Wednesday, July 1, 2020

The Timid Peony

I am not a big fan of yard maintenance. I keep things simple. Grass and cement. Amen. No flower beds, flower pots, hanging flowers. None of that is for me.

My rationale is this: why in the world I spend money on something that is just going to die after nurturing, watering and caring for it all summer? Why would I pay good money to add one more thing to my to-do list?

I'm not saying I don't like flowers. I enjoy my neighbor's flowers and I am delighted when I come upon a flower growing in nature. They simply don't belong in my yard.

A peony bush came with our house. It is the plant that doesn't die. I've had at least two people ask to take a cutting from it (I don't speak "flowers" so I'm not sure if that is the right terminology) and I quickly agreed. Yes! Yes! Yes! Neither came back for their piece of this overgrown bush.

So our peony bush grows bigger by the year. Nature is predictable. Whenever this bush is in full bloom we end up with a rain that results in this:



Depending on my grumpiness factor, I have on occasion, cut all of the buds off before the peony bloomed just to save it from this tragic fate. Besides, it is less messy to clip the buds and they take up much less space in the garbage. I was waivering back and forth this year. I really felt like nipping the job in the bud but I had just confessed my grumpy-peony-story to a few people so I didn't want to be predictable.

It was as though our peony bush could sense its fate. While our next door neighbor's peony bush was in full bloom a week ago, ours delayed its debut. If a peony bush had personality, I would say it was timid. The buds were there but opened ever so slowly and lots of them were holding back.

They must have all burst into bloom at the same time yesterday. I came home from work, noticed the bush and anticipated the bloom clipping job ahead. Then I woke up to this peony catastrophe this morning.

I like flowers. I just don't want to own them. 

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