Chinese emperors grew peonies in the imperial gardens for over 1,500 years. The flower was so prized that common people were forbidden to cultivate it. Poets wrote about it. Painters made it the centrepiece of entire careers. It came to symbolise wealth, honour, good fortune, and the particular kind of beauty that makes everything around it seem slightly more ordinary.
In Western tradition, peonies mean
prosperity, romance, and a happy marriage. They are the most requested flower at weddings, and looking at them, you understand completely why. Their petals are soft as skin and layered like secrets. Their fragrance — light, rosy, slightly powdery — is the smell of a very good day.
Peonies have a short UK season: late May to early July. They cannot be grown year-round without losing the looseness and fragrance that make them irreplaceable. If you see them here, order now. There is genuinely nothing like them, and the window is brief.
Best wishes, James Hunt MD
Any questions about this flower? Email
enquiries@flowersbyflourish.com — we love to talk about flowers.
Best wishes, James Hunt MD
