People say “the Bay Area” as if it were one place. If you send flowers here, you learn quickly that it is closer to a dozen places that share a body of water. A street address in San Francisco can sit on a hill steep enough to change how a bouquet is carried. An Alameda address means you are on an island. A Marin address means you are across the Golden Gate. This guide is a tour of the places we deliver, written for anyone sending flowers to someone here, and it points to the delivery page for each place so you can go as deep as you like.
🌁 San Francisco: Hills, Fog, and Thirty-Six Neighborhoods
Wikipedia says that more than 50 hills lie within San Francisco’s limits, and that several neighborhoods, including Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, and Russian Hill, are named for them. It also says the city’s Planning Department officially identifies 36 neighborhoods. That is a lot of variety on a small peninsula: Union Square is the principal shopping and hotel district, Chinatown is the oldest in North America, Coit Tower stands on Telegraph Hill, and Mission Bay, a former railroad yard, now holds a second UCSF campus and Chase Center, which opened in 2019. Some of the flattest ground, including the Marina, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point, is landfill.
Wikipedia attributes the city’s cool summer winds and fog to air drawn through the Golden Gate, and notes that the fog is less pronounced in the eastern neighborhoods and in late summer and early fall. For flowers, that means a bouquet sitting on a foggy west-side windowsill and one on a sunny east-side desk live in different climates. Our post on how fog helps flowers thrive goes into it, and our San Francisco delivery page covers the districts, the hospitals and campuses, and the practical side of hills and apartment buildings.
🚢 Alameda: The Island with Bridges and Tubes
Alameda is the most literal example of “different place.” Wikipedia describes the city as an informal archipelago of Alameda Island, Bay Farm Island, and Coast Guard Island, with 78,280 people in the 2020 census. The main island became an island in 1902, when a tidal canal to Oakland was completed. Vehicles reach it by the Park Street, Fruitvale Avenue, and High Street bridges and by the Posey and Webster Street tubes, and San Francisco Bay Ferry connects the city with San Francisco. Wikipedia also says the speed limit is 25 miles an hour on almost every road, which tells you something about the pace.
It is a place with a strong identity. The USS Hornet Museum has been moored at the former Naval Air Station since 1998, the Park Street Historic Commercial District is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Park Street Art & Wine Faire is held the last weekend of July. About 52 percent of occupied homes were rented at the 2020 census, so many recipients live in apartments. See our Alameda delivery page, and our post on Park Street, the beaches, and the USS Hornet for a weekend there.
🛥️ San Leandro: Marina, Lake, and Five Shopping Centers
Just south of Oakland, San Leandro is a city of about 91,000 people according to Wikipedia’s 2020 census figure. It was named for Leander of Seville, a sixth-century Spanish bishop, and was built on Mexican-era ranchos. Wikipedia says it became the Alameda County seat in 1856 until the 1868 Hayward Fault earthquake destroyed the courthouse, and it lists a Portuguese American community dating to the 1880s, with sister cities including Ponta Delgada in the Azores. It also lists five major shopping centers, the San Leandro Marina as part of a shoreline recreation area, and Lake Chabot Regional Park next door. BART’s San Leandro and Bayfair stations serve the city. Wikipedia says about 45 percent of occupied homes were rented. Our San Leandro delivery page has the neighborhood detail.
🌲 Marin: Across the Bridge
Marin County is the one that surprises people. Wikipedia describes it as being in the northwestern Bay Area, with about 262,000 people in 2020 and San Rafael as its largest city. It is home to Muir Woods, which Wikipedia says protects 554 acres, 240 of them old-growth coast redwood, as well as the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Mount Tamalpais. The Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is a National Historic Landmark, with pink stucco walls and a blue roof.
Our regular Marin delivery area is Sausalito, Mill Valley, and Tiburon. Wikipedia says Sausalito was a World War II shipbuilding center and later an artistic enclave with many houseboats, Mill Valley sits in narrow, mostly second-growth redwood canyons on Mount Tamalpais about 14 miles north of San Francisco, and Tiburon is the nearest mainland point to Angel Island. Mill Valley is also the start of the Dipsea Race, which Wikipedia says has run since 1905 to Stinson Beach and is held on the second Sunday in June. For other Marin towns, contact us and we will confirm. See the Marin delivery page and our post on wildflowers on Mount Tam.
🗺️ And the Rest of the Map
The rest of the places we deliver have their own pages, and each is worth a visit before you order:
- Oakland, with neighborhoods from Uptown and Lake Merritt to the hills.
- Berkeley, including UC Berkeley and the neighborhoods around it.
- Burlingame, with its two shopping streets and the airport nearby.
- Daly City, right on the San Francisco line.
- The South Bay and Silicon Valley.
📝 How to Write a Delivery Note That Works Anywhere on the Bay
This is our own advice. A good delivery note is short, and every place above rewards a slightly different detail:
- Always include the city, not just the neighborhood. A San Francisco neighborhood name, a Daly City address near the border, and a Piedmont address in the middle of Oakland can all be confused. The full street address and ZIP code settle it.
- For an apartment, give the unit, the building name, and a buzzer or gate instruction. This matters most in San Francisco, Alameda, and Oakland, where many recipients rent and live in multi-unit buildings.
- For a hill or a canyon, describe the entrance. Steep streets in San Francisco and winding canyon roads in Mill Valley can hide a front door. Mention a landmark, a color, or a driveway.
- For an island or a bridge crossing, tell us if the day matters. Bridge and tube traffic is real, and a firm date is worth saying out loud when you order.
- Add a phone number for the recipient. It is the single most useful thing you can add anywhere.
- For a hospital or care facility, ask first. Each facility sets its own rules about flowers and plants, so check with the patient or a family member, or consider sending to the recipient’s home. Our get-well guide covers it.
Our post on microclimates and delivery timing explains why a bouquet that is perfect in Oakland can look different in the fog. We deliver seven days a week, including Sundays, and if you are not sure whether we cover an address, send it to us and we will confirm.
📋 The Short Version
- San Francisco has more than 50 hills and 36 official neighborhoods, Alameda is an island city reached by bridges and tubes, San Leandro has a marina and five shopping centers, and Marin is across the Golden Gate with redwoods in its canyons.
- Give the full address and ZIP code, a unit and buzzer instructions for apartments, a landmark for hills and canyons, and a phone number.
- Ask first about hospitals, and tell us when the date matters.