Happy Friday!
The peonies are in bloom just in time for Mother’s Day!
Time to celebrate the blooms with some Ball jar bouquets!
I cut some blooms to enjoy on a window shelf in the Potting Shed.
Peony blooms are so fleeting, you have to enjoy the beauty and sweet fragrance while you can!
Heavy rain and storms are in the forecast this weekend. . . not a good environment for peonies, which will be reduced to petal confetti.
Note to meteorologists: Peonies in bloom are a reliable predictor of hail and thunderstorms. ;)
‘Sarah Bernhardt’ is one of my favorites with pink double blooms that resemble old-fashioned roses.
And ‘Festiva Maxima’ with white double flowers with crimson flecks.
In addition to mason jars, I gathered some blue and white transferware to pair with the peonies. . .
Pieces collected over time with no special pedigree. . .a little shabby and time-worn.
Privet blooms the same time as the peonies. . .
Japanese privet is considered invasive here in the South, popping up from seeds carried by birds that spread the plant.
You can cut the flowers to help eliminate potential reseeding. . .
Or to enjoy with peonies. ;)
Happy Mother’s Day Weekend. ♥
Thank you for your visit!
Sharing with: Metamorphosis Monday
Beautiful! Here in Cape Cod my peonies are just poking out of the ground.
Simply stunning.
You are so lucky that your peonies are blooming now!! Ours don’t bloom until Memorial weekend!! I have one of each that you displayed and a RED! My father’s favorite flower…back in the day, I don’t remember names for them..we just called them pink, white or red!! I know what you mean about rain and/or storms…but even if you just get a few to cut, the heavenly scent is worth it!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL!! For me it’s two-fold…Mother’s Day and my Birthday! I love May!! It has always been filled with anticipation! Mother’s Day, Birthday, Races…Kentucky Derby, Indy 500 & they added a Gran Prix this year, the Preakness, NASCAR, and GARDENING!! 🎁🎈🌼🌺🌷💐🏁❤️🐎🏎
Peonies are ethereal loveliness for me. Add transferware and they melt my heart!
Simply Beautiful!
Beautiful display of some beautiful flowers. Love, Love, Love peonies. I too have some and recently cut a bouquet to enjoy before the rains come. Thanks – your site is always so lovely and refreshing. Enjoy the weekend! God Bless!
Gorgeous!! The peonies are in bloom at the Arboretum too. I’d love to have one of those.
Mary, I’m hyperventilating over those gorgeous peonies!! I wish they would come up with a hybrid that would had a longer blooming season. Thanks for sharing this beauty this morning! 💖🌸
Very beautiful Mary!!
Fabulous post – lovely, romantic and evoking serenity~
Good Morning! What a lovely way to start my day. Your peony blooms are absolutely breathtaking! Here in New Jersey, I have a few weeks to go before mine bloom, but hopefully soon. What a pleasure to see these blooms. My favorite flowers for May are Lilies of the Valley and the Peony. They remind me of my Mom and being back home. She grew an abundance of both flowers, and they were beautiful. My lilies bloomed early because of our warm spurts of weather up here, so I have been enjoying them for weeks. I want to thank you for this lovely post. Missing my Mom, especially this weekend, brought back such fond and special memories. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend all!
Good Morning!! The peony is my new favorite flower and yours are beautiful… My aunt in Va. had a whole bank of them in her side yard and we would cut and take bouquets to the cemetery for Memorial Day. I planted a few last fall and they are doing well, actually had 1 bloom this year….. here is hoping for more next year!! Have a wonderful weekend & nice Mother’s day too.
Happy Mother’s Day!💐
Beautiful peonies Mary! Love them in the ball jars paired with the blue & white transferware. Happy Mother’s Day! Clara 🌸💕
My daughter bought me a Sarah Bernhardt peony several years ago. It thrived in a sunny spot near my house. Each May I would be amazed at the blooms! Absolutely beautiful large blooms! When I moved three years ago, she dug up the plant intending to move it to my new home, but I had no room in my small yard! So I told her to replant it in her yard. I still get to see the gorgeous blooms & was surprised it bloomed the very next year after it was dug up! Thank you for sharing your beautiful blooms!
Happy Mother’s Day
Jo
That’s such a sweet story! I received Sarah Bernhardt from my Aunt the first year I moved into my home which has now been 20 years.
What a lovely way to start my day!
So beautiful ❤️
My peonies have been blooming for about 2 weeks in Texas. I picked them all this week before more rain comes. My display is not as pretty as yours. Magnolias are also really covered this same time. Picking a few of them for the beautiful smell but only a day before they brown. Interesting to know about the peony forecasting rain. WE have had so much here in North Texas the rivers are all out of the banks. I will start watching for that pattern. Love “peony confetti” .
Another visual feast! Lovely. But I wonder what your magic touch is to remove the ants from the blooms? I always pause to bring them home beside either the flowers!
Hi Marina, just give the blooms a gentle dunk under water to remove the ants. 🐜🌸
Oh my, thank you! Just in time here in southern Indiana. Have a blessed week-end.
Mary, be still my heart! I love that you paired the peonies and privet…the proud with the humble. Your peonies are fabulous in all of their regal beauty. I have planted three in hopes of blooms next year. It rained all day yesterday with rain expected through Sunday. Happy Friday ❤️
I recently saw a yellow one for sale at a Home Depot I think it was. I wasn’t in a position to read it closely but it was a big one with a price tag of about $75.00.Have you ever seen a yellow one before?
The yellow one may have been a tree peony. They are generally more expensive. They have a tree-like woody stem that stays above ground year round rather than the way the herbaceous peonies die all the way back to the ground.
A young neighbor just moved in and loves peonies and roses. I gave him all my red peonies and all Rosa Rugosas. He was happy to get his beautiful garden started.
My pink peonies are blooming
Love their ethereal beauty
Your blooming peonies, paired with your blue and white transferware makes for such a pretty display, Mary. Your note to meteorologists was so cute! happy Mother’s Day weekend to you and Lola! xx
Mary, your peonies are beautiful. You are way ahead of us here in New England. Ours used to be the last week of June , now they bloom around the15th-20th. I have hundreds like yourself. My favorite and very rare is ” Maxime de Cornu” a salmon colored with pink edges that smells like orange blossoms!!! Enjoy the most beautiful flower in the garden!!!
Stunning peonies. They are just gorgeous. I have two plants and one will have just four blooms and not sure if the other will produce at all! The four are huge though so I can enjoy, but nothing like your pictures capture. Funny that privet in the south is so prolific. Here in California I have privet made into arbors and hedges. I used to trim them without a care about the blooms until I just recently realized how pretty they are and cut some as you did here as filler or alone in a vase! Happy Mother’s Day!
Mary… for all peony lovers of which I am one, please consider visiting my hometown, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. This year marks the 15th annual peony festival which is held in the Botanical Garden in the Oshawa Creek Valley. This year it is on June 15th & 16th. Here is the link https://www.oshawa.ca/things-to-do/peony-festival.asp if any of your subscribers are interested. For a visual feast, may I suggest “Peonies, beautiful varieties for home and garden” by Jane Easton & Georgianna Lane, Gibbs Smith, publisher. For Debbie’s question, it may be an intersectional (Itoh) named Bartzella. Thank you, Mary, for your blog that brings such pleasure to all. Happy Mother’s Day!
Oh my goodness Mary…the Peonies are incredibly beautiful….I just bought one…the Raspberry Sundae…I am babying it till the move! I am so loving the display of blue and white and ball jars adorned with your most elegant varieties of Peonies!….Have a most beautiful Day Mary!!! Thanks for the eye candy!
So beautiful! Which they would grow here in So Cal. Happy Mothers Day!
Peonies just take my breath away! Yours are exquisite and this post has filled my day with thoughts of the wonderful fragrance of peonies. It is cold here today. Sweater weather again, which I don’t mind in the least. Happy Peony Weekend!
Cut all my Peonies before the hard rain destroyed them. Walking in the door with an armful will forever be a memory of riches. I’m so glad to see your photos. Mine did not turn out too well, but the flowers, oh the flowers……
Your blog always makes my day!!! Love the peony photos !!! Such artistic displays!
Your photos are incredibly beautiful! They take me to another place and time.
My peonies are cuttings from a plant my grandmother planted in Arkansas in the early 1940’s. Several cousins also have cuttings, we’ve all named them Trobie/Lettrobe after our grandmother. Heavy rain and wind here in TN have pretty much decimated this years blooms.
Thank you for the gorgeous pictures! We cannot grow peonies in Phoenix, Arizona and I miss them so much!
Love your pictures! Thanks so much. Always love the peonies. We have had so much rain that has beaten down somewhat but still lovely. Have a great weekend!
Magnificent!
A million thank you’s and a question. First thank you for such beautiful pictures, and also for helping me learn about flowers and gardening. Also thank you for the reminder of all the patriotic posts you have done, I love them. My question for anyone, is– other then bird feeders are there ways to feed birds? I know that seems strange but, we live in a mobile home park and the manager decided feeding birds attracts unwanted critters. I try to feed the birds without being obvious. Yes, I also like my squirrels.
If you can, plant trees and/ or shrubs that bloom in the spring. Those blooms will develop fruit/berries for the birds. Example: ornamental crabapple, viburnum. Also flowers that keep their seed heads into winter like purple coneflowers, sunflower and Black-eyed Susans.
Oh boy these are beautiful! I love how you paired them with the blue and white china. I know they are short lived so enjoy! I have another month to go before mine bloom.
I love peonies! I have several. About three years ago, I acquired a green one (Green Lotus) that was nothing but a tiny piece of root. This year it has finally reached a decent size and has good sized buds on it so I am hoping it will bloom this year. I’ve waited a long time!
Peonies are a way off still here, so I was thrilled to enjoy yours, Mary. Of course love the jars and blue transferware, grins, Sandi
Such a beautiful post! I absolutely love these flowers, but I live in South Texas and they do not grow here. They are breathtaking. I just love your blog.
Beautiful Peonies.
Marion
Those Peonies are gorgeous.
Joan
The Peonies are so pretty and bright. Thank You for sharing them with your followers.
Marilyn
Just AMAZING! I have a request, I noticed the leaded glass window in your She-shed; is that an inside mount with another window framed in from the outside, like a storm window? Did you whitewash the frame or pickle(?) it? My husband gifted me with a second-hand chicken house, today for Mother’s Day. I am going to panel the inside with pre-primed MDF bead board at approximate 2/3rd’s chair rail height. I want to try to re-cycle a decorative window I got from a yard sale. I noticed your window frame looked like it had a rustic finish peeking through. Honestly, your creativity and sharing with all of us is a beautiful note especially appreciated. I don’t know if you have human children, but I wish you a wonderful and blessed Mother’s Day!
Susan
Hi Susan, There’s no outside window, you can see how it’s framed along with the painting details here: https://homeiswheretheboatis.net/2012/09/03/a-place-to-pot/ Enjoy your chicken house!
So, so beautiful Mary! That Sarah Bernhardt is exquisite!
You are not going to believe this. I was digging up the daylilies day before yesterday to plant at my daughter’s. I was also planning to take my SB peony I’d been nurturing since last year but ou t was gone!…..Mr. P. made a random walk thru the garden the day before, pulling weeds and…..yep, pulled it right out. If the trash hadn’t been picked that very morning I was digging, I would’ve pulled it back out. I had a few choice words for him. 🤬 he said it looked like those weeds (pokeberry) that grow so tall and fast. 🤦♀️
Hope your peonies survive the rain. At least they won’t be plucked entirely.
Glorious! Cut them all and save them from the storm!!
Such beauty, flowers and china. Can not wait for my peonies, it may be 2 more weeks. You really have good taste and your commenters are so very sweet. Makes me feel good.
Just lovely!
Pretty, oh, so pretty! Love the ball jars and the dishes are charming! Good to see the shed again. Happy Mother’s Day! 🌸🌹💐
Absolutely Stunning!
Lovely! I can’t wait to see the peonies at our summer home very soon!
I have a Festiva Maxima too, love the fragrance. Your pink and white peonies are so delicate, great to find a use for the privet blooms too!
What a treat Mary, your peonies are magnificent! I am so glad you have them safely tucked in your potting shed before the storms…Mother Nature can be so cruel sometimes! The pink and white peonies look wonderful with the blue transferware, and I bet the fragrance when you enter is quite heady! I just heard today was Dog Mother’s Day, so Happy Dog Mother’s Day!
Jenna
Thanks Jenna! I hadn’t heard about National Dog Mom’s Day, I had to Google it. I hope Lola did her shopping! 🛍🐾😀 Happy Mother’s Day to you❣️🌺💐🌷
My peonies are just about done. I have increased bloom each year and my relatively new garden looks so pretty when they are blooming. A battle about cutting them but they smell so good in the house. Love your note to the weather man. I have always called these heavy thunderstorms in May ” Peony Rain” and am so saddened to see them laying on the ground in tatters after the storm.
Have a lovely weekend despite the rain.
Simply beautiful, you are truly blessed with a green thumb. I live in MA, right on the Salem NH border and have a couple peonies that are a foot tall. Bring on the sunshine!
How beautiful your setting is! As a child we would pick peony bouquets to place on graves for the holidays. I don’t remember having artificial flowers back then. I think they are prettier than roses but short lived💐🌸🏵
Oh Mary, your peonies are gorgeous. I do miss having peonies living in Florida now. Thank you for sharing yours with us!
Lovely! Enchanting peonies!