Ashley
Doris

FLOWER POWER Venture into our secret garden, where wild blossom Miss March awaits in full bloom Photography by Sasha Eisenman With winter darkness primed to blaze into floral glory, our thoughts turn to one of Emerson’s most brilliant turns of phrase: “The earth laughs in flowers.” For true transcendence, we offer a ravishing bloom in human form: Miss March Ashley Doris, an exotic rose (and our first Connecticut–born and –bred Playmate) of black, Spanish, English and German extraction. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. “Not only have I worked in a florist shop since I was 18,” says the 23-year-old college senior, “but I’ve been obsessed with flowers all my life. Back in elementary school I’d bring a huge flower encyclopedia for reading time, and I signed our yearbook ‘Ashley Doris, a.k.a. the Flower Queen.’” Ashley’s favorites are orchids, roses and hydrangeas. And listen up: The lady is hungry for a bouquet. “I’ve said to friends many times, ‘I wish a guy would just buy me flowers.’ To me that’s the most romantic thing you can do,” she tells us. “But I’ve received flowers from a boy only once – when I was 17. If you want to get a girl’s attention, call a florist. It’s not hard, boys!” Miss March is also a romance-novel devotee, and her photo shoot allowed her to live out her most idyllic fantasies. “With literally buckets of fragrant roses, amaryllises and peonies on hand, along with the lacy vintage wardrobe, I swear I was channeling one of the romance-novel heroines I’ve loved for so many years.” She smiles. “Now that I’m a Playmate, the story keeps getting better.”