Bouquet "Brandished"

A white gladioli bouquet with nothing else in it: tall straight stems, sword-shaped leaves, and flowers climbing the spike from the bottom up. The meaning of gladiolus is in the name: Pliny the Elder called the plant gladiolus, Latin for "little sword", in the first century. English still calls it the sword lily.

On 24 November 1983, The Smiths made their Top of the Pops debut with This Charming Man. The other three wore jumpers. Morrissey whirled a fistful of gladioli over his head. Johnny Marr later said he was using them "far from fey, almost brandishing them". Hence the name.

The gladiolus has had other careers on stage. For decades Barry Humphries closed Dame Edna's shows by flinging hundreds of "gladdies" into the stalls and telling the audience to wave them. Asked once for his greatest strength, he named the ability to throw a gladiolus ten metres from a stage.

Not a polite bouquet. It is for an opening night, a thesis defended, the friend who has never once turned the volume down.

It is a tall bouquet, so use a tall, heavy vase. Gladioli open from the bottom of the spike upward, one flower at a time, so they usually arrive tighter than in the photograph and open over the following days, at the recipient's.

Also available in cream, green, yellow, salmon, pink, red, burgundy, lavender, purple and two-tone. Message me on WhatsApp and I will send photos of what I have in.

Gladioli bouquet delivered in Paris, Monday to Saturday; delivery is free from €100.