Peonies

After more than five years, I have peonies blooming.

Every year these darn plants sprout their beautiful foliage but they never bloomed. This year, 2023 has become the year of the peony.

I've gotten lots of advice over the years. I would say I'd given those plants everything they required--except ants.

There's an old wives tale that peonies won't bloom without ants. All these years and I never had ants on my blooms until this year.

Last year I had small buds but they failed to open. This year, they are huge. And I have ants.

Go figure.

I bought these bulbs years ago because I was told they were easy to grow. Apparently, not that easy, at least not for me.

The rest of the veg and flower gardens are doing all right.

We've been having unseasonably cool nights but pleasant days. That's okay for many vegetables but hot weather veggies like it warm morning and night so they look at little stunted. Hopefully with the temps climbing this week they'll straighten out.

I planted corn yesterday and the rest of my hot weather vegetables that I'd been holding back in pots went in too.

We had a fierce storm rip through the day after I transplanted fragile flower seedlings. They got beaten and buried under mud. Only my older seedlings survived. 

That's the way gardening goes. It makes you grateful that you don't have to depend on your own devices to grow your own food. God bless farmers and our ancestors for toughing it out.

Today I head off for jury duty--AGAIN. That's the third time this year alone.

I wish they'd pick on someone else. It's a huge deal for me to drive that distance. 

Wish me and my peonies luck.