Peony Season is Here

By the end of last week, many of our tree peonies were in full bloom.  We have many forms of Paeonia ostii with flowers in shades of pink or white.  Most flowers are about 5 inches in diameter with slightly ruffled leaves and all are fragrant.  We love seeing them early in the morning when, in order to protect their sexual parts, their outer leaves are gently laid across the pistil and pollen bearing anthers.  We stand in the center of the circle garden and breathe in the heavenly scent. Yesterday we discovered a splendid second generation seedling, which we suspect was pollinated by another species.  Trilliums fill the gardens along the mother-in-law walk and the entire garden is overlaid with Enemion biternatum’s delicate white flowers. The enemion began to bloom at Christmas!   A large planting of Arisaema sikokianumin full bloom lures us down to the new woods path every day and once there we continue to see the spring cyclamen, which continue to delight us.  Both Cyclamen pseudibericum and C. repandum have flowers in shades of pink. As for C. hederifolium, it’s all leaves now—big beautiful leaves, which are green overlaid with delicate patterns of lighter shades and some that are all silver/gray.

Paeonia ostii

A few more of the many Paeonia ostii in bloom in the garden