When Stephen and I replanted our garden three years ago, we installed four tree peonies on the raised bed, situated between the blue atlas cedar and copper beech (front to back) and the phlox and firethorns (from the rocks to the wall).
The first year we only had one flower, and then last year we had two, but still on the same plant.
This year we had seven blooms spread among three of the tree peonies, meaning that only one has so far not blossomed. Maybe next year! All seven of the blooms opened magnificently, spreading their petals into huge flowers the size of small cabbages. We had two colors: a deep magenta and a dark pink.
But they don’t last very long, maybe a few weeks at most, and today I cut down the remaining flowers, which were shedding desiccated petals.
Sometimes gardening is very much like life, to the extent that you think something is just beginning when in fact it is almost over.
