Flower for the Day Peony III 5-15-24

Here is another growth of peonies. This has been an especially good year for them.

I have a full field circle of separate peonies. They have extraordinary depth of color.

And here is a full plant of pinks.

I love the double peonies.

Here is my all time favorite peony poem.

  Peonies

Grandma called them pineys, and I don't 

know why. They

smelled so good, the full lush petals

crowded thick, the whole flower heavy on 

its stem, the leaves

dark and rich as shade in Chautauqua 

woods where each spring I

hunted for violets.What could there be to 

pine for on this earth?

Now I think maybe it was Missouri she 

missed, and maybe that

was what somebody she knew called 

peonies there, before she

travelled to Ohio, a sixteen year old bride 

whose children came

on as fast as field crops and housework. 

Her flowers saved her,

the way they came up year after year 

and with only a bit of care

lived tender and pretty, each kind 

surprising, keeping its own

sweet secret: lily-of-the-valley, iris, and 

the feathery cosmos,

lilacs in their white and purple 

curls, flamboyant sweet peas and

zinnias, the bright four o'clocks and 

delphinium, blue as her 

eyes, and the soft peony flowers edged 

deep pink.

              In her next lifetime I want my 

grandmother to

walk slowly through the gardens in 

England and Kyoto.I want

to be there when she recognizes the 

flowers and smiles, when

she kneels and takes the pineys in her 

hands.

Jeanne Lohman. Calls from a Lighted House. Fifthian Press

2007