Mother's Day in Vienna

Mother's Day in Vienna: which flowers to send and how to get the date right

Long before anyone printed a greetings card, flowers were already part of the day. On Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, domestic servants in England were let off to visit their mother church and their families. Newspaper accounts of the time describe children gathering violets on the way to give to their mothers, and in towns the churches handed the violets out themselves. The custom has lasted, but it has picked up a complication: Mother's Day in Vienna may fall in a different month from the one the sender has in mind. Which flowers make sense depends on that date, on the room they will stand in and on how flowers are read where she lives.

When Mother's Day falls where she lives

There is no single date. The United States, Germany and more than forty other countries keep the second Sunday of May, the version Anna Jarvis started in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia. Britain has Mothering Sunday three weeks before Easter, so it lands in March or early April. The Arab world celebrates on 21 March, Georgia on 3 March, Spain on the first Sunday of May, Poland on 26 May and France on the last Sunday of May or the first of June. Thailand marks it on 12 August, the birthday of Queen Sirikit; Argentina on the third Sunday of October, Russia on the last Sunday of November and Indonesia on 22 December. For anyone sending flowers across a border, that list is the first thing to check: either the recipient's date counts, or the flowers go twice.

Whichever date applies, it is one of the busiest of the year for florists. The JFLOO delivery page says plainly that Valentine's Day, 8 March and Mother's Day bring several times the usual number of orders: delivery slots on those days are wider than usual, and nobody promises an exact minute. Orders for a specific date and time are accepted for any delivery zone, and the earlier the order, the more slots are open. The sensible move is to book a few days ahead, while the choice of flowers and delivery times is still open.

Which flowers to send for Mother's Day, and what's in season

The date settles more than the delivery slot; it settles what is being cut. A May Mother's Day is peony season, with ranunculus still around and lilac arriving towards the end of the month, so for a May Mother's Day in Vienna peonies are the obvious choice. A March date lands on tulips and the first bulb flowers. A November one, in Russia, falls in the gap between seasons: no peonies at all, chrysanthemums at their best, and the greenhouse staples, roses, gerberas, alstroemeria and lisianthus, unaffected either way.

Roses are the low-risk choice, mostly because of the palette: cream, blush, peach and lilac read as warmth without the romantic edge that scarlet carries. A lot of the section is French roses, which is a florist's technique rather than a variety: the outer petals are folded back by hand, so the bloom opens wide and full. Among the large-headed varieties, Jumilia, white at the base with a pink edge, holds for up to two weeks with decent care. A mono bouquet of one flower she is known to like tends to land better than a mixed one chosen on guesswork.

The carnation deserves a mention because the holiday began with it. Jarvis sent five hundred white carnations, her own mother's favourite, to the first service, and by the 1920s a colour code had grown up around the flower: red for a living mother, white in memory of one who has died. Jarvis disliked the whole development, but the code survives in the United States, and an all-white carnation bouquet sent there carries a meaning the sender may not intend.

The rules for a mother are looser than for a partner, but a few still apply. An all-white bouquet reads as mournful in some families, though white mixed with cream and green does not; red speaks plainly and suits a partner better than a parent. In France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Hungary and Croatia, large-headed chrysanthemums belong on graves and nowhere else. In Australia, by contrast, a white chrysanthemum is exactly what people pin on for Mother's Day, and in Japan the same flower is the emblem of the imperial house. If the mother grew up in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus or most of the former Soviet Union, the stem count has to be odd, because even numbers there are for the grave. A dozen roses, an ordinary gift in Britain, reads as a farewell, and a line in the order comment asking for an odd number settles it.

Scent is the second filter. A lily or a hyacinth quickly fills a small flat, and what smelled pleasant in the workshop becomes a headache at home. Lilies carry a more serious warning: every part of the plant, pollen and vase water included, is toxic to cats and causes acute kidney failure, so a house with a cat gets no lilies at all.

Bouquet, box, basket or a plant: what suits her home

The shape of the gift is better chosen for the home than for the photograph. If there is one vase in the flat and it is medium sized, a long-stemmed bouquet will not fit, and an armful of fifty stems has nowhere to go. For a flat like that, flowers in a box or a flower basket work best. The stems sit in water-soaked floral foam, the arrangement arrives finished, and no vase is needed. For a hand-tied bouquet in paper, a vase can go into the cart alongside it and will outlast the flowers by years.

A plant answers a different need. An orchid or a flowering pot from the plants section stays far longer than any cut flower and asks for no vase. A pot is also a chore, though, and a mother who does not enjoy tending things is better off with cut flowers that leave without guilt. Between the two sit forever roses: preserved stems that stand on a shelf without water and outlast the occasion by a long way.

Many bouquets for this day are ordered from another city or another country, and delivery is built for that. A precise address is not required: the recipient's phone number is enough, and the manager will find out where to deliver without naming the sender or the occasion unless asked to. Nobody calls the mother in advance, because the surprise is half the gift; the one exception is a house or gated estate that cannot be entered otherwise, in which case the courier rings from the doorstep. The courier knows only her name and the address and passes on exactly what the card says.

Every bouquet is made to order, and the florist photographs the finished work before the courier sets off. The photo goes to the sender, a ribbon or a shade can still be changed at that point, and if a flower was unavailable the substitute is visible in the same picture. Payment is by Visa or Mastercard on a secure page; the cart total is final and there is nothing to pay the courier. Delivery in the city centre is free, and most bouquets are delivered on the day they are ordered. Where the chosen bouquet is already in stock with the florist, the bouquet card shows the delivery time for express delivery. Once the flowers are in her hands, the sender gets a message saying so.

If she is in hospital or staying at a hotel, that goes in the order comment. Many clinics do not allow fresh flowers, so the manager checks with the ward first; at a hotel the bouquet goes to the room or waits at reception, whichever the hotel allows.

The card, the cake and the balloon: what to add

Jarvis had a line about greetings cards that still works as advice: a printed one, she said, means nothing except that you were too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else. A card with your own words goes into the order free of charge. Two or three sentences about something specific, what you remember, what you are grateful for, when you will visit, do more than any verse, and the card can be left unsigned if the surprise is meant to hold to the end.

In the cart, a cake or cupcakes cover the table if the day is celebrated at home. A helium balloon with a message for mum marks the occasion from the doorway, and chocolate or a soft toy go alongside; all of it is added to the same order as the flowers.

Roses last about a week in a vase, sometimes ten days; chrysanthemums, carnations and alstroemeria manage two to three weeks, so a bouquet built on them outlives the holiday with room to spare. The care routine is the same for any bouquet. Cut the stems at an angle with a sharp knife as soon as they arrive and strip any leaves that would sit under water. Change the water every day or two, and keep the vase away from radiators, direct sun and the fruit bowl. A box or basket arrangement gets a thin stream of water over the whole surface of the foam every day and is never tilted, because foam that has dried out barely takes water back.

Choosing from the Mother's Day section is easier in this order: the date in her country first, then whether she owns a vase, and only then the flowers. A flat with no vase gets flowers in a box, a mother with one favourite flower gets a mono bouquet, and a May date gets peonies; other dates are gathered on the Occasions page. When the choice is still open, a message to the florist with the occasion and the budget brings back a few options with photos and prices before anything is paid.