Peonies are one of my loves, they are so stunning when in bloom, they ask so little and provide so much. I only wish they lasted for longer, like so many of our flowering garden plants, their bloom is so eagerly awaited for and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye. Thank heavens for cameras to capture their beauty and perfume to remind us of their heavenly scent!
I put this simple bouquet together yesterday,
with peonies from a plant that I have taken pieces of to every garden we have had over the years. When my parents sold their home on Sproat Lake that had been in our family for over 30 years, I dug up a piece of this peony that I had always loved. I never knew until a few years ago when a second cousin came to visit us from Finland that it is the very peony that is grown all over Finland – such a coincidence that it was in bloom while they were here and that it was the only plant that I had chosen to preserve as part of our family history.
How I wish that my grandparents were still alive to ask them about this flower, to ask if it was planted in memory of the country they left behind ~ that, and so much more about their lives!
The lime green of the lady’s mantle is such a lovely contrast with the bright pink ~ I thought they worked really well together anyway.
With six or seven different varieties of peony plants in the garden and this being only the third one to flower so far, there are at least a couple more weeks of stunning bouquets to create!
