Why do people put flowers on the dining room table? For beauty? For luster? Does it seem sensuous?
In our weekend house, we have a big, very big cherry wood dining table. Over the fifteen years we’ve enjoyed our getaway, we’ve added new plants outside every year. When we bought these peonies three years ago, I had to brake the car suddenly on the way home. The car was fine. The peony stems were all broken.
We planted them anyway, unsure of what would happen. We were not very hopeful. We learned that Nature has great powers of restoration. The next year, the peonies sprouted with power and burst into flower. Each year, the display is ever more gorgeous.
Our peonies bloom for just a few days. We let most of the flowers attract the bees outside. But we bring in a select few just to make the table a little bit richer. These flowers are each the size of a large orange and impossibly heavy. Outside they bend the stems to the ground. Inside, they float in glass bowl and brighten the meal.