There are flowers that are beautiful, and then there are flowers that people feel something about.

Peonies belong to the second category.

Every May, my clients are ravenous for them. Brides send inspiration photos. Friends text asking if they’re blooming yet. Customers DM me trying to get on my peony list.

There is just nothing quite like them.

The season is fleeting — painfully short, really — which is part of what makes them feel so precious. For a few brief weeks, the garden explodes with enormous blooms in shades of blush, shell pink, bubblegum, cream, and white. Then almost as quickly as they arrive, they disappear again for another year.

And maybe that’s why we love them so much.

Peonies feel nostalgic in a way few flowers do. They remind people of childhood gardens, of grandmothers, of old houses in late spring with the windows open. They are extravagant and romantic, but also strangely familiar — they’re a flower many people remember growing quietly in the corner of a backyard garden long before they ever saw them arranged for a wedding.

I think that contrast is part of their magic.

Because despite their luxury, peonies are still deeply connected to the garden. They don’t feel manufactured or overly perfected. They unfurl slowly and unpredictably. Some blooms stay tightly cupped for days while others burst open overnight into huge, fragrant clouds of petals. Their stems arch and move naturally. Their scent is soft and unmistakable — fresh, rosy, almost impossible to describe except that once you smell it, you never forget it.

At the studio and in my own garden, I grow and use mostly pink peonies — medium candy pinks, softer blush tones, creamy whites. The colors feel timeless to me. Romantic without being saccharine. Elegant without trying too hard.

During peony season, I use them everywhere.

In weddings, they bring an immediacy and fullness that almost no other flower can replicate. A single peony bloom can transform an arrangement. They photograph beautifully, but more importantly, they create feeling in a room. Guests notice them instantly.

I also use them constantly in retail work because people simply cannot resist them. When peonies arrive in the shop, the energy changes. Customers buy them for birthdays, dinner parties, apologies, celebrations, or sometimes for absolutely no reason except that peony season is here and it won’t last long.

And truly — that’s the lesson of peonies.

They ask us to pay attention while they’re here.

To bring the armful from the garden inside. To place them on the kitchen table. To stop and smell them on the way past. To celebrate the season while it exists instead of assuming it always will.

A few weeks from now, the peonies will be gone again.

But right now, they’re blooming.

And for flower people, that still feels a little miraculous.