Give us 48 hours’ notice and the flowers are bought at the next auction. One to two days in the air after that, so from your message to your passerelle is about three days. You do not go looking for a florist, chase a permit or speak to customs.
Most florists on the French Riviera stop when the fleet leaves in November, and wait for May. We keep supplying the boat wherever it winters.
The reason is that the two halves of this business were built by two people. One does the flowers, one spent years learning the export side: the Dutch auction, the plant health inspection, the air waybill wording that keeps a box out of import duty, and the difference between a permit that takes days and a certificate that takes an afternoon.
This is the part worth understanding properly, because it is the thing that decides whether the flowers arrive for the charter or after it.
Most of the Caribbean wants an import permit before anything can be bought. It takes 5 to 7 working days and it has to be granted first, not chased afterwards. So plan about two weeks ahead of your first order into one of those islands. The Maldives, the Seychelles and Thailand want one too, and there it takes one to two weeks.
Then it is done for the season. The permit fixes a species list and stays on file, in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and Asia alike. Every order after it that keeps to that list goes straight through at the normal three days, Monday to Friday. One permit, planned once, for the whole winter.
So the question we need answered early is never when you want the flowers. It is which port, and what date. Tell us in October what the winter looks like and the permits are quietly in place before anybody needs them. The full country by country picture is in the journal.
Flowers are half of a consignment. The other half is floral foam, tape, wire, water tubes, trays, containers, stones, bark and cellophane, because the person arranging on board has no shop to walk to. Running out of foam in Falmouth is a worse afternoon than running out of roses. Plants and larger pieces travel the same way.
We will say this even though it costs us money. Heliconia, ginger, bird of paradise and local greenery grow where your boat is, and flying them from Holland is spending money to make something worse. Fly in the European palette, the orchids and the things the owner specifically expects. Here is what is genuinely available island by island.
Eleven ports, and several have a page of their own with the local detail. Somewhere not on this list? Ask, and we can usually find out what it takes within a day.
Yes. They are bought at the Dutch auction in the morning, packed cold and certified the same day, flown as perishable cargo in the cold hold, cleared by an agent at the other end and delivered to the passerelle. One to two days in the air depending on the destination, held between plus two and plus eight the whole way.
48 hours before the flowers are bought, then one to two days in the air, so about three days from your message to your passerelle. Where the country wants an import permit, plan it once for the season before your first order: 5 to 7 working days in the Caribbean, one to two weeks in the Maldives, the Seychelles and Thailand. It stays on file, and every order after it runs at three days, shipped Monday to Friday.
Most of the Caribbean does, and so do the Maldives, the Seychelles and Thailand, where it takes one to two weeks. Sint Maarten, Antigua, Tortola, the Grenadines and St Thomas all want one. St Barths has no cargo airport, so it clears at Sint Maarten under that permit. Singapore needs a trade permit but no plant certificate for pure cut flowers, and Indonesia wants notice online before departure rather than a permit. We arrange all of it.
An agent at the destination, working from four documents we send 48 hours before the flight lands. It is normally the yacht's own agent, the one already handling your fuel and clearances. If you do not have one, we bring ours.
100 kg volumetric per shipment. A yacht order normally clears that comfortably. The last Maldives consignment on our books was 260 kg. Below it the freight stops making sense, and we would rather say so than quote you something silly.
Monday to Friday. Nothing leaves at the weekend, because the flight and the paperwork both need a working day. A Friday request lands on board the following week, so tell us before the weekend rather than during it.
Yes, and it matters more than people expect. Floral foam, tape, wire, water tubes, trays, containers, stones and cellophane travel in the same consignment. On a boat in Falmouth or Malé there is no shop to walk to.
Freight is charged at cost with no markup added, priced on volumetric weight. The flowers are quoted separately against your list. Tell us the port, the date and roughly what you want and you get a number the same day.
Message us and you get a real person, usually within the hour. Answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year.