If someone you care about is in Korea and you can't be there in person, flowers are the next best thing to showing up. Here is what people actually send for each occasion — from a florist who has been doing this in Korea for more than ten years.
See also: how to send a gift to Korea from abroad · questions we are asked
One thing is worth knowing before anything else. In Korea, the flowers you give to a person are a bouquet or a basket — for a birthday, a parent, your partner, a teacher, anyone you are thinking of. The tall flowers on a stand that you may have seen in photos are a different thing altogether: those are standing wreaths, and they go to public events — weddings, funerals, shop openings — never to someone's home. Most people sending from abroad want the first kind, so this guide leads with those.
How it works is simple. Tell us where your person is in South Korea, and a florist near them makes the flowers fresh that same day and delivers them by hand — anywhere in the country. Once they arrive we email you a photograph, so you see what your person saw. We have arranged flowers in Korea for over ten years and stood at the counter for most of them, and we still answer every message ourselves. If your occasion is not below, tell us on WhatsApp at +82 10 5472 1571 or email daljaflowers@gmail.com.
A hand-tied bouquet. It is what people hand over in person for a birthday in Korea, so it is what feels right arriving in your place. From ₩45,000.
If it is going somewhere the person cannot deal with a vase — an office, a classroom, a hospital room — a flower basket is the easier gift; it arrives ready to set down. From ₩47,000.
Write your card message when you order and we send it with the flowers. Order by 6:00 PM KST for same-day delivery.
Flowers, and it is one of the kindest things to send from far away — they arrive the same day, and a person places them in your person's hands rather than leaving a box at the door.
For a partner or a close friend, send a bouquet (from ₩45,000) — in Korea a bouquet is what is given in person, so it is what reads as personal when it arrives instead of you. For a parent or a grandparent, a flower basket is the warmer choice: it needs no vase and holds its shape for days (from ₩47,000).
Put what you would say in the message field — that card is often the part people keep. Give us the delivery address and the recipient's Korean mobile number; if they are at an office, a campus or a hospital, add the floor or room. Because a florist near them makes it, it arrives as fresh as if you had bought it around the corner, and we email you the photo so you can see the moment from wherever you are.
A bouquet, handed over for the photographs. Graduation, and the start of a new school or a first job, are bouquet moments in Korea — bright and personal, from ₩45,000.
Graduation season is mainly February and admissions the spring after. If the flowers are for the ceremony itself, give us the venue and the time; a florist nearby delivers on the day — just order by 6:00 PM KST.
Often yes, but check the ward first. Some Korean hospital wards — intensive care especially, and certain cancer and transplant units — do not allow fresh flowers, for infection control. General and maternity wards usually do.
Where they are welcome, a flower basket is the kind choice: no vase to find, and it sits on the bedside table. From ₩47,000. Give us the hospital, the ward and room, and the patient's Korean phone number.
If you are not sure of the ward's rule, ask the family — or message us and we will help you decide before you order, rather than sending flowers that get turned away at the door. Ten years of doing this means we usually know the hospital already.
The 100th day (백일) and the first birthday (돌) are real milestones in Korea, and the family gathers for them. The traditional gifts are money or a small gold ring; flowers come alongside, not instead.
A flower basket in soft colours is a warm send to the home or the venue, from ₩47,000. Skip the standing wreath — that is for public ceremonies, not a family celebration at home.
Carnations. On Teachers' Day (스승의 날, 15 May) a carnation for a teacher is the tradition, and on Parents' Day (어버이날, 8 May) children give red carnations to parents and grandparents. From abroad, a basket or bouquet built around carnations is the send — just tell us which day it is for. Baskets from ₩47,000, bouquets from ₩45,000.
Both days fall in the same week of May, which is our busiest week of the year. Order a day or two ahead if you can.
The traditional housewarming (집들이) gifts are practical and a little symbolic: laundry detergent, because the suds stand for prosperity bubbling up, and toilet paper, because it unrolls smoothly — a wish that life in the new place runs smoothly too.
If you would rather send flowers, a foliage plant is the natural fit; it settles into the new home and lasts, from ₩47,000. A flower basket (from ₩47,000) is a warmer, shorter-lived alternative.
An orchid in a pot. For a promotion, a transfer or taking up a post, the customary choice is a Korean cymbidium orchid — long, upright leaves in a ceramic pot, formal rather than showy. From ₩47,900.
For an opening or a thank-you, the brighter phalaenopsis is more usual, from ₩49,000. Both last far longer than cut flowers, which is part of why they belong in an office.
On the ribbon, the sender is usually a company name with a title. If you are not sure how to word it, tell us and we will suggest the phrasing Koreans expect.
This is one of the times a standing wreath is right. A congratulatory wreath stands outside on opening day where customers and passers-by see it, with your name on the ribbon — from ₩49,000 to ₩194,000.
Many people also, or instead, send a plant that stays: a foliage plant (from ₩47,000) or a bright phalaenopsis orchid (from ₩49,000) remains in the shop long after the day. Send the wreath for the day, the plant for after — or both.
A congratulatory standing wreath (축하화환), sent to the wedding hall, where it stands at the entrance with your name on the ribbon. It is not a bouquet to the couple — that is not how Korean weddings work. Congratulatory wreaths run from ₩49,000 to ₩194,000. See the congratulatory wreaths.
Order the day before. A wedding has one fixed hour and the wreath has to be standing before it; weekends are busiest. Some halls only accept a particular style of wreath — a slimmer form, or a paper-panel design in parts of the south-east — and after ten years we know most of the local rules, so tell us the hall and we build what it will accept.
They are two different customs. People who attend the funeral bring condolence money (조의금) in a white envelope, handed over at the hall. A standing funeral wreath (근조화환) is what companies — and people who cannot attend — send to the hall, so their name stands at the entrance. If you are abroad and cannot go, a wreath is the customary way to be present.
Funeral wreaths run from ₩49,000 to ₩199,000. Korean funeral halls stay open for about three days, so there is usually time: tell us the hall, the room, and roughly when mourners will gather, and we work backwards from that. See the funeral wreaths.
One limit we are honest about: if the funeral procession (발인) leaves that same morning, there is no longer time to make and deliver a wreath. In that case a written message of condolence is the right thing. We would tell you so rather than take an order that cannot arrive in time.
Not usually flowers. For Chuseok (the autumn harvest holiday) and Seollal (Lunar New Year), the customary gift is a food or health set — fruit, hangwa sweets, ginseng, honey, canned goods — sent to family and to people you owe thanks to.
If you would rather send something living to an elder, a Korean orchid (from ₩47,900) is a dignified choice that lasts for weeks. We sell flowers and plants, not the food sets — for those, a Korean grocery or department store is the place.
White chrysanthemums are the flower of mourning in Korea. Never send them for a birthday, a wedding or an opening — keep them to a funeral. For happy occasions, bright mixed colours are the norm and always safe.
The other common mistake is the standing wreath: it is a public announcement for a venue — a wedding hall, a funeral hall, a shop opening — and is never sent to a person's home. To a person, send a bouquet or a basket.
If a particular flower matters to you, or your person loves it, tell us when you order and we will say whether a florist can get it fresh that day.
Message us and a person will answer, usually within a few minutes during opening hours. We can help with the address, the ribbon wording, or choosing between arrangements.
We email you a photo of the flowers after delivery.