### Baskets with orchids in Bali: the cold that matters comes from indoors Chilling shows up on an orchid as a glassy, translucent edge on the petal that turns brown over a day and does not stop there. Nothing outdoors on this island will do that to a flower. The cold that can reach it comes out of a split unit or out of our own packing. Both are easy enough to manage. Above 30 °C and in high humidity we wrap the basket firmly and pack a cooling element for the drive. The element sits clear of the flowers and does its work on the air inside the wrap. An orchid pressed against it for a three hour run out to Uluwatu arrives with exactly the edge described above, so the placement is checked at the bench and never left to whoever loads the van. Indoors the same rule applies to moving air. Keep the arrangement away from the window, away from the door and away from anything that blows. Direct sun is the opposite extreme and arrives at the same result by a different road. Behind glass on a terrace, the foam dries from the top down while the petal edge cooks. > "I check where the cooling element sits before every long drive. On a three hour road that placement matters more than the wrap does." > JFLOO florist #### Roads and windows Seminyak, Canggu and Sanur sit in a 90 to 150 minute window, while Uluwatu, Tabanan and the remote villas take up to 3 to 4 hours. We work 9 AM to 10 PM, orders start at 650000 IDR, and payment goes through QRIS, GoPay, OVO, DANA or cash to the courier. The long routes are the ones this format handles best, since a branch in a sealed vial does not mind the hours. It does mind the angle. A vial seated crooked spills its solution into the bottom of the basket over a rough road, so the piece travels upright and never flat. #### Three rooms that suit it - An open terrace out of direct sun, where the air moves without a machine pushing it. - A villa sitting room with the split unit on the far wall. - A hallway table in a long stay house, set down once and left there. A bedroom cooled all night is the room to avoid. So is a spot beside a door that opens onto the pool every few minutes. Villas between guests are the case we get asked about most. If the arrangement has to be standing in the room before anybody arrives, we soak the foam to the limit and put the basket somewhere the housekeeper can water it, and we say plainly which of the two water sources will run out first. An orchid basket waiting alone for three days is fine. The greenery around it is what starts to look tired. Orchids are part of the regular assortment here, and one or two branches go into a bowl with imported roses at 60 to 90 cm, lisianthus, ranunculus and macrophylla hydrangea. Tropical foliage covers the foam along the rim and hides the vials at the same time. Nobody builds a solid head of orchids, and the rest of the bowl exists to carry the branch. Seasons change the road more than they change the flower. The rainy months run November to March and the drier stretch roughly April to October, and we add route time whenever the weather asks for it. The vial under the moss is topped up separately from the foam, with water at room temperature, every few days. Say that out loud to whoever receives the basket, because vials get thrown out as packaging on the first evening more often than anything else goes wrong here. Baskets with orchids in Bali then keep going until the foam itself dries, which is usually well after the rest of the bowl has been cleared away.