Peonies Around the Pad

This might be my favorite time of year.  The peonies are in bloom and they are fabulous!  I shared with you on April 2nd, this photo:

The sprouts were just starting to emerge.  Two weeks later, they looked like this:

They leaf out quickly.  But then you wait.  And wait.  And wait.  For three weeks. Then they start to bloom.  It's so exciting!  Our peony was one of the first to bloom in the neighborhood and we got the first bloom on Monday.

Some people like to use a stakes to help hold their peonies upright.  But the best thing about them, in my opinion, is once they start to topple over, I get to run outside and clip the blooms.  Guilt free!  Then I place them all around our pad.

Here they are hanging out in our new dormer.

Peony buds

For each peony bloom, there are about two or three buds attached to it that have not opened.  Not wanting to be wasteful, I clip most of them off and place them in their own container.  The buds are pretty on their own, but they will bloom.  Once they do, I simply replace a wilted bloom in another vase with a fresh one from the bud vase. You gotta love blooms that keep on giving!