Monday, May 4, 2015

Flowers in the House

I snipped this Tree Peony flower a little while ago, put it into my favorite vintage Farmer's Creamery bottle, and sat it on the kitchen windowsill.  




This flower is the only one that the plant will produce this year.  I wasn't going to waste it outside in an area that I don't see every day.  I want it inside, in a prominent spot, so I can enjoy it often and for as long as possible.

Sending this to Jane for Flowers in the House, and sharing it with all of you, too.  Jane had surgery today ... visits and flowers from friends are intended to make her feel better.  

37 comments:

  1. Gorgeous peony. I love that sweet pitcher too.

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    1. Thanks! The pitcher was a lucky thrift store find a few years ago. I love roses, and a pitcher with a spray of moss roses on it seemed to have my name written all over it.

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  2. Wow. If it's only going to produce one flowers, that's not a bad way to go out.

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    1. This poor Tree Peony has had a really rough life. Winter almost did it in two years ago, and voles ate most everything in that border last winter. I thought for a while that it was dead. Patience paid off, and it sprouted and produced one bud. That one bud is now the flower that is making me VERY happy right now ... mission accomplished!

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  3. Lovely colour! Enjoy your single bloom!

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    1. Thanks, Anne! One of my favorite things is to keep a little vase of flowers on the kitchen windowsill. Last week, it was the last of the daffodils. This week, a peony. Who knows what I will be in the mood for next week. :)

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  4. Love you peony. Every year I reu the fact I don't have tree peonies just peony envy. A joke that isn't going to lose it's appeal today :-))

    I do feel better seeing everyone's if lowers and since we can communicate without speech I'm getting better by the minute.

    Xo J

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    1. I have the same sort of tree peony envy, because mine has never flourished like some I have seen. At least it's alive, and that gives me hope that it may one day grow up and be big and mature. Last year, a friend gave me an intersectional peony ... which settled in and leafed out great this spring. Too immature to have flowers on it this year, though. Next year, I hope.

      Glad your surgery went well. Be a good girl and do exactly what the Dr. told you to do.

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  5. Good idea bringing it inside for your daily (hourly) enjoyment, it is gorgeous.

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    1. A most prominent place, the kitchen windowsill. I see and enjoy flowers that I put there for most of every day. There were little fragrant daffodils there last week.

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  6. It is very beautiful and I can see why you'd want it inside so you can enjoy it! Will it only produce one flower this year because that's all that plant will ever produce is one per year?

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    1. It flowers once per year, at the tail end of lilac season and before its herbaceous peony relatives. This plant is only large enough right now to have produced the one flower. It was killed back severely for the past two winters. I wasn't sure it survived, and I was shocked to see that it was going to bloom. No way I was leaving this flower outside in the sun and wind and rain ... it came inside where I can enjoy it all day.

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  7. I keep hoping a shrub will die in the right spot to replace it with a tree peony. That is gorgeous! thanks for sharing.

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    1. Don't sit and wait ... make it happen! Enlarge a garden bed, find a new spot, whatever you have to do. Surely there's something in your garden that doesn't please you. Perhaps it can go elsewhere and make room for a tree peony?

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  8. That a gorgeous color Connie. It's a nice touch to add the pitcher in the back. I hope your tree peony will send out more flowers next year.

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    1. That pitcher lives in that corner all the time, Christa. If I had pulled back a bit and showed you a wider view, you would see that it contains beer caps and paint brushes.

      Maybe next year my tree peony will be big enough to give me TWO flowers. 

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  9. That is just gorgeous. I don;t blame you for bringing it inside to see it better. It's beautiful. xo Diana

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    1. I thought twice about snipping this flower, since the plant is so small. So, I cut it with a relatively short stem, and there's plenty of leaves left on the plant. No harm done.

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  10. Exactly! Bring beautiful flowers inside. They'll last longer too, out of the sun and wind.

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    1. ‘Tis the season when I will probably always have at least a few flowers from the yard in a vase indoors. Last week, I picked every single little late-flowering daffodil from the yard and put them in a vase in this exact spot on the windowsill. A storm was approaching, and I knew they would be flattened if I didn’t bring them inside. As a result, I got to enjoy their sweet fragrance for a whole week!

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  11. Wonderful! I love a good peony. I'd want it in a prominent spot too.

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    1. It's right here in front of me, as a matter of fact! Flowers in the house are beautiful AND portable.

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  12. A plant that produces a single flower. Sounds like the beginning of a fairy-tale.
    Amalia
    xo

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  13. the peony...how I love them. I had 18 plants at our old house and not one here. I kick myself everyday for not digging some of them up!
    This photo looks like a beautiful watercolor painting. Enjoy it and enjoy your day! :)

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    1. Do peonies grow where you are? I guess different types grow different places. Kathleen, at Peonys Envy (a wonderful peony nursery in NJ) would definitely know.

      Funny that you mention watercolors … I tried using this photo in Waterlogue to make a watercolor painting, and I didn’t like how it came out. The pitcher was beautiful, but there weren’t enough highlights and shadows in the flower for it to be anything but a blob of pink.

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  14. What a pretty peony! Wish I could grow them down here, but alas. I'll enjoy yours via the web.

    Hope your friend has a speedy recovery from surgery.

    FlowerLady

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    1. I am envious of all of the wonderful things that grow without winter protection for you down there in Florida. I guess that makes us even.

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  15. Ha! I was just thinking I should bring my one solo blossom in also, or at least photograph it. And then we had 3.5 inches of rain last night and this morning it is no more.

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    1. Live and learn, I guess. That happened to me with this peony last year. It was only by dumb luck that I noticed that the bud had just opened, and I snipped it and ran it straight into the house. If I hadn't, the wind, heat, and last night's storm would have destroyed it.

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  16. I would say bringing it inside to enjoy it was absolutely the right decision. Peonies are such pretty flowers.

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    1. I love peonies! This is the only tree peony plant I have, but I have LOTS of regular herbaceous peonies. It will be a few weeks before they flower.

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  17. I may regret coming so close to Heritage Roses...here in coastal tropics they'd struggle.And I don't have enough room. But I can salivate my way around the blogs, can't I?

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    1. Salivating is the next best thing to being there! If I may suggest, there is a very active heritage rose movement in Australia, with types of roses that will certainly perform well in your climate. A friend of mine has a nursery in hot, humid Florida, and she can grow things that I only dream about.

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