Can you bring flowers to hospital? What to choose

The short answer: sometimes, but not everywhere. Many hospitals, and especially certain wards, do not allow flowers at all or allow only some kinds. The strictest rules are usually found in intensive care, oncology, some surgical wards and anywhere patients have a weakened immune system. So before you buy anything, call the ward or ask the patient or their family. If flowers are allowed, bring a small bouquet with little or no scent that can stand in water and does not take up much room. Below we explain why the rules exist and what to bring if flowers are not an option.

Why some wards do not allow flowers

A ban on flowers is not a whim. The usual reasons are:

• Hygiene. Water standing in a vase becomes a home for bacteria within a few days, and the soil in a pot can carry fungal spores. For a healthy person this is harmless, but for a patient after major surgery, chemotherapy or a transplant it can be a real risk.
• Allergies. Pollen and scent can bother the patient or the other people in the room.
• Scent. After an operation, or during treatment that causes nausea, a strong fragrance can be very unpleasant.
• Space. There is usually only a small bedside cabinet, already holding water, medicines and a phone. A large vase simply has nowhere to go.
• Staff time. Nurses do not have time to change vase water or carry vases around.

Rules differ not only between hospitals but between wards in the same hospital, and they sometimes change, for example during the flu season. The only reliable way to know is to ask.

How to check

• Call the ward before your visit, or ask at the nurses' station if you are visiting more than once.
• Ask the patient or a relative who has already visited. They often know whether other visitors were allowed to leave flowers.
• If flowers are allowed, check whether potted plants are allowed too. The answer is often different.
• Ask whether the patient or anyone sharing the room has allergies.
• If the patient is moved from intensive care to another ward, ask again: the rules there may be less strict.

What to bring if flowers are allowed

A small bouquet

The right size for a hospital is a bouquet you can hold in one hand: three, five or seven stems with a little greenery. In Lithuania living people are given an odd number of flowers, while even numbers are associated with funerals, so it is worth counting the stems in a small bouquet, particularly for someone who is unwell. Choose the colour to suit the person: soft, light shades feel calm, while yellow or orange gerberas are more cheerful.

Little or no scent

Good choices are flowers with almost no fragrance or only a light one:

• gerberas
• alstroemerias, which also last a long time
• lisianthus
• tulips, in season
• most cut roses, whose scent is usually faint

Leave out lilies: their scent is very strong and their pollen stains bedding and clothes. Hyacinths and freesias are also strongly scented.

Already in water

Wards often have no vases, and finding one is a chore for the patient or the nurses. It helps to bring flowers that are already in water: a small bouquet in its own little vase, or a compact bouquet with short stems that stands well in a small vase or even a drinking glass. You can bring a vase from home. Choose a small, stable one that will not tip over on a narrow cabinet. Where the ward allows it, a small flower box is also practical: the flowers sit in wet floral foam, so no vase is needed.

What to avoid

• Potted plants with soil where hygiene rules apply. Soil is exactly what wards that guard against infection want to keep out.
• Large bouquets. They take over the cabinet, get in the way of staff and other patients, and are awkward to carry out on the day of discharge.
• Strongly scented flowers, especially in a shared room.
• Flowers that shed a lot of pollen.
• Potted chrysanthemums. In Lithuania they are linked to All Souls' Day and cemeteries, which is not a welcome association for someone who is ill.

Who will look after them

Flowers often fade faster in hospital than at home: wards are warm, the air is dry and nobody changes the water. A few tips:

• Choose long-lasting flowers such as alstroemerias, spray chrysanthemums or carnations.
• If you visit regularly, change the water yourself and trim the stems a little.
• Take faded flowers away so they do not sit in cloudy water next to the bed.

If flowers are not allowed

A ban does not mean you cannot show you care.

• Bring flowers when the person comes home. A bouquet on the day of discharge or the first evening at home often means more than one in a ward, and it will last longer there. At home a potted plant works well too, for example an orchid, which flowers for a long time and needs little care.
• Write a card. A few handwritten lines take up no space and break no rules. A child's drawing or a few printed photos work too.
• Say that flowers are waiting. You can bring just a card saying a bouquet will be waiting at home.

Maternity and newborn wards often restrict flowers as well. In Lithuania it is common to meet the mother and baby with a bouquet on the day they are discharged, as they come out of the hospital.

Ordering a small bouquet in Kaunas

The Gitanos gėlės flower stand is inside the Šilas supermarket at A. Baranausko g. 26, Kaunas, open every day 8:00–23:00. Bouquets start from 15 € and potted plants from 8 €. You can pre-order a small bouquet for a hospital visit, or flowers for the day someone comes home, by SMS at +370 656 38880 or on gitanosgeles.lt and collect it on your way. Mention that it is for a patient, and it will be easier to choose small flowers with little scent.