Send flowers to Darwin and Palmerston

Darwin is Australia's only tropical capital, a city of 139,902 people (2021 census) where the year divides into a dry season from May to September, a wet season from December to March and the sweaty build-up in between. That calendar shapes everything about sending flowers here: what survives, when the markets run and when the show is on. Order with us and a florist in Darwin makes up the bouquet and delivers it by hand, from Larrakeyah to Humpty Doo.

Suburbs on the run: the city, the northern suburbs, Palmerston and the rural area

Delivery covers the inner city and the peninsula suburbs of Larrakeyah, Bayview, Fannie Bay and East Point, the coastal strip of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek and Coconut Grove, the northern suburbs of Millner, Jingili, Moil, Alawa, Casuarina, Tiwi, Wanguri, Leanyer, Lee Point, Anula, Wulagi, Malak, Karama and Marrara, and Palmerston 20 kilometres away: Palmerston City, Driver, Gray, Moulden, Woodroffe, Durack, Bakewell, Farrar, Johnston, Zuccoli, Mitchell and Yarrawonga. The rural area of Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Virginia, Noonamah and Berry Springs is covered as well, though a rural block may be delivered later in the day. Darwin has plenty of apartment towers with locked foyers, so give the unit number and a mobile number. For Defence addresses, Robertson Barracks at Holtze, home of the 1st Brigade and up to 2,500 rotating US Marines, and Larrakeyah Barracks, the florist cannot drive through the gate, so flowers go to the recipient's home or are collected at the gate by arrangement with them. Charles Darwin University at Casuarina needs a building name and a phone number.

The Darwin clock: no daylight saving, half an hour behind the east

Same-day delivery runs Monday to Saturday for orders placed before 2pm on a weekday or 10am on a Saturday, Darwin time. There is no Sunday delivery. The Northern Territory keeps Central Standard Time, UTC+9:30, all year, so Darwin is always half an hour behind Brisbane and the 2pm cut-off is 2.30pm Brisbane time. The gap to the south-east widens in summer: from October to April the Darwin deadline is 3.30pm in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart and 3pm in Adelaide; in winter it is 2.30pm and 2pm respectively. Perth, an hour and a half behind Darwin all year, has until 12.30pm. The Saturday 10am cut-off is 10.30am in Brisbane and 11.30am in Sydney in summer. Later orders are delivered the next working day.

Royal Darwin, Darwin Private and Palmerston Regional Hospital

Royal Darwin Hospital, the Territory's only tertiary hospital with 360 beds, is on Rocklands Drive in Tiwi, and Darwin Private Hospital is on the same campus next door. Palmerston Regional Hospital, opened in 2018 with 116 beds, is on Linco Road at Holtze on the edge of Palmerston; it has no maternity ward, so new-baby flowers go to Royal Darwin. Ring the ward before you order: intensive care and some wards take no fresh flowers, and in the build-up a compact arrangement in its own water lasts far better than a loose bunch. Put the patient's full name and the ward on the order. Patients are regularly flown in from across the Top End and flown home again, so confirm the person is still there before ordering.

Dry-season Darwin: shows, festivals, races and the big flower days

The dry season is one long calendar. Territory Day on 1 July opens the season. The Royal Darwin Show at the Winnellie showgrounds runs from 23 to 25 July 2026, with a Darwin public holiday on the Friday, 24 July 2026 (23 July 2027). Picnic Day, the first Monday in August, is 3 August 2026 and 2 August 2027, and the Darwin Cup Carnival is run at the Fannie Bay racecourse on Dick Ward Drive. The Darwin Festival follows: the 2027 festival runs from 4 to 22 August. The Mindil Beach Sunset Market runs on Thursday and Sunday evenings from late April to late October. Mother's Day falls in the dry, on 9 May 2027, a Sunday, so flowers are delivered on Saturday 8 May with a 10am cut-off; it is the busiest flower day of the year. Father's Day is 5 September 2027. Valentine's Day, 14 February, is mid-wet-season, hot and humid, so roses should go to an air-conditioned office or home and into water at once. On Anzac Day, 25 April, Darwin wears rosemary and lays wreaths at the dawn service; a bouquet is not the custom.

Flowers that survive the build-up: the tropical seasons

Darwin's climate is tropical savanna: mean maximum 32.2 degrees, mean minimum 23.4, 1,812 millimetres of rain a year, almost all of it between December and March, and afternoon humidity around 30 per cent in the dry but over 70 per cent in the wettest months. From May to September, when nearly every day is sunny and the nights are cooler, roses, lilies, gerberas and chrysanthemums flown in from the south last well, and it is the season for Sturt's desert rose, the Territory's floral emblem, which flowers most of the year but peaks in late winter. In the build-up and the wet, florists lean on stems that tolerate heat, orchids, anthuriums, lilies and foliage, and on arrangements in water rather than hand-tied bunches. Whatever the month, seasonal stems are the safest choice.

Thorak Regional Cemetery and sympathy flowers in Darwin

Thorak Regional Cemetery at 95 Deloraine Road, Knuckey Lagoon, is the only active cemetery serving greater Darwin. Opened in 1988 on the old Berrimah experimental farm and run by Litchfield Council, it has an on-site crematorium, the Territory's first when it started in 1990, a chapel, memorial gardens and a Garden of Remembrance for service personnel; the grounds are open from 7am to 7pm and close under a Stage 2 cyclone warning. Casket sprays, wreaths and sheaves for a service are ordered through the funeral director or a florist two to three days ahead; delivery to the service itself is never guaranteed, so give the family's home as a second address. In a city where so many families are interstate, a sympathy bouquet to the house in the weeks afterwards means a great deal.

Prices for flowers to Darwin

Hand-tied bouquets from a Darwin florist start at AUD 75; the delivery fee for the suburb is added at checkout and a card with your message is included.

Did you know? Did you know? Thorak Regional Cemetery at Knuckey Lagoon is the only active cemetery serving greater Darwin, and its crematorium, opened in 1990, was the first in the Northern Territory.