"There were crimson roses on the bench; the looked like the splashes of blood."

"There were gold chrysanthemums on the judge's bench; they looked like burning banners."

are the beginning of the first and last chapters of Dorothy Sayers' novel Strong Poison. This was published four years after Dorothy Parker's "One perfect rose" so Mrs. S. may have borrowed the theme from Mrs. P. And who knows why on of the main characters in the Lord Peter series is called Charles Parker...