Keep the flowers calm
Illness is not the moment for a huge red arrangement. A lily with a lotus reads quiet and steady; a daisy with a lilac-toned camellia reads friendlier.
Skip anything that says “celebration”. This is one of the few occasions where understatement is the correct volume.
A note that asks for nothing
The best get-well messages do not require a reply. “No need to answer this — just wanted the flowers to be there.” That one line relieves the obligation that makes sick days lonelier.
Add one ordinary thing from the outside world if you have it: what the weather is doing, something small that happened at work, the fact that their desk plant is somehow still alive. Normalcy is a gift when everything is medical.
Recovery is longer than the bouquet
The bouquet stays openable. People do reopen these weeks later, when they are back home and the cards have been cleared away. That is the quiet advantage of a link over a vase.