What your bouquet's colour
is really saying

Reds and pinks

Red still means romance and everyone knows it, which is exactly the problem: it's the expected move. Deep red reads 'serious relationship'. Coral and hot pink read 'early days, fun, a bit cheeky'. Dusty pink is the thinking person's romantic: warm without the drama.

Sending red roses to a colleague's farewell is a statement, just not the one you meant.

Whites and creams

White means two opposite things in Australia: sympathy and 'clean, considered, can't-go-wrong'. Context decides which. White at a funeral is grief; white at a housewarming is style.

Watch it in hospitals too, some wards read all-white as funeral flowers. When in doubt, soften with cream and green rather than pure white, it reads gentler.

• Sympathy: whites + soft greens, always safe
• Thanks or congrats: cream with a warm accent
• Avoid pure-white for births, read as formal

Yellow, orange, purple, blue

Yellow is friendship and get-well, warmest option going. The old 'jealousy' meaning is dead, nobody under 60 knows it.

Orange is enthusiasm: new job, new business, new house. It photographs loud, which is the point.

Purple reads admiration and a little luxury, good for mentors and milestone birthdays. Blue barely exists in nature, so dyed blue reads 'novelty', fun for a laugh, wrong for anything tender.

When colour backfires

Real-world mismatches we've quietly fixed over the phone: all-red for a work colleague (read romantic), all-white for a new baby (read clinical), black-wrapped 'dramatic' bunch for a get-well (read ominous).

The rule that saves you: match the colour to the relationship, not the occasion. Tell us who it's for and we steer it. The order form has a box for exactly this.

Still torn? Order florist's choice and write three words about the recipient in the notes. We'll pick the palette. It's literally the job.