Armfuls in Sri Lanka

Armfuls in Sri Lanka: loose bunches of roses, hydrangeas and lilies

Armfuls in Sri Lanka take their name loosely from an old sense of "bouquet": in French the word first meant a little wood, not a tight round shape, and the section still keeps something of that difference. Big bunches here are named "Bunch of" rather than "Bouquet of", so Bunch of 101 White Roses sits in the same grid as Bouquet of 101 White Roses. An armful is chosen by the flower and the stem length rather than by the shape of the head, which is why the sections below sort the whole flower catalogue that way.

What makes an armful different from a bouquet

An armful is gathered loosely, with stems left uneven and heads at different heights instead of pressed into a dome. The idea is to keep the just-cut look.

The naming makes the point on its own. Bunch of 101 White Roses and Bouquet of 101 White Roses use the same flower and the same count; what changes is how the hundred and one stems are handled, loose against structured, not how many there are.

Every armful is put together after the order is placed, and the florist buys the flowers for it once payment has gone through.

Flower size decides how many stems an armful needs. A hydrangea or a lily carries a large head, so a handful of stems already reads as a full bunch. Smaller flowers need far more of them, roughly two dozen and up, to fill the same space; that is a guideline for judging a bunch by eye, not a fixed rule.

Hydrangea's Latin name, Hydrangea, means "water vessel". Linnaeus gave it that name in 1753 because of the shape of its seed capsules, not because the plant drinks more water than others.

Gerbera is named after Traugott Gerber, a botanist who lived from 1710 to 1743.

The section's 15 Lilies bring their own care, covered below along with the rest of the flowers here.

Colour sits right in most of the names here: white, red, pink, cream and multi-coloured roses all appear as armfuls of 101. Ribbon-wrapped versions add nothing to the flower itself, just a finish to the stems.

Stem height comes from where the rose was grown. Ecuadorian roses tend to reach 70 centimetres to a metre or more on a single stem, while classic Dutch greenhouse roses are usually shorter. A rose labelled "Tall" or "Imported" isn't necessarily Ecuadorian; the label describes the flower, not its country.

Jumilia roses carry a bud up to seven centimetres across, white at the base and pink at the edge, and with good care they last up to two weeks in water. Misty Bubbles roses are sold as "peony roses" for the shape of the head alone, not for any relation to actual peonies.

Looking after an armful at home

Care starts the moment the flowers arrive. Cut each stem at an angle straight away, strip any leaves that would sit below the waterline, and change the water every day or two so it stays clear.

Keep the armful away from radiators, direct sun and a bowl of fruit nearby, since all three shorten how long the flowers last. A hydrangea that has gone limp can be revived by submerging the whole head in cool water for an hour or two, never longer than four or five hours.

Lilies need a little more attention. Once a bloom opens, remove the anthers before the pollen falls; if it lands on fabric anyway, lift it off with sticky tape rather than rubbing it in. Every part of a lily, including the water in the vase, is toxic to cats, so an armful with lilies isn't the right choice for a home with one.

Roses in an armful usually last about a week, sometimes closer to ten days with fresh water and a clean cut.

Armful delivery in Sri Lanka: photo, card and handover

A photo of the finished armful goes out before the courier leaves, and any change to the order, including a swapped flower, is made from that same photo rather than guessed at afterwards, as explained on the delivery page.

The card that goes with it is free and doesn't need a signature; the courier only knows the recipient's name and the delivery address, nothing about who sent it unless the card says so. Where there's no fixed address to give, a phone number for the recipient is enough to get the armful there.

Payment is taken by Visa or Mastercard, and the total shown in the cart is final. Armfuls in Sri Lanka are usually handed over the same day the order is placed; the exact timing for a particular bunch is shown on its own page.

A good place to start is the whole flower catalogue or the roses on their own, and the delivery page sets out how an address or a phone number gets an armful to the door.