The day of our third annual Peony Workshop dawned rainy and cold! I had fretted and fretted up until the day of because the chilly, cloudy weather had caused the peonies to stay rather closed and the freeze had taken out so many of our early producers! Fortunately, our group was amazing and they didn’t bat an eye, instead coming dressed for the rain and with lots of curiosity and enthusiasm. I was, and am, so thankful to them.

I tend to get very nervous about the Workshop. Attendees are paying a fair amount and giving up a few hours of their day, so I want everything to be perfect for them. However, there is nothing I can do about the weather so I’m learning to give that worry up. Plus, as I always say, flower people are the best people!

It’s really difficult to get great pictures inside the barn, the lighting makes it weird, but the flowers were really lovely!

The vases that Gretchen made were absolutely darling this year! Her inspiration was a recent trip we took to Ladew Gardens (more on that coming soon). I loved how whimsical they were!

As always, we provided some snacks! We had little sandwiches, cheese and crackers, cupcakes and peony lemonade. As a side note, Grace decorated the cupcakes for me and I was blown away at what a great job she did!

The arrangements were so lovely. My favorite thing about all the arrangements is how different they all are, even with the same flowers! Each one is such a direct reflection of the maker, it’s really special!

This was our third year doing a Peony Workshop and I’m really proud to say that we have some attendees that have been here every year, a few who have been in attendance for two and people who I’ve never met but now consider a friend! I’m also thankful for Gretchen, we’ve had lots of harebrained ideas but this is our best by far!