Australian native flowers are worth asking for by name. Banksia, waratah, wattle, kangaroo paw, flowering gum, geraldton wax and billy buttons are the names to use. Protea sits in the same bucket, although it is South African rather than Australian. Spring is the peak for many natives, wattle and waratah among them. Banksia runs through the cooler months instead. The Australian botanical sources that publish on these flowers do not give a vase life in days. Treat any number you are given with care. What can be said is the reason they hold up. Firm heads and stiff bracts do not bruise or drop the way a soft petal does. Availability moves with the grower and the season, so ask what is in the buckets the week you order.
This one is written for the sender. You have heard that natives last longer, and you want to know what to ask for.
These are the names worth using on the phone. Ask by flower rather than by colour, and you will get a straighter answer.
Two questions hide inside this one. When does the plant flower in Victoria, and what is the market carrying this month? The answers are not the same.
VicFlora is the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria record of plants growing wild in this state. It puts golden wattle in flower from about August to October. The Gippsland waratah, which grows in wet forests east of Orbost, flowers from September to December. Silver banksia flowers mainly from February to July. That puts banksia at the cooler end of the year rather than in spring.
The waratah sold through florists follows spring too. The Australian National Botanic Gardens says the New South Wales waratah flowers for about six weeks in spring around Sydney, and later than that in cooler areas.
Three flowers on the list are Australian without being Victorian. The same botanic gardens says the red and green kangaroo paw flowers between August and October in its natural habitat. That range runs from the Murchison River south to Busselton and Mount Barker, and east to Lake Muir. Geraldton wax also comes from Western Australia, where it flowers from late winter into summer. The red flowering gum grows wild on the far south coast of Western Australia and flowers in summer.
So a month named for those three describes what growers send east. It is not a claim about what flowers here. Native stems are grown as a crop, and growers stagger their crops. A wild flowering period is a guide rather than a delivery date, so ask what came in that week. What Melbourne’s seasons do to colour and mood is a different question. It is taken up in the seasonal flower trends post.
If you came from a search for what flowers last the longest, here is the honest answer. No Australian horticultural source opened for this article gives a vase life in days for banksia, waratah, wattle or kangaroo paw. Numbers get quoted anyway. Most of them have nothing behind them.
Two things can be said with a source. The Australian National Botanic Gardens describes the waratah as long lasting. The Australian Native Plants Society says geraldton wax flowers last well over a week once cut.
The rest is structure, and structure is the reason for the reputation. A banksia head is a dense spike of hundreds of small flowers on a woody core. A protea head is ringed by stiff bracts. Billy buttons are a tight ball on a firm stem. None of those carries a soft petal to bruise or drop. They fade slowly instead of going over in a day. A rose works the other way. It opens, then drops its petals at once.
Heat is where the difference shows. An hour in a van on a February run across the south-east leaves any flower warmer than it started. Firm heads take that better than soft petals do. The stems still standing when the roses have gone over are the ones the recipient remembers.
Care still matters, whatever is in the vase. Looking after a bouquet once it arrives is covered in its own post.
Drying gives a native arrangement a second life. It also answers whether natives are worth the money. Banksia, protea and billy buttons are the three to try first.
The method is plain. The Australian Native Plants Society suggests hanging loose bunches upside down in an airy spot, out of direct sunlight. A spare room, a laundry or a garage works, if it is dry and dark. The same society says craspedia dries well. It also says the papery bracts of everlasting daisies keep their shape and colour once dried.
Hang the stems while the flowers still look good. A bunch left in water until it is tired dries tired.
Natives are not the right send every time, and a florist who says otherwise is selling.
Sympathy is the first case. A traditional funeral tribute is usually expected to be lilies, white roses and greenery. The middle of a funeral is the wrong moment to surprise a family. Natives are still right for plenty of funerals, and a native sympathy arrangement can be built on request. What to send to a funeral, what it means and what to avoid covers the whole question, including when the bush is the right note.
Formal occasions with a set palette are the second case. A styled wedding table or a corporate event has its colours decided weeks out. Natives come in the colours they come in, and gold, rust and olive do not bend to a brief.
A sender in Victoria often wants a Victorian flower to arrive somewhere else. That is where this comes up. Delivery beyond Victoria is arranged by phone rather than ordered online, through the Interflora and Petals networks. Interstate delivery is limited to border towns by special arrangement. Extra fees and longer timeframes apply, and the booking has to be made well ahead. Ring first and ask what can reach that address.
No, they are South African, along with leucadendron and leucospermum. All three are often sold inside arrangements described as native. They sit in the same plant family as banksia and waratah, which is why they look at home together.
No Australian botanical source ranks natives by days in a vase, so a winner with a number attached does not exist. Build is the better guide, because the firmer the head, the slower the flower gives up. Waratah and geraldton wax are the two here with a published note about lasting well.
Wattle and waratah are spring flowers in this state. Silver banksia flowers through the cooler half of the year instead. Western species such as kangaroo paw turn up when growers send them east, so the week you order matters more than the month.
Ask rather than assume. A native arrangement can be put together on request, and what goes into it depends on what has come in from the growers that week. That is why a phone call settles it faster than a product page does.
Native stock moves week to week. So the question worth asking is what is on the bench this week, not what is in a catalogue. If a flower you asked for has not come in, any substitution is matched to equal or greater value in a similar colour and style. Nothing arrives as a swap you did not agree to.
Almost all of the flowers come from Victorian growers. The shop’s own account of where its flowers come from is worth a read.
Order before 2:00pm on a weekday for same-day delivery to most metropolitan Melbourne addresses. Saturday orders close at 10:00am and there is no Sunday delivery. Regional Victoria is next-day as standard. The delivery cut-offs and fees are published in full.
If the address is regional, or the flowers have to land at a set time, ring Tranquil Blooms on (03) 9782 0077 before you order.
