### Baskets with alstroemeria in Bali: the markings are the whole character Look at an alstroemeria petal from close range and it is not a plain colour at all. Most people order it as one, choosing pink or cream off a screen, and then find something considerably more complicated standing on the table. The difference is worth understanding before the order rather than after it. The inner petals carry dark streaks and speckles over a lighter ground. Those markings are not uniform between varieties, and they are not decoration added by a breeder for the sake of it; they are how the flower directs an insect to the middle. The throat behind them is usually yellow or green. Together they give alstroemeria a slightly wild, garden appearance that nothing else on our bench has. > "People ask me for something that does not look shop bought. This is the flower I reach for, and the reason is the pattern rather than the colour." > JFLOO florist Put one beside a rose and the contrast explains itself. A rose head is smooth, closed and even, built out of one colour repeating in layers, and it reads as something finished. Alstroemeria beside it reads as something picked. That difference does more for a mixed basket than adding another shade would, because it introduces a second kind of surface rather than a second hue. Macrophylla hydrangea sits between the two, giving mass without pattern. Imported roses at 60 to 90 cm hold the structure underneath while the marked heads sit above them. There is one condition on all of this. The markings only exist at close range, and past a couple of metres the eye keeps the ground colour and drops everything else. That decides which shades belong in which basket. Pale creams and whites read as pale creams and whites from anywhere in a room, so nothing is lost when they are seen from a distance. The deeper pinks and purples are the ones that suffer, since their markings are exactly what made them interesting on the bench and the ground colour left behind is ordinary. A basket of dark alstroemeria in a large space is the one version of this flower that disappoints. #### Which addresses take which shades Villas are where the marked varieties earn their place, because the arrangement usually stands on a side table beside where people sit. A Nusa Dua hotel room is the same case at a smaller scale. Jimbaran wedding venues and villa entrances are the opposite: the arrangement is read from several metres, and there the plainer shades and stronger contrast do more work than any amount of detail. We deliver from 9 AM to 10 PM. Seminyak, Canggu and Sanur are 90 to 150 minutes from the workshop. Uluwatu, Tabanan and the remote villas take up to 3 to 4 hours, and this flower travels upright for all of it, since the stems are hollow enough to take a set if they are laid down. Above 30 °C we wrap firmly and pack a cooling element. Tropical foliage closes the rim and gives the markings something dark to sit against. Orders start from 650000 IDR. Payment goes through QRIS, GoPay, OVO, DANA or cash to the courier. Ranunculus and lisianthus sit naturally beside the marked heads where the arrangement is seen from a chair. Baskets with alstroemeria in Bali are worth ordering with the viewing distance named. Tell us whether it stands next to a chair or across a room, and we will pick the shade around that, because the same flower is two different objects at one metre and at five.