Peonies in 1901: “A Well-Gloved Girl Who Can Swim and Ride”

        While the magnificence of peony season is still fresh in our mind’s eye, here’s some praise of that enduringly popular flower from Alice Morse Earle’s classic Old Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth. Published in 1901, Earle’s book became enormously popular – a reminder today that we’re not the first gardeners to appreciate heirloom plants.
        “The glory of the front yard was the old-fashioned early red ‘piny’, cultivated since the days of Pliny. I hear people speaking of it with contempt as a vulgar flower – ‘flaunting’ is the conventional derogatory adjective – but I glory in its flaunting. The modern varieties, of every tint from white through flesh color, coral, pink, ruby color, salmon, and even yellow, to deep red, are as beautiful as roses. Some are sweet-scented; and they have no thorns, and their foliage is ever perfect, so I am sure the rose is jealous. . . .
        “Not the least of the peony’s charms is its exceeding trimness and cleanliness. The plants always look like a well-dressed, well-shod, well-gloved girl of birth, breeding, and of equal good taste and good health; a girl who can swim, and skate, and ride, and play golf. Every inch has a well-set, neat, cared for look which the shape and growth of the plant keeps from seeming artificial or finicky. . . .
        “No flower can be set in our garden of more distinct antiquity than the peony; the Greeks believed it to be of divine origin. A green arbor of the fourteenth century in England is described as set around with gillyflower, tansy, gromwell, and ‘pyonys powdered ay betwene’ – just as I like to see peonies set to this day, ‘powdered’ everywhere between all the other flowers of the border.” (June 2010)

Better Together: An Easy Combo for Your Spring Garden

        The wine-red, newly-sprouting foliage of peonies is always a treat, but our friend Tom Fischer’s Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations will show you how to make it look even better. As he writes, “The emerging foliage of peonies can be as spectacular as the flowers. . . . Planted among the vivid blue of glory-of-the-snow, it practically glows.” For the inspiring full-page photo, go to http://books.google.com/books?id=VxXh56ql0BAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=perennial+companions+100&cd=1#v=snippet&q=santa%20fe&f=false, click on page 16, and scroll down to page 17.
        And while you’re thinking of it, why not order these two fall-planted treasures from us right now – at LAST year’s prices. (Feb. 2010)

Peeking at Peonies, Part 2

        Take a refreshing walk in the University of Michigan’s historic peony garden by viewing a two-minute slide-show of this year’s Peony Peaking Party: http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2009/07/slideshow/index.html?tr=y&auid=5077812. Then to order a bit of this beauty for your own garden, click here. (July 2009)

Peonies: Tips for Cut-Flowers and Where to See Hundreds in Bloom

Peony season is here! Peonies are long-lived but slow to establish, so if you planted them last fall, you can expect a few stalks of foliage this first spring, a few blooms next year, and more every year after that for a century or more.
        For tips on cutting peonies so they last longer in bouquets (and so you don’t damage your plants), visit oldhousegardens.com/Bulbs-As-Cut-Flowers.asp.
        To see hundreds on display, visit the national show of the American Peony Society, June 6-7, at the historic Kingwood Center in north-central Ohio. It’s all free and sure to be amazing! To learn more, visit the APS website.
        That same weekend, one of the world’s oldest and largest peony gardens welcomes visitors to its annual Peony Peaking Party right here in Ann Arbor. Located in a sunlit glade in the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum, the garden dates to the 1920s and exciting new efforts are underway to revitalize it and make it a model for historic plant preservation across the country. The free celebration runs from noon to 4:00 on Sunday, June 7, and lemonade and watermelon will be served. See you there! (May 2009)

For articles on other topics, see our main Newsletter Archives page.