Flowers in Boxes in Toronto

Flowers in boxes in Toronto: what goes in, and which shape to send

Flowers in boxes in Toronto travel packed for a reason: the city gets around 115–120 centimetres of snow across a winter, and frost can damage a bouquet in the short stretch between the car and the front door. So every order is handed over in person rather than left waiting on a step. Inside the box the stems already sit in wet floral foam, which means no vase is needed, and the choice can start straight away with the flower and the shape of the box.

Roses, hydrangea or lilies: what goes into a Toronto flower box

Most of the roses in a Toronto flower box have flown in from Colombia and Ecuador, which is why a box of roses sits on the shelf in every month of the year, snow outside or not. Ontario's own flowers show up only for a short stretch: the outdoor Toronto Flower Market on Queen Street West sells exclusively Ontario-grown stems, and only on six Saturdays between May and October. Outside that window, a florist buys in and puts the box together from whatever the wholesalers have that week.

What ends up inside is a mix built for the climate rather than the calendar: Ecuadorian and French roses, Jumilia, lilies, hydrangea, hyacinths, lisianthus and gerberas all turn up across the boxes on offer. Jumilia is worth knowing by sight on its own: the bud opens to about seven centimetres, white at the base and edged in pink, which makes it a handy shorthand when the brief is simply a soft, blush-toned box.

A handbag-style box is carried by its handles like an actual handbag, which is exactly why it suits someone heading on somewhere else rather than staying put. Left at a hotel front desk, timed for an airport pickup by request, or booked for a recipient arriving from another country, it travels as easily as luggage. The practicalities behind sending flowers to Toronto from another country, hotels, the airport and the climate among them, sit on a page of their own.

A hat box, by contrast, is built to be set down. It stands on a desk, a hall table or a kitchen counter without a vase underneath it, so it suits someone staying in one condo, office or house for the rest of the day.

Further down the range, a jute pot, a crate or a hanging basket is built for a gift that stays exactly where it lands, rather than travelling on with anyone. Whichever shape arrives, the foam inside wants the same care: a thin stream of water across its whole surface every day, with the box kept level, never tipped.

That is roughly the idea behind flowers in boxes in Toronto as a service: each one is put together to order, the finished box is photographed before the courier sets off, and most orders reach the recipient the same day they are placed. In the city centre, delivery is free, and the timing for any particular box is shown on its own page before checkout; current zones and rules sit on the delivery page.

A box with macarons and flowers turns one gift into two: something to look at and something to eat, in the same delivery. That combination earns its keep in April, when Canada marks Administrative Professionals Day and offices lean on cards, flowers, chocolate and the odd lunch out; a sweet box reads better on a desk than a full bouquet would, with nobody there to look after it.

Thanksgiving, the second Monday in October, calls for something else: an autumn arrangement for the family table rather than a box of sweets, and it works well carried along as a gift for whoever is hosting dinner that year.

One occasion rules flowers out altogether. A family sitting shiva is not sent flowers at all; custom calls instead for a gift basket of fruit or kosher food, which is worth knowing before anything with blooms in it gets ordered.

Deciding between shapes mostly comes down to where the gift goes next. Something travelling on with the recipient fits flowers in handbags; something staying put for the day suits hat boxes; and a desk that could use something to eat as well as something to look at is where macarons in a box earn their place.