My favorite perennial, the lovely and fragrant peony, has come and gone again. In our area it buds and blooms almost exclusively in May each year.
Does anyone else get excited when this long-lived plant pokes its tiny pink stalks out of the ground early in spring? I cannot describe the feeling I get when I see it emerge each year. It’s at once a memory of long-ago conversations with my grandmother, and a promise of an explosion of loveliness to come. I can remember grandma telling me to leave the ants on the buds alone, that the peony wouldn’t bloom without the ants. I don’t know if that’s true, but I have never sprayed my peonies for insects and they’ve always rewarded me. I have had many peony plants over the years—and almost as many stories to go with them. More to come…
Lovely and fragrant peony blossoms© Wade Kingston