Gardening A to Z: P is for Peony

Oh, how I love my peonies. These flowers bloom every spring and fill my yard with a wonderful fragrance. They smell the way that I always imagine roses are supposed to smell. Only I have the varieties of roses that rarely give off a fragrance.

I have two colors of peony in my yard. My white one resides in the big side bed and always seems to grow well in advance of the others. This year, it was somewhat damaged by that freak Nor'easter we had last weekend. The heavy snow and ice caused it to bend and some of the stalks broke. There are still several left, but it won't be as big and beautiful as last year.

My other one is a pink variety that grows in the corner that connects my two rosebush rows. It always is slower to come up. I don't know if it is getting too much sun there or is too exposed to the elements, but at least it is finally coming up. I was worried this year that something strange had happened to it. I have it growing on the right side of a mini bed, but there was a peony starting to grow in the middle of the bed. Nothing was happening in the original location. I finally remembered that I planted some new peony roots last year, so the new growth should be those. The original one just started to come up.

I purchased a few other varieties in root form last year and at the beginning of the season this year. I would love to have a bed of peonies that lies behind my lilac bush. They just make me so happy.

[Both photographs in this post are copyright Andrea Coventry.]