There is a moment in every occasion when someone will hand you flowers. A birthday. A promotion. The end of a long recovery. And a week later, you will throw them away.
This is not, we think, quite the right shape for a gift. A gift should be a small permanence. Below, five bouquets from the atelier, chosen for the occasions they meet best.
For the proposal
The Strawberry & Cream Tulip Bouquet is Rita's most-requested piece for the moment before a ring. Strawberry-red tulips wrapped tightly around cream buds, in blush kraft with a gold-edged rim. There is something honest about a bouquet that will still be in the room a year from now, when the ring has been resized and the announcement is old news.
For a mother, from far away
The Grand Ombré Rose Posy is the most generous single object we make. Twenty-plus roses in scarlet, coral, blush and cream, arranged in a graduated composition. When it arrives, it takes up the whole entryway. It says, in the way only a large object can, that you thought of them for weeks.
For a friend who is unwell
The Field Daisy Bouquet is what we send to hospital rooms. White daisies with sunny yellow centres, unfussy, cheerful without being loud. It doesn't ask anything of the receiver. It just sits there being white, being yellow, being enough.
For the anniversary of something quiet
The Lavender Cluster Posy is smaller than the others — a dense round of purple tulips with a few cream accents. For the anniversary that isn't a milestone. The seventh year, the eleventh, the anniversary of the day you told someone something difficult and were held anyway.
For the person who has everything
A single Autumn Orange Lily on a tall green stem. When you have already bought them a watch and a book and the good chocolate, there is one thing left that will surprise them, which is that you would send them just one flower, so carefully made, in a slim vase.
The best gifts are small permanences.