Peonies in Brooklyn

Peonies in Brooklyn: a garden shrub in spring, a cut stem in the bouquet

Peonies in Brooklyn start in two different places. In spring, tree peonies, shrubs with a woody stem that survives the winter above ground, flower in Brooklyn Botanic Garden beside its lilacs and azaleas. The peony that arrives in a bouquet, though, is a cut stem, most often Paeonia lactiflora, the species behind most of the world's cut peonies. Choosing one here starts with who it's for and where it needs to go.

Tree peonies in the Botanic Garden, cut peonies in the bouquet

Peonies in Brooklyn fall into three groups by habit. Herbaceous peonies die back to the ground every winter, while tree peonies keep a woody stem that lives on above ground. The Botanic Garden, home to those shrubs, sits near Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Public Library.

Most cut peonies, including the ones sold here, belong to Paeonia lactiflora. The flower is cup-shaped and fragrant, somewhere between eight and sixteen centimetres across.

The Northeast has its own cutting season, but a short one: local growers harvest peonies from late May into early June. That narrow stretch is the only time a Brooklyn bouquet might hold a stem cut nearby. The rest of the year, the flower travels: close to four-fifths of the cut peonies sold in the US are imported.

June weddings fall often enough on a Saturday to matter here, and a June Saturday usually lands inside Brooklyn's own short peony season. A white peony suits a wedding guest's gift. For that case, the catalogue includes 11 White Peonies with Eucalyptus.

Teachers get their flowers at the other end of June. New York City's school year runs out in the last days of the month, by which point the local cutting season has already closed, so a teacher's peony is almost certainly a flown-in stem. It still reads as early summer, which is the point of giving one.

Not every address wants flowers at all. A family sitting shiva, a custom kept in Borough Park, Midwood and parts of Crown Heights, doesn't receive bouquets; the gesture there is a fruit or gift basket, sent instead.

For a Russian-speaking recipient the number of stems carries its own meaning, and the fuller picture of Brooklyn's flower customs and dates is worth a look before ordering.

Peony delivery in Brooklyn: wrapped to carry in or boxed to set down

Peony delivery in Brooklyn starts with a choice of shape. Peonies sold by the stem, wrapped rather than arranged, suit a recipient who already owns a vase and wants to pick the exact count.

A box or a basket works differently from a wrapped bouquet. The basket stands on a table without needing a vase, and 15 Peonies in a Basket suits a family table rather than a single arrangement. A peony box or baskets with peonies cover the same idea in a container that travels upright.

The bouquet is photographed before the courier leaves, so the sender sees the finished arrangement and can ask for a small change on the spot. If a particular peony isn't available, the florist swaps it for one close in shade and price, and that substitution shows up in the same photo. Most orders go out the day they're placed, though the exact window is shown on the bouquet's own page; delivery in the centre is free, and delivery zones elsewhere are listed separately.