Flowers delivered in Sydney, from the harbour to the Hills

Greater Sydney stretches about 80 kilometres from the Pacific to the Blue Mountains and is home to some 5.6 million people, so "flowers to Sydney" can mean a terrace in Paddington, a unit in Parramatta, a house in the Sutherland Shire or a ward at Royal North Shore. Whatever the address, a florist nearby makes up the bouquet on the day and delivers it by hand. The city has a flower calendar of its own, too: the waratah, the New South Wales emblem, blooms for just four to six weeks in September and October, and from late October into November the jacarandas tint whole suburbs mauve.

Where in Sydney we deliver

City and inner suburbs: Sydney, Pyrmont, Ultimo, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Redfern. Inner West: Newtown, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Balmain and Ashfield. Eastern Suburbs: Bondi, Randwick, Coogee, Paddington and Double Bay. North Shore: North Sydney, St Leonards, Chatswood, Mosman and Hornsby. Northern Beaches: Manly, Dee Why and Mona Vale. The Hills: Castle Hill and Baulkham Hills. Western and south-western Sydney: Parramatta, Blacktown, Penrith, Liverpool and Campbelltown. The Shire: Sutherland, Miranda and Cronulla. For the apartment towers from Pyrmont to Parramatta the driver needs a unit number and a mobile; harbourside houses with gates and intercoms need a note about how to get to the door; and for an office in the CBD, North Sydney or Macquarie Park, name the company and floor so reception knows who the flowers are for. Addresses further afield in Wollongong, on the Central Coast or in the Blue Mountains are delivered from their own towns rather than from Sydney.

Sydney's same-day cut-off

Same-day delivery is available Monday to Saturday when the order is placed before 2pm on a weekday or 10am on a Saturday, Sydney time. There is no Sunday delivery; later orders go out on the next working day or on a date you choose. Sydney is on daylight saving from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. If you are ordering from Brisbane or the Gold Coast in that period you are an hour behind Sydney, so your deadline is 1pm Queensland time; from Perth it is 11am in summer and noon in winter. From Europe or North America, order the evening before, your time, and choose the delivery date.

Hospital flowers in Sydney: RPA, St Vincent's, Royal North Shore and Westmead

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is at 50 Missenden Road, Camperdown 2050. St Vincent's Hospital Sydney is at 390 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst 2010. Royal North Shore Hospital is on Reserve Road, St Leonards 2065, and Westmead Hospital is on Hawkesbury Road at the corner of Darcy Road, Westmead 2145. Hospitals decide ward by ward what they accept: intensive care units take no fresh flowers, and some surgical, oncology and infectious-diseases wards follow suit. Phone the ward before ordering, give the patient's full name and the ward, and if the patient may be discharged soon, have the flowers delivered to the home instead.

The Easter Show, Vivid and the flower days

Sydney's year opens with the Sydney Royal Easter Show at Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park, from 19 to 30 March 2027, and the harbour lights up for Vivid Sydney from 28 May to 19 June 2027. Mother's Day is 9 May 2027; because it falls on a Sunday, bouquets are delivered on Saturday 8 May and the cut-off is 10am, so order early in the week. Father's Day is Sunday 5 September 2027, again delivered on the Saturday. Valentine's Day, 14 February, sits in Sydney's humid high summer: send roses to a workplace or a home where someone is in. On Anzac Day, 25 April, the tradition is a sprig of rosemary and a wreath at the dawn service rather than a bouquet. For a spring birthday, ask for waratahs while they last.

What is in season in Sydney

Sydney's humid subtropical climate, with a mean maximum of about 23 degrees and around 1,150 millimetres of rain a year, keeps florists stocked all year but changes what lasts. Spring (September to November) is waratah season, with sweet pea, ranunculus, proteas and lisianthus, and peonies in November. Summer (December to February) brings roses, lisianthus, gerberas, orchids, delphiniums and dahlias; humidity is the enemy, so delivery straight into water matters. Autumn (March to May) means chrysanthemums for Mother's Day, with tulips, iris, proteas and leucadendron. Winter (June to August) is mild and often the best value: tulips, daffodils, stock, ranunculus, proteas and orchids.

Sympathy flowers: Rookwood, Macquarie Park and Northern Suburbs

Rookwood, on Hawthorne Avenue, Rookwood 2141, about 17 kilometres west of the CBD beside Lidcombe station, has been Sydney's main burial ground since 1868, covers 286 hectares, holds around a million people and is the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere; its crematorium is the oldest still operating in Australia. Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium is on the corner of Delhi and Plassey Roads, North Ryde 2113, and Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, open since 1933 with four heritage chapels, is at 199 Delhi Road, North Ryde. Service flowers, whether a casket spray, wreath or sheaf, should be arranged two or three days ahead through the funeral director or a florist near the chapel. Delivery to the service is never guaranteed, so give the family's home as a second address.

Prices and what comes with the flowers

Bouquets start from AUD 75, and larger arrangements, dozen-rose bunches and native bouquets are priced above that. Delivery is charged at checkout; a card with your message is included with every order.

Did you know? Did you know? The waratah, New South Wales's floral emblem, flowers in the Sydney region for only four to six weeks in September and October.