'Hot Coco...a' Rose

Novel- The hot cocoa arrived on the hand of a gloved butler. Nestled into a demi tasse, a rose of rusty orange awaited release.
As the designers sipped their cocoa, the flower suddenly jumped up, like a jack-in-a-box, startling the three and... very nearly,... staining white gloves.

 "It's like... a bowl of beauty!"

The prophecy was spoken for a peony... oh, just 10 years into the future, in 1949, introduced by Hoogendoorn.

Was the conversation a then and now time space interchange?