Send flowers to Adelaide, the city in the park lands

Adelaide was laid out by Colonel William Light in 1837 as a grid wrapped in park lands, and the park lands are still where the city gathers: the Garden of Unearthly Delights in Rundle Park and Gluttony in Rymill Park during the Fringe, WOMADelaide in Botanic Park. Nearly 1.47 million people live in Greater Adelaide (2024), spread over more than 430 suburbs between Gulf St Vincent and the Mount Lofty Ranges, and Sturt's desert pea has been the state's floral emblem since 1961. Order flowers to Adelaide through us and a florist in the right part of the city makes up the bouquet and hand-delivers it.

Hot, dry summers: choosing flowers that last in Adelaide

Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate with wet, cool winters and hot, dry summers. The summer average maximum is 26 to 29 degrees, but hot northerlies push the city into the mid-30s and low 40s several days a year, the record is 47.7 degrees on 24 January 2019, and summer rain is light and unreliable; of the 536 millimetres that fall each year, most comes in winter, with June the wettest month. For a January or February delivery, choose an address where someone is in, and lean towards orchids, carnations, gerberas, gladioli and lilies, which cope with heat better than soft garden roses. Autumn is the season for proteas, leucadendron, chrysanthemums and the first tulips, winter brings tulips, daffodils, ranunculus and orchids, and spring is peonies, dahlias, poppies and lilies. The Adelaide Hills, a few degrees cooler than the plains, grow cool-climate crops including flowers, so a Hills florist often has different stems in the bucket.

Suburbs we deliver to, from the beach to the Hills

Delivery covers the city and North Adelaide, the inner east of Kent Town, Norwood, Burnside, Toorak Gardens, Glen Osmond, Magill and Campbelltown, and Unley, Mitcham and Blackwood to the south. On the coast it takes in Glenelg, 9 kilometres from the CBD at the end of the tram line, Brighton, Henley Beach, Grange, West Beach, Semaphore and Port Adelaide, and further south Marion, Hallett Cove, Morphett Vale, Noarlunga, Seaford and Aldinga Beach. North, florists reach Prospect, Mawson Lakes, 12 kilometres out and home to a university campus, Salisbury, Elizabeth, Modbury, Tea Tree Gully, Golden Grove and Gawler. The Hills towns of Stirling, Crafers, Aldgate, Hahndorf and Mount Barker are covered too, though a Hills or acreage address is delivered later in the run, so give the property name and a mobile number. For city apartments give the unit number and a mobile for the intercom, and for a student at Mawson Lakes or Flinders in Bedford Park, use a college or street address.

The half-hour difference: Adelaide's cut-off from interstate

South Australia runs on Australian Central Standard Time, UTC+9:30, and uses daylight saving from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, like the eastern states. That keeps Adelaide 30 minutes behind Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart all year, so the 2pm weekday cut-off is 2.30pm there and the 10am Saturday cut-off is 10.30am. Brisbane is the one that moves: Adelaide is 30 minutes behind Queensland in winter but 30 minutes ahead in summer, so a Brisbane sender has until 2.30pm Brisbane time from April to October and only 1.30pm from October to April. From Perth the weekday cut-off is 12.30pm in winter and 11.30am in summer. There is no Sunday delivery; later orders go out the next working day or on any date you choose.

Flowers to the Royal Adelaide, the Women's and Children's and Flinders

The Royal Adelaide Hospital, the state's largest, is on Port Road at the western end of North Terrace. The Women's and Children's Hospital is at 72 King William Road, North Adelaide, and Flinders Medical Centre is on Flinders Drive, Bedford Park, in the southern suburbs. Ring the ward before you order: intensive care and some wards take no fresh flowers, and maternity usually prefers a small arrangement. Give the patient's full name and the ward, and if discharge is close, send to the home.

Festival season and the rest of the Adelaide year

The Tour Down Under races from 16 to 24 January 2027, Valentine's Day (14 February) falls in the hottest weeks, and the Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest arts festival after Edinburgh with more than 1,300 events, runs from 19 February to 21 March 2027, with WOMADelaide in Botanic Park from 5 to 8 March 2027. City florists are busy right through those five weeks, so order a day ahead. Anzac Day, 25 April, is rosemary and wreaths at the dawn service rather than a bouquet. Mother's Day is the second Sunday in May, 9 May 2027; flowers go out on Saturday 8 May and the cut-off is 10am Adelaide time. Father's Day, 5 September 2027, falls during the Royal Adelaide Show at the Adelaide Showground in Wayville (4 to 12 September 2027).

Funeral flowers: Centennial Park and West Terrace

Two cemeteries take most Adelaide services. Centennial Park on Goodwood Road, Pasadena, opened in 1936, covers 40.5 hectares, has had a crematorium since 1955 and has seen more than 160,000 burials and cremations, Sir Donald Bradman's among them; it is owned by the Mitcham and Unley councils. West Terrace Cemetery, at 161 West Terrace on the edge of the city, is the state's oldest, with its first burial in 1840, more than 150,000 interments and the southern hemisphere's first crematorium, built in 1902. Wreaths, casket sprays and sheaves are arranged through the funeral director or a florist near the chapel two or three days ahead. Delivery to the service itself is never guaranteed, so give the family's home as a second address; a sympathy bouquet is welcome long after the funeral.

What flowers to Adelaide cost

Hand-tied bouquets start from about AUD 75; roses by the dozen, native bunches and larger arrangements cost more. The delivery fee is added at checkout and a card message is included.

Did you know? Did you know? West Terrace Cemetery, at 161 West Terrace, is South Australia's oldest cemetery and built the southern hemisphere's first crematorium in 1902.