It’s Flower Friday, which means there’s a great blog hop going on, hosted by our fur-iends over at Living Laughing Barking in Our Backyard. ‘Hop’ on over and visit some amazing gardens.
Our lupines have been in full bloom lately (despite a hail storm earlier in the week) but now my garden favorite is beginning to take center stage. Who might that be? Why…peonies and in second place, poppies. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the poppies but the peonies…SWOON…they are my absolute favorites! There’s nothing like a cut bouquet of these fragrant blooms on the table. Makes you want to sniff the screen, doesn’t it?
I love these gorgeous flowers and while they love sunny conditions, I have a few bushes that have managed to perform nicely despite some afternoon shade from a large maple tree. Not sure how these guys have managed to flourish since the soil is crap, the sunlight not especially ideal and I’m stingy as all get-out with water, but these guys bloom in shades of creamy white, pale pink, and a bright fuchsia number that just sends me. Click here for a link for info on how to grow these beauties in your garden.
Do you have a garden full of peonies? What’s your favorite? How are your weekend plans shaping up? Hope it’s grand.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Pawfectly beautiful.
huMom is excited that our lupines are finally flowering & the peonies are budding.
Thank you for sharing yours for us late bloomers up north.
Nose nudges,
CEO Olivia
You’re ever so welcome, Olivia! Enjoy your late arrivals.
Those are Gorgeous!!!! No peonies up here (too high) but I can enjoy yours! Thanks!
Beautiful flowers!!!
Ugh, gremlins stole my comment. I made the mistake of trying to move a peony I inherited at my last house. Apparently they will bloom for decades as long as you don’t move them. Keep up the good work. Yours is obviously happy.
BTW, I love lupines. But every time I see one I think of Monty Python: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkhx0eqK5w
Interesting on the peonies experience you had. I was given a transplant and it has done great once reestablished. That YouTube was hilarious and made me fondly smile at all the Monty Python clips!
Those peonies are beautiful!
Thank you!
My first experience with peonies has been here at our new home, and they really are amazing! I haven’t brought them in the house yet though, I think I need to do that! Ours are just budding now, but we’ll have them soon. The ones here are pale pink.
Best flower in the garden. Only wish they lasted longer in bloom.
We do indeed have Peonies. I cut them back to the dirt each fall and the next Spring they re-emerge and are beautiful. They do all the work and we get all the pleasure. Kloe even manages to run around rather than through them. We are supposed to have a grand weekend weather-wise. A trip to the Sonora farmers market in an hour or so, back home for some weed whacking and general clean up and then hopefully watch the ball game on the deck with a glass of wine (or two). Have a good Out on the ranch.
Enjoy the weekend-sounds ‘pawfect.’ Peonies are so beautiful and so hardy. We love ’em!
What a beautiful garden!
Why thank you. It’s a jungle out there now…just the way I like it. I think of it as a private sanctuary from the crazy world. You can’t hurt me if I’m high on peonies. LOL
That’s a wonderful barricade, I dig!
Pun intended, I presume?
You know me pretty well, lol.
Thanks. It’s my urban sanctuary. Well that and a good cocktail. 😁
Now you’re talking!
Your garden is GORGEOUS! I can’t even figure which flower is my favorite!
Thanks. Trust me, the peonies are the best feature about the garden. Bar none.
We tried to grow peonies and for some reason they did not do well
hugs
Hazel & Mabel
Gosh, I’d think they’d love it up your way.
OH!!!!! SO JEALOUS!!!! Ma has never tried Peonies! I’m sure she would kill them too…heheheee The only fragrant flower she doesn’t kill are Lilacs. Maybe she will find out if our local nursery has some, and keep my paws crossed….☺
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
If I can grow them, anyone can! They are incredible and a real showcase in the garden.
Mighty purty flowers!
Thank you! We try to work with Mother Nature since she’s a somewhat cruel mistress at a Mile High.
Have you tried tree peonies?
I haven’t seen any here-not even at the botanic gardens. Think they need far more humidity that we’ve got.
We had them in France…just watered normally and they thrived.
Think the humidity or rather lack of, plus our altitude and severe winters would be too tough on them. If the botanic gardens don’t have them I don’t think they’d survive. In fact I haven’t ever seen any in garden center. Can’t even imagine how exquisite they were in France.
I, too, adore peonies. Mine are still budded, but it looks like we’ll have a good number. Looking forward to it! Did you know that you can pick flowers in bud, wrap them in newspaper and stick them in the fridge to prolong your cutflower season? I’m going to try that this year. The season always goes by too quickly for me.
I’ve never heard that hack-thanks for sharing; may have to give it a shot. I wish I could make the peonies last all summer long!
Your peonies are so pretty!!! Mom loves the mix of the pink and white.
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Thanks, I love the pink ones too.
What lovey peonies!!!! We don’t get the big fluffy ones growing around here, but do have a smaller version. The lupine blooming is just about over here…but it was beautiful while it lasted.
Thanks for joining us for Flower Friday!
Lupines are so pretty while they’re blooming. Once they go to seed, not so much. 🙂
What beautiful flowers!
Keep Calm & Bloom On!
Murphy & Stanley
Thanks, we hope to keep on blooming for a few more days till the heat finishes them off. Happy weekend.
We have peonies, but not yet in blossom. They are so lovely, the queens of the garden.
Yes, they are definitely queens, worthy of a royal court (or garden).
Yay! Flower Friday…always love your garden pics! We do a lot of planting for hummingbirds. Nothing like sitting on the back patio on a Friday afternoon with a glass of wine and watching those littles zip around.
Sounds like a perfect Friday afternoon in my books!
😀
Mom always has gorgeous peonies. Back in the day, when people wore red or white flowers on Mother’s Day to symbolize whether you mom was still with us or in heaven, people would stop and ask her for a peony to wear. She always obliged. Our problem was always that the bushes got too overloaded and would fall over to the ground. We never quite figured out a way to prop them up. I do love your flower garden.
Thanks. I actually use old tomato cages to keep them fairly upright. It helps support those big heavy blooms.
We specialize in weeds.
Not cactus?
Cactus grows slowly. I wish I could say the same for weeds. Since it hasn’t rained much this year, we don’t have many weeds but the cactus doesn’t care.
Those 12 drop rain showers are like nuclear fertilizer for weeds.
I know they are here.
Peonies are one of my favorites, too. I planted two itty-bitty bushes last year, one of which Choppy stepped on. I didn’t think it would survive, but lo and behold, this year it came back up. Still, neither of those is large enough to produce more than a bloom or two, so I got two new, large bushes this year which are just days away from opening up…just in time for me to leave.
I hope you are able to enjoy a bit of a show before you leave. Peonies are so worth it!
I’m hopeful – there are several blooms that look close.
If there are little ants around on the bushes, they should opener sooner. Ants love peony nectar!
oh my those peonies are GORGEOUS and yes I wanted to sniff the screen!!! Your garden is beautiful! I am hoping to clean up our balcony this weekend (since it is cooling off) and get some flowers put out…….fingers crossed…..
Ooh flowers on a balcony…how wonderful! We’ll keep our fingers crossed the weather cooperates. It’s supposed to cool down…to the 80’s but it’ll be better that the pizza oven hot mid 90’s we’re having today.