Thanksgiving Flowers in NYC: What Fits the Table, What to Send the Host, When to Order

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. We've done a lot of Thanksgivings on Madison Avenue, enough to have opinions about centerpieces that we're not shy about, and this is the short list of things that make the flower part of the day go right.

The centerpiece people gather around

Manhattan dining tables are smaller than the ones in the magazines, and the centerpiece that looks right in the photo blocks the turkey and the person across from you. Keep it under a foot tall, or go tall and thin so the flowers sit above everyone's heads. Long table, long piece: an oblong design runs the center and leaves room for platters on both sides. Round table, round piece. And if dinner is a buffet, put the flowers on the buffet. The table will be covered in plates by four o'clock and nobody will see a centerpiece anyway.

Autumn Splendor, $200, is our Thanksgiving centerpiece: hydrangea, amaryllis and roses in a long, low shape made for exactly this table. Harvest Bounty, from $200, is the round-table version in a leaf-lined cube. For the big dining room with the leaf in the table, Red Berry, $450, roses, gloriosa lilies and red berries, is the one somebody photographs before the plates go down.

A long, low centerpiece from our shop this fall.

What to send the host, and what not to carry in

Don't bring flowers to the door. The host is basting something, has no free hands and no empty vase, and now has to deal with your bouquet while the oven timer goes off. Have them delivered Tuesday or Wednesday instead, in their own container, so they're already on the table when you arrive and you can take a little quiet credit. Harvest Bounty in its glass cube or Fireball, from $150, compact in a cylinder, both arrive ready to set down. Address the card to the whole household. The cook wasn't the only one who worked.

If you can't be there this year, same idea, a day earlier. Flowers that arrive Wednesday are on the table Thursday with your name on the card, which is about as close as you can get to dinner from Chicago.

What's on the table this year

The fall palette has gone quieter: bronze, toffee, mauve and oxblood, lightened with ivory, and more berries, fruit and branches than there used to be. On a Thanksgiving table that means antique hydrangea instead of orange mums, a few small pumpkins at the base, candlelight. If the table's already loud with food, a white-and-green piece like Light Breeze, from $125, calms the whole thing down.

When to order

A few days ahead gives you the most choice. Wednesday is the day the whole city has the same idea, so order ahead and pick Wednesday as your delivery date rather than leaving it to the day. If it does come down to the day, Wednesday the 25th is a normal day for us: we're open 9 to 7, and Manhattan orders placed by 3 PM go out the same day (1 PM for hospitals, offices, shops and restaurants).

Tuesday is our favorite option. A fall arrangement delivered Tuesday still looks like itself on Thursday, and it's on the table before the cooking starts.

We're open on Thanksgiving Day from 9 to 4, we deliver that day, and we take orders right through Thanksgiving. Ordering on Thanksgiving morning, or sending to Brooklyn or Queens that day? Call the shop at 212-289-1677 and we'll tell you what we can do.

Pickup at the shop, 1379 Madison at 96th, is free. Choose the delivery date in the cart, and use the special instructions box for anything we should know.

Through the weekend

The same piece on our workbench at 96th and Madison.

Top up the water every day, keep the arrangement away from the fruit bowl and the oven, and pull any stem that gives up. A hydrangea head that droops will usually come back after a soak in cool water; the steps are in our guide to reviving drooping flowers. Most fall pieces look good through Sunday, which is when the last of the pie goes.

Order Thanksgiving flowers in Manhattan

Shop our centerpieces or the Autumn Flowers collection, or call 212-289-1677 and tell us how big the table is. We deliver across Manhattan for $15, Brooklyn and Queens for $25.

Questions we hear every November

How tall should a Thanksgiving centerpiece be?

Under a foot, so people can see across the table, or tall and thin so the flowers sit above eye level. Long tables take a low oblong piece; round tables take a round one.

When should I order Thanksgiving flowers for delivery in NYC?

A few days ahead gives you the most choice, and Tuesday delivery is the calmest. For a Wednesday delivery, order ahead if you can. Wednesday, November 25 is still a normal day for us: we're open 9 to 7, and Manhattan orders placed by 3 PM go out the same day (1 PM for hospitals, offices, shops and restaurants). We also deliver on Thanksgiving Day, when we're open from 9 to 4, and we take orders right through Thanksgiving; if you're ordering on the day itself, call the shop and we'll tell you what we can do.

What flowers make a good Thanksgiving host gift?

Something that arrives in its own container, in fall tones: antique hydrangea, roses, calla lilies, berries. Have it delivered the day before instead of carrying it to the door.