As many of you know, each month we like to brighten the house with an inexpensive—or even free—bouquet to keep things feeling fresh. The idea actually started from a thoughtful Christmas gift from my husband. This month, however, I ended up with two months’ worth of blooms overlapping at Casa Petersik. Remember February’s $5 bouquet? Those carnations are still going strong well into March. I haven’t done anything special—just freshening the water about once a week and trimming the stems on an angle every couple of weeks. Carnations are impressively hardy.
That didn’t stop my favorite (and only) husband from surprising me on my birthday last Friday with a beautiful bouquet full of lilies, alstroemeria, and a few sprigs of plum-colored heather—an ode to March (and maybe to me).
We don’t usually have large professional arrangements at home—we normally clip stems from our yard or spend at most five dollars at the grocery store for the monthly bouquet—so this arrangement felt extra special. I’m still smiling a week later. To be fair to John, he does bring flowers sometimes; he just times it rarely enough that it completely surprises me and makes me giddy. For instance, he had a bouquet delivered when we moved in so I’d open the door to something pretty that would help our old ranch feel like home. Most of the time he follows my thrifty request for something simple—like a single white rose—since I don’t want him buying extravagant bouquets on the regular.
Possibly the cutest part was hearing him describe the instructions he gave the florist: things like “she likes layered tones so nothing is too high contrast,” “not too much filler,” “she likes lilies,” and even “no tulips because they remind her of an annoying ex.” It was adorable, and I was a very happy birthday girl.
I also appreciated that John picked up the bouquet over lunch. When he brought them back to the office, coworkers were curious about the large bundle of blooms, and he joked that he’d won a pageant over lunch. He even kept them in a cup of water on his desk until he came home, just to keep them fresh. Honestly, he’s the best.
Though this month’s bouquet wasn’t one of our usual five-dollar finds, it felt wonderfully special, so I wanted to share the birthday eye candy. I also woke up to a homemade birthday banner hung in the doorway between the kitchen and den, complete with little love notes on each letter and number—very sweet.
I love birthdays. But enough about turning twenty-eight—have you ever been surprised with flowers? What do you prefer in a professional bouquet? It was funny hearing John describe my tastes better than I could; does anyone know your floral preferences better than you do? If someone asked you to describe your perfect bouquet, what would you say?