Mother's Day in Phuket

Mother's Day flowers in Phuket: one occasion, three dates

Every August the same conversation starts. A caller asks for something for a mother, and I ask which Mother's Day they mean. That is not a fussy question here, because there are three of them, months apart, each with its own flower.

Thailand keeps 12 August. It is Queen Sirikit's birthday, and the country marks it as Mother's Day and a public holiday, with banks and offices shut.

The Thai date and its flower

The flower of that day is jasmine. Small white blooms, a scent that carries in wet air, and traditionally a garland rather than a bouquet. Children put a phuang malai into their mother's hands, and the gesture counts more than size. Garlands sell here all year, but before the 12th the Phuket Town stalls are making them for mothers.

We make jasmine up on the morning it goes out. It is short-lived and bruises easily, so it belongs in a garland or low arrangement rather than a tall hand-tie.

Half the island is on another calendar.

Russian-speaking families here wait for the last Sunday of November. Germans, Americans and much of Europe keep the second Sunday of May. So the work comes in three waves: May and August fall in the wet months, November lands as the island fills.

Three dates, and what changes between them

The date changes more than the wrapping. In November and May it is as often for a mother on holiday in a room she leaves on Thursday, while in August it goes to someone who lives here.

• 12 August — jasmine leads, as a garland or in a white-and-green hand-tie. A public holiday: use a home address.
• Second Sunday of May — the European and American date, at the start of the rains. Lisianthus, white roses, hydrangea.
• Last Sunday of November — the Russian date, first weeks of high season, the busiest of the three for us.

Mixing them up is easy from another time zone. A search shows 12 August, so the order goes in for the 12th. It still lands as a good morning. But if her mother in Rawai has been counting on November, one message beforehand saves the guessing.

"In August I ask one thing before colour or budget: which calendar is the sender using? For a Thai mother the answer is jasmine, and the bouquet is built around it. For everyone else it goes in for scent, and the shape comes from lisianthus."

— JFLOO florist

What a mother's bouquet needs here

What the bouquet has to do stays constant across the three dates. Calmer shades carry it: white, cream, soft green, dusty pink, with strong reds left for other occasions. The build sits in the middle, big enough to read as an event, small enough to live on a table. Scent stays low and pollen-heavy stems come out, since these end up in a bedroom. And in air at 25 to 33 °C, holding power settles it: a bouquet that still looks like itself on day four beats one that photographs well for an hour.

Outside jasmine, four things go out more than anything else. All take this heat better than the flowers people ask for by name. Each arrives in water, so the only job left is where to put it.

• Lisianthus — ruffled and quiet, and it holds a humid week better than a peony.
• White and cream roses — imported, and the steady choice when her taste is a guess.
• Hydrangea — volume from few stems; out of direct sun it stays presentable.
• A dendrobium orchid in a pot — for a mother who lives here and still has it next August.

One flower needs a warning across these calendars. Chrysanthemums are everyday in Thailand, but for a French, Italian or Polish mother they read as cemetery flowers, so we leave them out.

Ordering around the 12th

In monsoon showers and evening hill traffic we add route time, so on a wet 12 August give us a deadline, not a vague afternoon. Delivery runs 9 AM to 10 PM, and orders start at 2200 THB. Villas, marinas and the airport get their own runs, and a gated compound needs a host's contact.

The November date is the one to book early. It sits in high season, when the west coast is full and a courier run takes longer than in August. Morning slots go first, because nearly everyone wants the same hour. Mother's Day flowers in Phuket work on any of the three dates, as long as the sender and the mother are counting from the same calendar.