Morning all! I’m hosting How Does Your Garden Grow? for Annie this week. In case you didn’t know, she’s currently in Sierra Leone with World Vision, visiting people affected by the ebola crisis. You can read more about her trip here and she’s posting photos to Instagram too.
This week I want to show you our ‘Coral Sunset’ peony. Yes, this is THE peony I’ve been banging on about for the last few weeks. It was one of the first plants I bought for the garden when we moved in to this house nearly three years ago and it hasn’t produced any flowers until now. It was well worth the wait though…
Apparently ants crawling on the bud help it to open. No idea whether this is true or not though, the internet is full of contractions.
Just when I’d given up on my impatient daily bud monitoring, this happened!
Within a few days of blooming the petals faded and opened further, revealing glimpses of fiery filaments.
Then the wind and rain came and knocked most of the petals off. It was beautiful while it lasted.
How are your gardens looking this week? Is anyone else growing peonies?
This is such a treat to see! Interesting how the colours change so much as it opens too – beautiful.
This is live from Casablanca (which sounds far more glamorous than it actually is in this airport terminal)
Thanks for hosting and the trip mention too – muchos appreciation my Bacony one x
I was hoping to get more photos of the decaying stage but it happened rather quickly while I was bed bound for a few days. Boooo! I shall imagine you sitting somewhere glamorous in Casablanca with an ice cold gin, instead of the airport 😉
Gorgeous! My mum has the coral sunset peony (and a couple of other coral varieties), but hers bloomed back in early May because it warms up earlier where she is. I have the picture as my FB cover photo as it’s so beautiful. I think I also used one in my wedding bouquet a couple of years ago. 🙂
Thanks Jennifer. May is early — ours was just a bud then! I have a bit of a soft spot for bouquets with peonies in them.
What a beautiful colour Peony I love the way it changes colour, it makes my red ones seem quite uninteresting ?
I don’t think it’s uninteresting 🙂 The colour in the petals probably lasts longer on yours.
I’ve got some chopping down in the garden to do and I really peonies in the spot. I love the way the buds are so tight and then huge blooms come out of them.
Yes, it’s amazing just how many petals are coiled up in those buds!
My cut peonies lasted only 3 days sadly, but i think the air con plays a big part in cut flowers not living long
I’ve never bought cut peonies before so not sure how long they normally last but I can imagine the aircon would be quite drying.
We had peonies as a child and I loved them from that tight bud right the way through to that over the top flower. Lovely memories you have stirred there, Gemma 🙂