Alstroemeria in San Francisco: one flower, counted from 11 stems to 51
Alstroemeria in San Francisco comes in one flower and many counts, from eleven stems in the 11 White Alstroemeria bouquet to fifty-one in the 51 Alstroemeria Stems, with kraft paper and delicate packaging somewhere between the two. With a single flower doing all the work, the choice narrows to colour, stem count and wrap, and that is the order this page follows.
Why alstroemeria outlasts a rose bouquet
Cut and stood in water, alstroemeria lasts two to three weeks, while a rose bouquet usually holds for about a week and sometimes stretches to ten days. That gap alone explains why the section keeps growing: a flower that outlives most cut arrangements needs less replacing and less apologising for.
The flower is grown in greenhouses and cut every month of the year, unlike peonies or tulips, which follow a season and disappear from the catalogue for months at a stretch. Alstroemeria takes its name from Clas Alströmer, a pupil of Linnaeus, and in floristry it counts as a mass flower, the kind that fills out a bouquet and gives it a visible centre rather than standing in as a single accent.
White and pink alstroemeria sit in a monochrome scheme: the bouquet stays inside one colour, just at different depths of the same shade. Mixed alstroemeria, sold as Mixed and as Mix No. 5, brings several colours into the same bunch instead of one.
Stem count is the other axis, and the grid runs from eleven stems through thirteen, seventeen, thirty-five and thirty-nine, up to fifty-one Alstroemeria Stems. None of these carry a stated size in centimetres, so stem count and the product photo are the two things worth checking before an order, not a guessed dimension.
Wrap is the third variable. Alstroemeria in Kraft Paper keeps the stems in plain brown paper, Delicate Packaging wraps them in something softer and more finished, and a bunch is simply the stems gathered and tied, nothing more. Where the occasion calls for a second flower alongside the alstroemeria, mixed bouquets combine kinds in one arrangement; another bouquet of the same single flower belongs with mono bouquets.
Alstroemeria delivery in San Francisco and care in the vase
Every alstroemeria bouquet is put together after the order is placed, and a photo of the finished arrangement goes to the sender before the courier leaves, with time to ask for a change if something in the picture is not right. Most orders reach the recipient the same day they are placed, and the exact timing for a given bouquet shows on its own card; the delivery page covers the rest.
A card with a message costs nothing extra, and a vase can be added to the same order at checkout. Sending without a fixed address works too: a working phone number for the recipient is enough for the courier to arrange the handover.
Once the alstroemeria arrives, cut the stems at an angle with a sharp knife and strip any leaf that would sit below the waterline. Change the water every day or two, and keep the vase away from radiators, direct sun and a bowl of ripe fruit standing nearby, all of which shorten a cut flower's time in the water.
The place to start is usually colour: pick white, pink or mixed. Then match stem count to the size of the gesture, eleven for a quick note and fifty-one for something larger. Add gifts to go with the bouquet if the occasion calls for more than flowers.