Sending Flowers to Costa Mesa, California

The Costa Mesa birthday call almost always starts with the sender confirming the address and then asking, "but what if they're not home." It's a fair question. A lot of birthdays in this city are landing at a unit number off Harbor Blvd or in one of the College Park complexes near OCC. The recipient is at work or out for dinner, and you're three states away worrying about it.

Joan, NCCPF Certified Florist:

For a birthday going to a Costa Mesa apartment, I tell people to do two small things. First, when you place the order, drop the gate code or the building manager's number into the delivery notes. Second, pick something that doesn't mind sitting in the lobby of a leasing office for an hour. The Mixed Color Bouquet is built for that, the chrysanthemums hold structure even if it's been left at a front desk. If you want something more decisive for a milestone, our birthday bestsellers are a better starting point.

Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive on Gisler Avenue is the cemetery and mortuary that handles a lot of Costa Mesa's services. It's also one of the few places in Orange County with a consecrated Jewish garden, the Alcove of Abraham, which changes the sympathy convention enough that it's worth knowing before you order.

Joan, on Costa Mesa sympathy work: for a Mexican-American Catholic service at Harbor Lawn, flowers are expected and they should be abundant. White is the dominant tone, sometimes with a colour the family has named. Standing sprays go on easels at the funeral home, and a separate basket to the family home after the service is the second send most people forget. For a Jewish family, especially Reform, the tradition is different. Flowers at the funeral home itself aren't conventional. A shiva basket of food sent to the home, or flowers a few days after burial if the family has indicated they're welcome, is the safer call. If you don't know what movement the family practices, ring me on 800-946-5457 and I'll walk it through.

The closest big hospital to Costa Mesa is MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center, technically over the Fountain Valley line on Brookhurst, with the Level 2 NICU and a strong cardiac unit. Hoag in Newport Beach is five miles east on the other side. Either way, what you're sending has to clear hospital flower rules without anyone needing to ring you back.

Most of the calls that come in with a hospital address attached have the same set of unsaid worries underneath them, and I've learned to address them before the caller has to ask. Was the patient discharged already, because Level 2 NICU stays at MemorialCare are typically twenty-four to forty-eight hours and a flower order placed for day three is meeting an empty room. Are oncology and ICU off-limits for flowers, because they are at most US hospitals including these two, and the order needs redirecting to the home if so. Will the lilies have anthers when they arrive, because I tell our florists to remove them at the bench for any hospital send, no exceptions, the staining and pollen sensitivity isn't worth the risk. The cleanest hospital pick is the get well category filtered to bouquet rather than vase, since glass at the bedside is a problem in some wards. Daisies, mums, soft palette. The flowers should make the room feel less institutional, not announce themselves from down the corridor.

Most days, my honest answer for a sender who's stuck is the Mixed Color Bouquet. Mums and alstroemeria and carnations in a clear vase, sixty dollars before delivery, going strong at day ten. It works for an apartment off Harbor, an office on Bristol, and a Mesa Verde house. It's not the prettiest arrangement on the site, and it's not pretending to be. It's the one that lasts the longest in the kind of room most Costa Mesa flowers end up in.