For My Aunt in Sharm El Sheikh

Flowers for my aunt in Sharm El Sheikh: choosing the size before the flower

The For My Aunt in Sharm El Sheikh 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 Sharm El Sheikh 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.