every time the branches are moved a few balls come loose, and by the third rearrangement the floor tells you so. Choose the spot once. #### Choosing that spot on this island Four places work, and they have more in common than they look: - A shelf set back from the terrace doors, where nothing moves the air across the branches all day. - A niche or an alcove in a hallway, which is the best of the four because nobody brushes past it. - Above a door frame, where a dry armful can stay for the rest of the year. - A side table in a room that is used, so long as it is not the table people put bags down on. Sun is the limit rather than heat. At 25 to 33 °C a dry bunch is perfectly comfortable, but direct light bleaches the gold out of it and there is no way to bring that back, so shade matters as much for the dry version as it did for the fresh one. Ceiling fans are the local complication. A fan running over a dry bunch strips balls off it steadily, and the loss is gradual enough that nobody connects the two until there is colour on the floor beneath it. Deliveries run 9 AM to 10 PM, and the west coast window is 90 to 180 minutes with separate slots for villas, marinas and airport routes. Patong, Kata, Karon, Kamala, Bang Tao and Surin sit inside that band; Rawai, Chalong, Mai Khao and Phuket Town go out earlier in the day. During the rains from May to October and on the evening hill climbs we add route time. The branches travel wrapped in film or paper the whole way. Mimosa loses water across its entire surface, leaves included, and the wrapping is what keeps that from happening between the workshop and the door. Orders start from 2200 THB, with payment by bank card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PromptPay, bank transfer or cash to the courier in baht, and the island runs on UTC+7 with no daylight saving. > "Guests ask us how long mimosa lasts and we give two answers. A few days in water, and then as long as nobody moves it." > JFLOO florist Hotels along the coast take the delivery on site, so Rosewood Phuket, Trisara, The Slate Phuket, Banyan Tree Phuket and Veranda Resort Phuket all handle it the same way. For a villa booked by the week, say so on the order and we will send the bunch cut at a stage that still has closed balls on it, which gives the dry stage more to work with later.