The Sympathy Flower Guide: What to Send and How to Choose
Of all the flowers we send, sympathy arrangements are the ones people most want to get right — and the ones they most fear getting wrong. After years of helping Australians choose them, my honest reassurance is this: a gentle, well-made arrangement, sent sincerely, is almost never the wrong thing. This guide walks you through every decision, from which flowers to send to where and when.
Start with where it’s going
The first decision shapes everything else: is this for the family home, or for the funeral service? Flowers sent to the home offer private comfort in the quiet days after a loss. Flowers sent to the service form part of the farewell itself. We’ve built a page for each so the choice is simple — sympathy flowers for the home are gentler and more personal, while funeral service flowers are more formal.
If you’re genuinely unsure, the home is rarely wrong. You can always browse the full sympathy & funeral collection and let the arrangement guide you.
Which flowers are most fitting
Sympathy arrangements lean on soft, restful, dignified blooms — nothing that shouts. These are the flowers our florists return to again and again because they carry the right tone without a word being said.
The traditional sympathy flowers, and what they convey:
- Lilies — the classic funeral flower, symbolising peace and the restored innocence of the soul.
- White and cream roses — reverence, remembrance and humility.
- Chrysanthemums — in many cultures, the flower of mourning and honour.
- Carnations — long-lasting and meaningful; pink for remembrance, white for pure love.
- Soft seasonal whites and greens — calm, understated and never showy.
If you’d like to keep to the most traditional choice, our white & lily tributes gather them in one place.
A simple, sincere arrangement says “I’m here, and I’m thinking of you” when language fails — which, at a graveside, it usually does.
Arrangement or bouquet?
For a grieving family, anything that arrives ready to display is a genuine kindness — there’s no hunting for a vase on the hardest week of their life. That’s why we often steer people toward our ready-to-display sympathy arrangements, which arrive in their own vase or basket.
Timing, and how we deliver
For a service, flowers should arrive the morning of, or the day before, addressed to the funeral home with the service name and time. For the home, any time in the fortnight after a loss is thoughtful — and flowers that arrive once the initial rush has passed are often the ones remembered most. We deliver same day across Australia when you order before the 2pm weekday cut-off (10am Saturday), for one flat $9.90.
