I’ve always been a fan of peonies. They have very bold and striking colors, but the real reason why I love them is that the way peonies bloom is that ants eat the outside leaves. Releasing the flower contained inside.

About 4 years ago, but maybe 5 and possibly 3, my Mom brought over 2 peony bushes to plant. I believe she got them from my Uncle Gary, but I don’t associate him as a “flower person”, but it might have been that he was getting rid of flowers to put down cement somewhere. In fact, I’m pretty sure that is what happened.

I didn’t pick the best place to plant the peonies and one of the bushes didn’t make it a year. The other bush has been on the struggle bus for years and I have meant to move it to a better location for a couple years now, but it hasn’t happened. This peony bush has never produced a flower, until this year.

Last year, for the first time it produced a couple of small buds, but none of them bloomed. This year though, I got one beautiful peony. Of course I photographed it:

I’m glad to finally know what color blooms this bush produces. Now I’m torn on moving it.

I’ll also took a few other flower pictures on the same day:

I like marigolds, even though they aren’t super photogenic, because they are so easy to maintain. A person needs a few flower that they don’t have to worry too much about to keep their flower gardening confidence up. Of course, alliums are truly one of the best and most fascinating flowers. One of my favorite perennials.