The most requested flower we have, and the one I am most careful with. A short note on rationing the thing everyone loves.
Peonies are the flower people ask for by name, in a way they ask for almost nothing else. And I understand it completely — a peony halfway open is one of the genuinely great things a stem can do. But the request is almost always the same: a big bucket of them, as many as possible. That is the one version I will gently talk you out of.
Here is the case for restraint. A peony is already maximal — it is a flower doing the absolute most all by itself, blowsy and full and slightly ridiculous in the best way. Crowd a dozen of them together and they stop reading as remarkable and start reading as a hedge. The thing that made you gasp at one becomes wallpaper at twelve. More is not the same as better; it is usually the enemy of it.
So I would rather give you three, with room around them and something quieter to hold them — a little stock, some soft foliage, a ranunculus echoing the form at half the volume. Three peonies you actually look at will always beat twelve you stop noticing by Tuesday. That is the whole philosophy of the studio in one flower: considered beats abundant, and the editing is the gift.
Three peonies you actually look at beat twelve you stop noticing by Tuesday.
The other reason I ration them is honesty. Peonies have a short, real season here — roughly late October to December — and a short vase life when they are good. A florist who promises you a bucket of perfect peonies in the wrong month is either importing tired ones or telling you a story. I would rather tell you the truth and design you something extraordinary out of what is actually at its best this week.
In peony season and out of it.
When peonies are here we use them sparingly; when they are not, we design to what is. From $100. See the seasonal design →
Love the peony enough to give it space. The restraint is not me being stingy with the thing you asked for — it is me making sure you still gasp at it.
