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The first time we sold out of peonies in under 48 hours, I thought we'd messed up the inventory forecast. The second time it happened, I started paying closer attention. By the third year, peonies had quietly become one of the most demand-sensitive flowers in our entire catalogue. Singapore had fallen in love with peonies, and we hadn't fully realised it. Today, our peony collection is the second-highest traffic page on the entire site, behind only the homepage. That tells you something about where Singapore's gifting taste has shifted. This post is about why that happened, how we source peonies for a city that doesn't grow them, and what we've learned about pricing a flower that's only available a few months a year. Why Peonies Took Off in Singapore Peonies were a niche flower here for a long time. They didn't grow locally, the import cost was high, and most older buyers preferred roses, lilies, or orchids. The shift came from a younger demographic, mostly buyers in their 20s and 30s who'd seen peonies on Pinterest, in wedding photos, and on K-drama floral arrangements. The aesthetic was soft, romantic, and unmistakable. They wanted that look at home and as gifts. What surprised us is how loyal peony buyers turned out to be. Once a customer orders peonies for the first time, they tend to come back during every peony season. We have customers who set calendar reminders for our peony stock notifications. That's not normal flower-buying behaviour. That's collector behaviour. How We Actually Source Peonies Singapore doesn't grow commercial peonies. The climate is wrong: peonies need a cold dormancy period that simply doesn't exist here. So every peony you've ever received in this country was imported, usually from the Netherlands, China, or New Zealand depending on the time of year. The growing seasons in those countries don't overlap, which is why peony availability in Singapore rotates through different source countries across the year. Our sourcing follows the cold chain. Peonies are cut at "marshmallow stage," when the buds are tight and just starting to soften. They're flown in refrigerated cargo, kept cold throughout transit, and arrive at our studio still in bud form. We grade each batch on stem length, bud size, and stem strength before they enter the catalogue. Lower-grade stems get rejected outright; we don't list them as a "value" tier because peony buyers notice quality drops immediately. The cold chain is also why peony pricing isn't as flexible as people sometimes assume. The flower itself is one cost. The refrigerated air freight, the customs clearance, the wastage from bruised stems, and the short stocking window all stack into the final shelf price. When we list a peony arrangement at $129, that price reflects a real supply chain, not a markup decision. What We Stock and How to Choose Our peony range moves up in price based on stem count, stem grade, and arrangement complexity. Here's how the tiers actually work in practice. Entry Peony Arrangements ($92 to $119) This tier is where most first-time peony buyers start. The Beauty ($92) is a compact peony-led bouquet that pairs well with a small vase. Gentle Garden ($97) and Whisper Bloom ($115) build on the same idea with slightly fuller stems. These work for personal gifting, birthday flowers, or "just because" deliveries where you want the peony moment without committing to a premium price point. Mid-Tier Peony Bouquets ($129 to $192) This is our most popular tier, and it's where the seasonal peony buyer tends to land. Seasonal Picks Pink Peony and Seasonal Picks White Peony ($129 each) are our cleanest single-colour options. They're designed for the buyer who wants the peony to do the talking. Blissful Blossoms ($160) and Wildest Dream ($192) add more stems and supporting blooms for a fuller arrangement. Premium Peony Statements ($199 to $335) The premium tier is for milestone gifting. Tender Care ($199) is our peony basket arrangement, designed for the recipient who'll display it for the full vase life. A Peony for Your Thoughts ($218) and the larger Blissful Blossoms Vase ($185 to $335) sit in this tier. These are the arrangements customers order for anniversaries, proposals, and significant Mother's Day gifts. If you want to compare options visually, browse the peony collection sorted by price. The thumbnails make it easier to see the volume difference between tiers than reading product descriptions. How to Care for Peonies After Delivery The most common feedback we get on peonies isn't about the flower itself. It's about how to keep them looking good. Two things matter more than anything else. First, keep them cool. Peonies don't love Singapore's ambient temperature. They open faster in heat and droop earlier. If you can place the vase in an air-conditioned room, the bloom window stretches by several days. Direct sunlight from a window is the fastest way to shorten their vase life. Second, change the water and recut the stems. Peonies are thirsty. We trim about an inch off the stems at a 45-degree angle every two days and refresh the water at the same time. Customers who do this consistently report 7 to 10 days of vase life. Customers who don't usually get 4 to 5. When Peonies Are in Season Peonies are not a year-round flower in Singapore, even though our catalogue makes it look that way. We rotate through source countries to keep stock available across more months of the year, but there are still windows when imported supply tightens or pauses entirely. Our peak peony availability tends to fall around February to June, which is why we see peonies feature heavily in Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and wedding orders. For the broader rotating selection, the seasonal collection covers what's currently in stock alongside peonies. Anemones, ranunculus, and other limited-window stems show up there too, depending on the import cycle. Peony Arrangements in Singapore 17 peony arrangements from $92, with free same-day delivery across Singapore. Imported via cold chain, graded on arrival. Shop Peonies → Not sure which peony arrangement suits your occasion or budget? Windy, our AI florist, can recommend specific arrangements based on the recipient, gifting context, and your price range. Peonies aren't the easiest flower to source, stock, or care for. They're seasonal, they're temperature-sensitive, and they don't tolerate shortcuts in the supply chain. But the customers who want them really want them, and that's a kind of demand that justifies all the operational complexity behind the scenes.

A behind-the-scenes note on how Windflower handles sympathy orders with care, calm communication, and careful timing during difficult moments.

In April 2020, two weeks into Singapore's circuit breaker, we received approval to continue operating as an essential service — on a rotational manpower basis. That meant a skeleton crew of two or three people at the studio at any given time, masked up, spaced apart, working through orders that had shifted in a way none of us expected. Before COVID, Windflower was primarily a hand bouquet company. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations — the standard occasions. Our vase arrangements existed, but they were a small corner of the catalogue. Maybe five or six designs, mostly afterthoughts. The demand simply wasn't there. Then everyone went home. And everything changed. What Happened to Our Orders During Circuit Breaker The first thing we noticed was the message cards. Before the lockdown, most cards said things like "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations." During circuit breaker, the tone shifted completely. Cards started reading: "Hang in there." "Thinking of you." "Hope this brightens your day." "Stay strong, we'll get through this." People weren't celebrating. They were checking in on each other. Friends sending flowers to friends who were living alone. Children sending arrangements to elderly parents they couldn't visit. Colleagues sending something to a teammate who was struggling with WFH isolation. The intent behind the orders was different, and that changed what people wanted to buy. Hand bouquets didn't make as much sense anymore. A bouquet is designed to be presented in person — there's a moment of receiving it, unwrapping it, finding a vase. But during circuit breaker, deliveries were contactless. Our riders would leave the package at the door, ring the bell, and step back. A bouquet left on a doorstep in cellophane wrap, with no vase and no one to present it to — that didn't feel right. What people wanted was something that could go straight from the doorstep to the living room table. No trimming, no arranging, no searching for a container. Just open, place, done. That meant vases. Building the Vase Collection From Scratch We started expanding our vase range during the second month of circuit breaker. It wasn't a strategic product launch — it was a response to what customers were asking for. We'd get messages like, "Do you have something that comes in a vase? My mum doesn't have one at home." Or, "Can you put the bouquet in a jar instead? She's living alone and I don't want her to have to fuss with it." Our first batch was simple. We took our existing hand bouquet designs, shortened the stems, and arranged them in glass jars we sourced from a local supplier. They weren't elegant. The proportions were off — bouquet-style arrangements forced into vessels that weren't designed for them. But they sold. Fast. By the third month, we'd learned enough to start designing specifically for vases. Different stem lengths, different flower-to-greenery ratios, different focal point placement. A vase arrangement needs to look good from every angle because it sits on a table, not held in someone's hands. That required us to rethink our entire design approach. We also learned which vessels worked and which didn't. Tall, narrow vases looked elegant but tipped over easily on small HDB side tables. Wide-mouth vases let stems splay too much, making the arrangement look sparse. Our sweet spot turned out to be medium-height glass cylinders and our now-signature caramel ceramic bottles — stable, proportionate, and reusable. The Heartwarming Part Running a flower studio during a lockdown was hard. Our team was working on rotation — each person could only come in on designated days, which meant handovers happened over WhatsApp photos instead of in person. Supply chains were disrupted. Some of our regular flower imports were delayed or unavailable. We had to improvise with whatever the local wholesalers could get in. But the orders themselves were the most heartwarming thing I've experienced in this business. There was a period — maybe three or four weeks into circuit breaker — where almost every order felt personal. Not transactional. A daughter sending her mum a Daily Surprise vase ($75) with a card that said, "I can't come over but I'm thinking of you every day." A group of colleagues pooling money for a Hopeful Flower Vase ($103) for their teammate who'd just had a baby alone in hospital because visitors weren't allowed. Those orders reminded us why we were doing this. It wasn't about revenue (honestly, revenue was down significantly). It was about being a bridge between people who couldn't be together physically. A vase of flowers on someone's kitchen table was a small thing, but during circuit breaker, small things mattered enormously. From 6 Designs to 50+ After restrictions eased, we expected vase orders to drop back to pre-COVID levels. They didn't. People had gotten used to having ready-to-display arrangements at home. The WFH crowd, in particular, kept ordering — weekly flowers for a home office desk became a thing. Housewarming gifts shifted from bouquets to vases because the recipient could place them immediately. So we kept building. What started as 6 improvised designs during circuit breaker grew into a dedicated collection. Today we carry over 50 flower vase arrangements, from a $45 carnation jar to a $259 hydrangea centrepiece. We've tested and refined every vessel shape, developed arrangements specifically for different room settings, and introduced preserved flower vases like the Cotton Fluff Vase ($88) for people who want flowers that last months instead of days. The COVID chapter was difficult. Running on rotational manpower, sourcing flowers through disrupted supply chains, delivering to doorsteps we couldn't linger at. But it also taught us something we wouldn't have learned otherwise: that the way people relate to flowers at home is fundamentally different from how they receive them as gifts. A hand bouquet is a gesture. A vase arrangement is a companion — something that sits with you through your day, your week, your mood. That insight shaped everything we've built since. The Collection That Started in a Lockdown 50+ flower vase arrangements, from $45. Free same-day delivery across Singapore. Every design arrives ready to display. Browse Flower Vases →