Peonies

What girl doesn’t love some peonies? With peony season in full bloom, I really wanted to get my hands on some.  And it definitely doesn’t help when I am seeing pictures of these gorgeous flowers all over my Insta feed and from other bloggers! Sigh

Well, silly me, I live in Singapore! Forget having cheap bouquets of flowers at the local corner deli a la NYC, or at M&S in London.  No, here, the supermarket sells orchids.  That’s about it, although they are stupidly cheap here.  Not that I don’t like orchids, but I want me some peonies! And the florists, can’t say I’ve really seen them selling pretty flowers.  They do like to sell potted bamboo plants though.  But really, florists here are expensive! Holy moly, say whaa?

I recently inquired about getting a bouquet of flowers for my friend’s birthday.  And I asked if peonies were still in season and how much would this cost?  I was also thinking I’ll treat myself and get myself one.

I almost fell off my chair.  Come again?

A bouquet with peonies would set me back a cool S$250 (that’s USD185.50).  Yeah, you read that right.  A whopping $250 bucks.

Umm, I’ll just take a normal bouquet please.  And no, I won’t be buying myself one.

So why the price premium on peonies?  Well, the florist informed me that the Chinese associate this flower with royalty.  Doing some research, the Chinese glorified the beauty of the peony, depicting its image in various paintings and vases.  Legend has it that the peony rebelled again the will of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty.  The peony refused to bloom during winter time despite her command.  In her fury, she ordered that all peonies in the capital to be destroyed.

I’m going to have to hit up the one flower market here in Singers and hope that they have peonies.  In the meantime, I’ve contented myself with the next best thing, sort of.  Fake peonies. HA Well, they don’t look too bad, but I definitely don’t get the heavenly scent of the real thing.

I picked up Ana’s bouquet on Sunday and they were sweet enough to add a peony to it.  It’s pretty, no?

What are you favorite flowers? And colours?