peony power

Peonies bloom for such a short time - three weeks max. And they attract ants.  and the double ones need to be staked or they will droop to the ground with the first rain weighing down the big heavy blooms.  But they sure are beautiful.  And they smell wonderful.

I discovered the perfect peony for me - single flowers.  They are very hard to find - almost no one sells these.  But the flowers have just one layer of petals, are light as a feather, and don't need to be staked.  So I think they are great.

Thesse beauties have delicate petals, are full of bees, so they are great addition to the natural landscape.  Just one thing - they have no fragrance, which is a bit disappointing.

Here is a lovely pink single called "Dancing Butterflies"

A gardening friend started 72 peonies from seed.  Seven years later, she has a long row of single-flowering peonies, and has now decided she doesn't like them as well as the doubles.  So she offered me as many as I could carry away.  This is not the ideal time to transplant peonies (the rule is to transplant before or after blooming, not during) but she wanted rid of them, so I just appreciated the gift. I stacked the big plants in the passenger seat, the trunk and the back seat of the car.  It looked like I was taking the flowers for a ride!  After finding a home for each in my flower beds, I cut off all the flowers.  It's hard enough for a plant to become established after being moved without supporting flowers as well.  Most definitely the plants will suffer a set-back, and probably won't bloom for the next few years, but it will be a lovely surprize when they finally do.