Centerpiece

New York does a lot of its living around a table: dinners with friends, birthday lunches, holiday meals that run late. A good centerpiece sits low enough for everyone to talk across it, and is pretty enough that someone reaches out to touch a petal between courses. These are dinner-party flowers first, but just as welcome on an office front desk or a lobby table.

Ballet Slipper shows what we mean: pink roses and hyacinths drift through white hydrangea in a low oblong container, so guests look over the flowers at each other, not through them. Golden Valentina gathers white roses, anemones and ranunculus into a low dome in a golden bowl, polished enough for an event or a milestone. Blue Dream cools the mood in blue, white and green, a fresh change from pastels, in a round or square vase.

In the fall, the table turns warmer: Autumn Splendor, another oblong design, mixes hydrangea, amaryllis and roses in autumn color, and Red Berry tucks yellow calla and gloriosa lilies among roses and red berries. Need a Thanksgiving centerpiece? We're open Thanksgiving Day until 4 PM, and orders placed as late as Wednesday night can still go out on Thanksgiving; our autumnal collection has more. For a birthday, let pink take over with Pink Fury's lush hydrangeas and roses, dramatic Knockout, or compact Jab on a side table.

We make each centerpiece fresh to order, by hand, at Jerome Florists, the Stamos family's shop at Madison Avenue and 96th Street since May 1929. Fresh flowers reach us five days a week from the United States, Holland, Italy and South America. A stem that isn't up to the mark is traded for another worth as much or more, in the same colors, so your table looks the way you pictured it. Orchids are never swapped. Lilies can always come out of any centerpiece, and for any other flower you'd rather skip, or one that isn't good for a pet, we'll do our best to leave it out. Just tell us in your cart's order note.

Our own drivers deliver every day: $15 to any Manhattan address we serve, $25 to Brooklyn and Queens, and free pickup at the shop. Need one on a Manhattan table today? Order by 3 PM, or call if it's later and we'll check. Sending flowers ahead to your host? We'll print your message on a card for free or handwrite it on request; only a handwritten one over 150 characters adds $15. For a wedding or a room full of tables, start with our wedding and event form, and for a size or color you don't see here, call 212-289-1677.