You know it's your lucky day when the adorable Mother-of-the-Bride hands over all her neat-o vintage heirlooms for you to fill with flowers for her daughter's big day!  When  Joanna & Josh's tied the knot on the family estate in Atherton last June, they were surrounded by a soft pallete of sweet, vintage-looking blooms for the perfect backyard wedding!  Happy 1-year Anniversary Joanna & Josh! - Love, Royal Bloom

Ahhh the Peony! Few flowers truly can compete with the lucious layer after layer of delicate fringed petals on this alluring bloom.  The Peony is an herbaceous perrenial, native to Asia, Southern Europe and parts of Western North America.  Sadly, they do not thrive here in the San Francisco Bay Area, which makes this Peony-lover pretty sad!   Peonies need the drop in tempurature, that a frozen winter brings, in order to awaken at it's best in late Spring, early summer.   I don't claim to be a green-thumb,  so I'll stick to what I can confidently share for best results working with this charming flower.  

1. Tempurature: As soon as you expose the peonies to heat, they will quickly unfurl and spend their strength. If you're not ready to use them, keep them cool! If you like the variety of shapes, and would like to incorporate buds & full blooms together, put some in the cooler, and some at room temp.   If your peonies have already opened further than you're ready for, try putting them back in the cooler for several hours as sometimes they will respond to the cold by pulling their petals in tight. 

2. Season: Modernization in the flower industry and more efficient shipping practices, have allowed us to enjoy many plants out of their natural seasons. Peony are one of the exceptions, here in California, they have only two seasons of availablitiy; Later spring/early summer, which is their natural season in the US, and the start of winter, when we import Peonies from outside the US when they are in season elsewhere.  Sometimes, when the weather allows, their season will extend, but come a big heat wave, that will be the end of it.  If you MUST have peonies at your wedding, plan a May, June, or December event, to be safe!

3. Price: Don't be fooled by Trader Joes pricing when you are planning an event with large quatnity of Peonies.  Grocery stores capitalize on the mass quantities they are able to purchase from growers to split between their hundreds of stores nationwide. You can not rely on a supermarket to guarantee the freshness, or ordering specific colors perfectly in line with the timing of your event. Also, notice there are only 5 blooms per bunch. If you're just looking for a sweet nosegay for your kitchen table, great, but 5 blooms won't get you far when making bouquets and centerpieces for an event.  Understand that when you're working with a professional floral designer, they will be paying a minimum of $5, and up to $8, PER STEM (wholesale) for premium Peonies in your perfect shade, and fresh for your special event.

4. Colors:  The Coral Charm, shown pictured to the left, and the baby pink, Sarah Bernhardt, pictured above seem to get the most press in the Peony world, but the variety of colors available are delightfully surprising; Cream, lilac, white, barely blushing pink, scarlet, maroon, salmon, raspberry, cream with purple throat, white with flecks of fuchsia on the petals, as in the Festiva Maxima, to the Candy Stripe, a white peony, wildly drizzled with raspberry streaks!  Not all varieties are available for order in cut-flower industry, but if you like to garden, and you live in the right climate...the sky is the limit!

When you are rewarded with the Peony's unique display of eternal soft petals, you realize these voluptuous blooms are worth the extra effort & expense to enjoy, even for a moment.