Peonies

I have a confession... I didn't even know what a peony was until the spring of 1996.  I didn't have a peony in my garden until 2005, our first spring here at Red Gate Farm.  My white, Festiva Maxima peony was my first addition.  I'm not sure how I wasn't aware of this beautiful flower before then... like a David Austin Rose or a Ranunculus; I just love how the petals form so tightly on peonies.

With my first peony, the initial few years were pretty dismal, bloom wise.  My son had built me a peony "cage" out of copper pipe and fittings... planning it to be all pretty and verdigris over time...overflowing with my beautiful blooms... well let's just say there was no need for the cage so quickly since there were no blooms to hold up.  For a number of years the buds formed and then dried up to look like little pepper corns.  Not sure what was going on, what I was doing wrong, but no blooms.  Sigh.

Last spring this peony exploded with blooms, I even made the ultimate gardener's sacrifice and cut a couple to bring inside!  Maybe it just needed the first 6 or 7 years to get into the swing of things... because I certainly did not do anything different. Currently the buds are growing larger every day.  It amazes me how a peony bud starts so small and then overnight is seems to be the size of a ping pong ball.

My second peony acquisition, my unnamed dark-pink-almost-red peony, came from a local homeowner that sells cuttings every year.  It was a teeny tiny plant with one huge bud when I purchase it back in 2007.

Every year it grows a bit and gets more and more blooms... and yet overall  it is still a much smaller plant than the white Maxima peony... it blooms first of the two and is covered in flowers, show off!

A couple of years ago I picked up a bag of two peony "starts" from Costco.  I planted them in large plastic nursery type pots to grow them up a bit before putting them in the garden... at least that was the plan.  Both are pale pink but I only noted the name of one... Sarah Bernhardt.  I do however think I planted them too deep.  In multiple spring seasons, lots of foliage, no buds.  Peonies have "eyes" that can't be buried or they won't get blooms.  Apparently I don't know what this "eye" looks like because I must have buried it.  This year I finally planted one of them in my gardens...

Sarah is still in her pot and I plan to free her and add her to my vegetable/cutting garden soon.  When replanting I plan to try to remove some soil and expose her "eye" so she will bloom like I have done for the other unnamed pink Costco peony.  Maybe some blooms next year?

A couple of weeks ago while at my favorite local nursery I picked up a red peony... the foliage is a reddish color and the blooms are supposed to be red as well.  It has many tiny buds so hopefully that will mean lots of beautiful blooms!

Did you know that ants on your peonies is a good thing?  Well at least they don't hurt the buds... peonies secrete a sticky sugar that attracts the ants.  Did you also know that if you cut peony buds when they are big and soft as a marshmallow you can store them for several weeks in a refrigerator... pull them out and voila... peonies long after they are gone from the garden!

My dream would actually be to have my very OWN peony cutting garden, a la Martha Stewart that is.  Then I could have cut peonies for weeks on end... In my dream, my cutting garden would line my soon to be in place, fancy wire garden fence... wouldn't that be fabulous?

I could even host an annual peony party like Martha...after all, I already have a vintage metal tray with what else... peonies!

But for now I'll settle for just Sarah in the cutting garden.  If I'd like that large cut bouquet I guess I'll have to head to Pike Place Market in Seattle or perhaps I'd be lucky enough to find one locally at Trader Joe's.

So how about you... are you a peony lover?  Do you have a favorite?

Ready to enjoy another beautiful weekend in the garden, at home,

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deborah jean's Dandelion House