Nobody may be home. Where should the driver leave it?
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Tell us in the notes and we will follow the instruction, because a just-because delivery is unannounced by definition and the odds of an empty house are high. What works in this city: a screened porch, a shaded side door, a carport, a neighbor who will take it in, or an apartment front desk. What does not work is a west-facing step in the afternoon between June and September, where an arrangement has under an hour. In the Old Northeast, where many houses use a rear alley garage as their working entrance, name the door. On a Shore Acres street holding tidal water, we would rather reschedule than leave anything.
My mother is only here for the winter. Does that matter?
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It matters more than anything else on this page. Pinellas has one of the largest seasonal populations in the country: the Gulf Boulevard condominiums, the downtown towers and the communities off the Bayway are full from January through March and substantially empty from June through September. Since a just-because delivery is unannounced, it is the category most likely to reach a shuttered unit. Confirm the recipient is in residence this month, or send it to the building's front desk rather than the door, or ask us to call ahead. And expect mid-season traffic: January to March is the busiest quarter here, so book mornings.
Which neighborhoods do you deliver to?
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All of them inside an 18-mile radius of 33701, which covers the whole city and a good deal of the county: the Historic Old Northeast, Historic Kenwood, Crescent Heights, Euclid-St. Paul, Historic Uptown, Roser Park, the Deuces and Midtown along 22nd Street South, Old Southeast, Coquina Key, Lakewood Estates, Pinellas Point, Broadwater, Disston Heights, Jungle Terrace, Shore Acres and Riviera Bay, plus Gulfport, South Pasadena, Kenneth City, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Largo, St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island, Madeira Beach and Tierra Verde. Our two closest benches on 49th Street North and 38th Avenue North are 5.4 miles from the centroid; the furthest, in Seminole, is 10.9.
Which flowers survive a Florida afternoon?
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Ask for carnation, alstroemeria, gerbera, hardy chrysanthemum, lisianthus, stock or solidago, all of which tolerate a warm van and a wait at a front desk. Florida grows a great deal of the cut foliage used in American floristry, so the greens in a St. Petersburg vase are frequently local. Avoid hydrangea unless somebody will be home to put it straight in water; it is the first thing to collapse here. Ask for a weighted vase rather than a tall narrow one, since the arrangement will be moved at least twice, and from June to September book a morning window so it is not sitting out through the storm hour.
Can you deliver to an apartment or condo front desk?
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Yes, and in this city that is the most reliable handoff available. The towers along 1st Street South and Beach Drive downtown, the Gulf Boulevard beach condominiums and the larger complexes in Pinellas Park and Largo nearly all have a desk or a management office that will accept and hold an arrangement. Give us the building, the unit number and a phone number for the recipient. For gated communities off the Pinellas Bayway — Bayway Isles has a staffed entrance, and Isla del Sol and Tierra Verde are long loops of cul-de-sacs — the recipient's name and phone number on the order is what gets the van through.