We were a bit worried about our peony making an appearance this year. An exceptionally cold winter with hard freezes and a surprise snowfall in late spring did not seem to bode well. But this may be the showiest this beauty has been since we moved it to its current location.

This particular peony is grown from an original plant that was a wedding gift from my wife’s grandfather to grandmother over 70 years ago.

I love plants that have a bit of history to them and stories like that make me eager to share starts and seeds from our plants with friends, family and neighbors. Seeds from a French heirloom melon we grew a few years ago have made their way all over the U.S.

Peonies are long-lived but sometimes take a while to spring back after a move, and this one has been moved a couple of times. It seems to like this Southwest corner of the house, though, so I think it will be here a while, although the New Dawn climbing rose it neighbors also relishes this corner of the house so eventually there might be a border dispute between the two. Guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The peony is already overshadowing the yellow dwarf irises it shares a bed with, so the those will have to be moved to the front of another bed. Sounds like an excuse to bring in even more irises–We can’t get enough of those charmers.

We’ve brought a few of the blooms from the peony inside and the sweet scent fills the entire kitchen. You just have to be careful to shake all the ants off first. They like the sweet scent as much as we do.