It’s become a tradition to go to the flowers come spring and summer. Over the years, my friends and I have visited the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, the Lavender Festival in Sequim, the Cherry Blossoms at the University of Washington, and more. This year’s pick was a peony farm! Flowers are finicky, so we only had a few weeks to hit the blooms before they were gone.

Disclosure: While this post is not sponsored, Toyota graciously provided a vehicle loaner for our trip. All opinions are my own!

And like all good travel stories, this one didn’t quite work out as initially planned. Originally, we had planned a day trip to the peninsula to visit a peony farm in Sequim that we had heard about on Instagram. Then, tragedy nearly struck when I discovered it had closed since last year! Thinking it was the only peony farm in the state of Washington, I really panicked. Had we missed our opportunity to frolic amongst the gorgeous blooms?!

Fortunately, a little Googling landed me on Pure Peonies website, where I was excited to see that they are indeed open to the public for a short window each year. Starting in early May to mid-June, Pure Peonies, a Washington peony farm, opens their beautiful garden to the public for admiring as well as taking home fresh cut peonies for yourself.

For everything you need to know about visiting the best peony farm in Washington, just keep reading!

When it comes to fashion advice, I’ve received a lot of it from so-called style experts. Especially as a petite person (I’m about 5’3″), these experts love to tell me what short people can and cannot pull off. I recently remembered the time I was told maxi dresses for short girls was a style to be avoided. The reasoning? Maxi dresses were made for tall people, and the amount of fabric would swallow my frame.

Oh, okay.

Not only is this type of advice terribly confusing and often ends up contradicting what other “experts” say, but it’s also often pretty laughable. Why should my height dictate whether or not I try to wear a trend, or an entire category of clothing for that matter?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may make a small commission. Some of the clothing items in this post have been gifted by the brand. All opinions are my own!

As it turns out, of course, as the style has continued to be popular, there are many options when it comes to maxi dresses for short girls. In fact, some of these styles can actually make you look taller, not to mention they make a great wardrobe staple since they can be styled for year-round wear.

Today, I thought I’d dive deeper into this topic and share the best maxi dresses for petites, a few suggestions on how to wear long dresses when you’re short, and how to style a maxi dress for summer!