In a Vase, on Monday – Peonies, Part Deux

Chris Mousseau

Last week I had a pretty glorious vase of red, pink and white peonies featuring P. Duchesse de Nemours from this largish clump:

Then, overnight Thursday, it rained. A lot. And I woke up Friday morning to find this:

Oh well…I quickly cut a bunch of the bent stems, trimmed them and plopped them into what I call my tulip vase to join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden‘s Monday worldwide collection of cut flowers.

Cathy always has a prop of some sort accompanying her vase. I can rarely think clearly enough to find something appropriate, but I did fill a small jar with a few of the side blooms from the fallen stems. Have a lovely week everyone!

21 Comments

  1. The fourth and fifth photos are my favorites. The fresh, pure white blooms are lovely, but the ones in those photos have the color of aged silk: they evoke a century-old wedding dress or christening gown.

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    1. The whites on this peony are really lovely, and seem to change depending on the light, morning or afternoon. The frilliness also must help with the dress imagery eh? Petticotes and layers…

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  3. I read rain and wished for it here. But when I focused on that vase, I saw those abundant, full blooms and said…yes this please!

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  6. I can’t even imagine having so many peonies! I’m sorry the rain spoiled the display in your garden but thanks for sharing them.

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  7. Crikey, Chris, what a come down after that beautifully mounded and floriferous shrub last week…😢 But at least you have made the best out of it as we can see those lovely blooms close up. Will the shrub perk up again?

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      1. Request noted – and I have some previous year’s seed which I find still gives good results. I have just germinated a batch of the pink, and the seed is 2 or 3 years old at least. I look forward to the begonias… 🙄

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  8. Oh, this might be my favorite cultivar! (I do not remember because I grow no peonies. They do not perform well with the substandard chill that they get here through winter.) I also like the common ‘Festiva Maxima’ (which is one of only three cultivars that is sometimes available from retail nurseries here, even though it does not perform well.) Although white is my favorite color, the silly red specks of ‘Festiva Maxima’ seem to make the white a bit whiter.

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    1. Oh bother, now I can not remember the name of the white peony that I was so fond of last year. I believe this is it, and I also believe that I saw it a few years earlier in Oregon, and in the catalogue of Adelman Peony Garden.

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  10. Nothing like a big vaseful of peonies. Aren’t they glorious! And now you can enjoy them close up. Are they fragrant ones? It seems inevitable that they get rained on at some stage, so picking them is the best idea! 😃

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