Flowers in Dubai

The whole flower catalogue and how to move through it

Everything we cut, tie and box sits under this page. The catalogue runs two ways from here: by the flower, or by the object you hand over. Roses, peonies, tulips, hydrangea, lisianthus and orchids down one side; single-variety bouquets, florist-designed arrangements, baskets and boxes down the other.

Take whichever road you already know.

The variety road is quicker when the recipient has a favourite. The object road covers the rest: a housewarming, a hotel suite, a desk where nobody keeps a vase. Filters narrow it after that — price in AED, colour, and how soon it has to be at a door.

Where the stems come from

Very little of what is sold as flowers in Dubai is grown in the country. Dutch roses arrive at 60 to 90 cm, the working length behind most of this catalogue. Ecuadorian roses run up to 120 cm, heads to match, for bouquets that must read across a lobby. Peonies change address by month: season supply in May and June, Dutch glasshouses the rest of the year. Tulips and chrysanthemums grow in greenhouses inside the UAE, so the run from cut to cooler is counted in hours rather than in flight time plus customs.

Season, and the price of a peony

Season here means the northern hemisphere's, not the emirate's. The city is air-conditioned all year, so what shifts month to month is what growers abroad are cutting.

• December to March — tulips and ranunculus at their best.
• May and June — peony season: the biggest heads and a price that moves weekly.
• Summer — roses, orchids and lisianthus travel well; hydrangea wants water fast.
• Autumn — chrysanthemums and callas take the desk and lobby work.

Peonies show it plainly. Through May the European season peaks, our buying price falls, and the heads come in fat enough to need both hands. Either side of that window the same flower comes from a heated glasshouse, and glasshouse cost lands in the bouquet.

"In June a peony costs about what a good rose costs. By November it costs several times that."

— JFLOO florist

One variety, or a florist's hand

A single-variety bouquet is a statement of quantity and colour. Fifty-one roses in one shade, an armful of white tulips, five hydrangea heads in paper — legible from the doorway.

Designed arrangements work the other way. A florist mixes lengths and textures, so three or four costly stems carry a larger piece while lisianthus and greenery do the volume. Baskets and boxes are the third answer, both with water inside, which is why they go to offices, clinics and hotel rooms with no vase in sight.

What the heat costs

All of it changes when the flowers leave the cooler. Summer runs to 40 °C with humidity off the water, and a cut stem loses moisture through its petals faster than it can drink through the base.

• Stems are cut under water and given a long cold drink before anything is wrapped.
• Summer bouquets travel insulated, and the courier's car stays cold to the last stop.

None of that makes a bouquet immortal in August. It buys the stretch between our bench and a vase in a cool room. Seven to fourteen days is normal indoors here, and an evening on a balcony in July takes a visible bite out of that.

"It is rarely the heat that finishes a bouquet here. It is forty minutes at a gate with nobody picking up."

— JFLOO florist

Districts, doors and paying

Deliveries run 9 AM to 10 PM across Downtown, Marina, JBR, Business Bay, Palm Jumeirah and DIFC, in a window of 2 to 4 hours. Each door asks for something different. For a tower it is the recipient's phone; for a villa, the gate name. A hotel wants the guest name and booking reference, without which the front desk signs for nothing.

Hotel work is routine for us: Burj Al Arab, Atlantis The Palm, Address Downtown. With Four Seasons we ask which of its two Dubai addresses you mean, since the brand runs more than one property here.

DIFC has its own rhythm: reception desks stop taking deliveries before the towers empty. Prices start at 250 AED — card on the site, Apple Pay, cash to the courier, bank transfer against an invoice for companies. Ordering flowers in Dubai for a date weeks out is normal: give a manager the date, and we hold the slot while the stems stay in water.