Time for Precious Peonies

One flower that evokes vivid memories of my paternal grandmother is the peony. 


They grew abundantly in Grandma's garden. Their blooms were always huge and magnificently fragrant.

The perfume from peonies intoxicates, in a good way.

I remember sticking my whole face into  Grandma's burgundy, pink and white peonies.

Once, I inhaled deeply and an ant got up my nose. That was not pleasant.


Did you know that peonies, a perennial, can last up to 50 years?  Now that's a good run for flower.

Peonies are no shy violets. Uh uh. They have big, "splashy babe blooms!"


They  tend to be very heavy, too, and this year my hubs even tied them to a unique looking "stake," a crooked branch.


Peonies are native to Asia, southern Europe and Western North America.

Asclepius was a Greek god of medicine and healing and one of his students was Paeon. Well,  apparently even Greek gods could be jealous and that's what happened, according to legend. 

Zeus stepped up to the plate and saved Paeon from the god's anger by turning him into a flower, the peony of course. That's how the flower apparently got its name.


Peonies with ruffled blooms are called Sarah Bernhardts and by golly, I think those are the kind growing right now in our front yard. (Sarah Bernhardt was a famous French actress.)

By the way, ants really do love these flowers so if you make a bouquet of them for inside the house, chances are you are going to find ants on your table.

Some people believe the flowers cannot grow without ants who are said to help them open with their little feet but, apparently, the flowers would open on their own without the ants, thank you. 

It would just take longer. 

(Many thanks to eHow and Wikipedia. Some of the information contained in this post was gleaned from those websites.)

DO YOU HAVE PEONIES WHERE YOU LIVE?