Treat Yourself

Rosie's Splurge

Sometimes you want flowers that make you gasp. These are the ones I'd buy if someone else were paying — the extravagant, the ridiculously scented, the ones that turn a room into something from a painting. Worth every penny.

These aren't everyday flowers. They're the ones you buy when you want to feel something. A single stem of tuberose will perfume an entire room. A bunch of peonies will make you wonder why you ever bought anything else. Go on. Treat yourself.

8 flowers, hand-picked by Rosie
Peony — Sarah Bernhardt
Worth Every Penny

Peony

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Sarah Bernhardt

Forty-something petals of blush pink silk that smell like your grandmother's garden in June. Three weeks a year. Worth every second of the wait.

Worth every single penny. That ridiculous, ruffled, generous bloom that smells like your grandmother's garden in June. The one flower I'd always choose.

I order mine from The Blossomist the second peony season hits — their stems are always those big, fat buds that open into something ridiculous.

Garden Rose — Gertrude Jekyll

Garden Rose

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Gertrude Jekyll

So intensely scented they use her for commercial rose oil. She smells the way roses used to smell before the industry bred the perfume out.

The rose that smells like what you think all roses should smell like. Rich, deep, old-fashioned. Three stems in a jug and the whole room changes.

The Blossomist carry garden roses through summer and their David Austin varieties are always properly scented. I order from them when I want roses that actually smell like roses.

Lily of the Valley — Convallaria majalis

Lily of the Valley

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Convallaria majalis

Six inches tall, tiny white bells, and a scent that can fill an entire room from an egg cup. The flower that proves small things are the most powerful.

Tiny, exquisite, and extraordinarily expensive as cut stems. That scent is bottled and sold for hundreds of pounds. The real thing is better.

The Blossomist occasionally carry lily of the valley in May — genuinely rare to find as a cut flower, so snap them up if you see them. Worth every penny for the scent alone.

Chocolate Cosmos — Cosmos atrosanguineus

Chocolate Cosmos

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Cosmos atrosanguineus

Lean in on a warm July afternoon and tell me it doesn't smell of dark chocolate. I watched a woman close her eyes and say 'brownies.'

It genuinely smells of dark chocolate. Deep burgundy, velvety, and deeply unusual. Not easy to find, which is part of the appeal.

The Blossomist very occasionally carry chocolate cosmos in their summer collections. If you see them, don't hesitate — they're rare as cut flowers and the scent in a warm room is something else entirely.

Tuberose — The Pearl

Tuberose

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The Pearl

The first time someone handed me a stem, I stood there breathing it in for an embarrassingly long time.

The most intoxicating scent in the flower world. One stem will perfume an entire room. Heady, narcotic, and completely magnificent.

The Blossomist occasionally carry tuberose in late summer — when they do, I buy them immediately because they sell out fast.

Dahlia — Café au Lait

Dahlia

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Café au Lait

Dinner-plate sized, creamy pink, and no two blooms quite the same. The dahlia that made me rethink everything I thought about dahlias.

Dinner-plate sized, the colour of a sunrise through old lace. Absurdly beautiful and the Instagram flower for good reason. Grow your own if you can.

The Blossomist carry Café au Lait through late summer and autumn and their stems are always those big, fat-headed beauties. I treat myself when I haven't grown enough of my own.

Lilac — Sensation

Lilac

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Sensation

Each tiny floret is deep purple edged in white — like someone dipped it in milk. And the scent goes straight to wherever your best memories live.

That brief, glorious fortnight in May when lilac is in flower. The scent is spring itself. Buy an armful and don't you dare feel guilty about it.

The Blossomist carry cut lilac branches in spring and they're worth every penny — my annual treat to myself.

Delphinium — Black Knight

Delphinium

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Black Knight

That deep indigo against a pale July sky — it's the kind of thing you stop walking for.

Those towering spires of deep purple-blue. Theatrical, impractical, and utterly magnificent. The flower equivalent of wearing velvet to the shops.

I order mine from Flower Station when I want a reliable bunch of blues — they source good, long stems.

Life is short and flowers don't last forever. That's rather the point of them. If you're going to splurge on anything, let it be something beautiful and temporary — something that reminds you to pay attention while it's here. — Rosie

Rosie ✿