Peonies Quotes

“This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open —
pools of lace,
white and pink —
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities —
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again —
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?”
― Mary Oliver

“Yeah. I told you he was crazy, right? I heard he does some weird stuff at home, too.' He said it with a conspiratorial stage whisper. 'Like mowing his lawn, and trimming his peonies.'

'Peonies?' I balked. 'God, he really is a freak.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Once lively peonies now
wind-weary, and ragged
at the edges, hang their heavy
crowns; rain on their backs,
one final act, before
detaching from the stem
and falling down.”
― Kristen Henderson, Of My Maiden Smoking

“On growing peonies:
The fact that a flower as gentle and delightful as the peony should be so exacting and dictate such harsh terms hits me with the force of a cold shower. It's just like my girlfriends when I was a teenager, it was always the loveliest and most yielding ones who ran everything...[and] According to the English gardening book, peonies are so fussy that you might as well not bother. You'd need to go back generations to discover the composition of the soil, you'd have to go right back to the Big Bang to find out how the elements are distributed in your garden.”
― Bodil Malmsten, Sista boken från Finistère

“My husband loved nature, and he planted flowers and created a living garden, with pink and white peonies and other beautiful flowers, at the front of our house in Ottawa. Those flowers began to bloom in the weeks after he died. I felt like my heart was going to burst. They were coming to life, and he was gone.”
― Keisha Blair, Holistic Wealth (Expanded and Updated): 36 Life Lessons to Help You Recover from Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose, and Achieve Financial Freedom

“Peonies symbolize love, hope, renewal and new beginnings. Global Holistic Wealth Day welcomes Spring and the dawn of refresh and renewal. Global Holistic Wealth Day is also a time to reflect on our impact on the planet and embrace sustainable living practices.”
― Keisha Blair

“You must tune everything else out and create from your heart."
I nod, dipping my brush in red acrylic, then white, before mixing the paints on the palette until they form a perfect pink.
I paint a peony, and then another. I somehow recall a garden, far away from here, where there were (are?) peonies. I remember the way the blossoms are so heavy that they flounce over, and I reach for another brush and dip it into green to get the stems just right.”
― Sarah Jio, All the Flowers in Paris

“Peonies are a gift from the heavens above. I mean, just look at this flower, so big and round. The ruffled petals that look like they belong on a ball gown? Absolute perfection. That scent? It always reminds me of rose and jasmine. I sell these stems at the Sweetplace, but there's no better place for them than in a wedding bouquet, since peonies represent a happy marriage and a happy life. Mix them with some good stock in a bouquet, and well, you're kicking married life off right.”
― Heather Webber, In the Middle of Hickory Lane

“Ranging in different shades of pink from pale to vibrant, the peonies seemed to burst open practically overnight, swarms of bees zipping from flower to flower. In the orchard, fluffy white flowers adorned the cherry trees. The lake glimmered in the distance, the strands of the weeping willows blowing in the warm spring breeze. I'd read somewhere that weeping willows represented strength and were able to withstand the greatest of challenges. I wanted to be the tree, perseverant and ready for anything, even a storm.”
― Samantha Verant, Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars

“Vibrant azaleas of pink and purple scattered themselves about the field, as if laughing quietly at winter, while marigolds in all their golden brightness crowned the periphery of the scene like royal sentinels. Morning glories, peonies, and tulips in turn took their cue, performers of reality bowing on a wide stage of green.”
― Gina Marinello-Sweeney, Prince of Chandeliers

“We ascended the spiral stairs, the drop off the too-near edge falling away into warm-coloured rock peppered with clusters of pale roses and fluffy, magenta peonies. A beautiful, colourful death.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“If all you
Have is scissors, everything looks like

It’s hanging by a thread. Our days, these
Peonies are so brief & bound as fists.”
― Amy Woolard