Edison's everyday routes follow its sections rather than its ZIP codes, which is worth knowing because the ZIPs are the confusing part: 08817 across the middle, 08820 over the north, 08837 in the Raritan Center flats, plus PO-box numbers that checkout forms accept and drivers cannot use. Ask for the section and the run gets shorter — Clara Barton and Bonhamtown toward Amboy Avenue, Piscatawaytown along Woodbridge Avenue near the college, Nixon and Stelton on the western side, Menlo Park around Christie Street, Lindeneau, Oak Tree and New Dover in the northern half. Landmarks work too: Roosevelt Park at Route 1 and Parsonage Road, where the Plays-in-the-Park amphitheatre sits, orients a driver instantly, and so does Menlo Park Mall across the highway. In January the practical question changes from access to cold: an arrangement left outside on a frozen step for three hours in a Middlesex County winter is finished, so between December and March ask for a hand-over or name an indoor option — a leasing office, a porch behind a storm door, a neighbour.
A large share of Edison's everyday flower buying does not map onto the six-occasion menu at all. Close to half the township's residents are Asian, the largest group of them Indian-American — one of the highest concentrations of any municipality in the country — and the result is a calendar where flowers move for Diwali, Navratri, Rakhi, Holi, Eid and Lunar New Year rather than only for birthdays. The Oak Tree Road corridor that runs from Edison into Iselin is the commercial heart of it, lined with sweet shops that get very busy the week before a festival, and flowers travel alongside the sweets rather than instead of them. If what you want is a garland or loose marigold and rose for a home shrine rather than a Western arrangement in a vase, write that in the order notes — the occasion tag on a product will not carry the instruction for you, and the shops will build to a clear request. Festival weeks also mean festival traffic on Oak Tree Road itself, so a delivery aimed at that corridor on the Saturday before Diwali should be ordered for the morning.