I am a sucker for those heavy, double blooms. I love them despite their neediness.
They are the over-achiever flowers. They need extra care because they go for broke blooming.
Rain wreaks havoc on them. Their poor little heads bow down with the water weight.
They need staking and shaking.
Who can resist such extravagance?
I will shake and stake every spring because these doubles are irresistible.
FLOW
I love my single Peonies.
I love their floppy petals and their dusty yellow centers.
But I adore the doubles.
Beauty can be a burden.
These blooms need staking.
They must be shaken lightly after rain to prevent broken stems.
I marvel at the loveliness of all those clustered petals.
Oh, the burden of beauty!
Poor peonies.
Flower
yI know, I complained about them last spring in “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble.”
https://floweralley.org/?s=peonies
Maybe they have changed…or I have changed.
My plan was to cut some of each type of flower to bring into the house.
My mother was coming.  She cannot walk the gardens anymore,
so I wanted her to see the blooms up close by bringing them in.
I have those eleven vases, you see.
https://floweralley.org/?s=eleven+vases
My daughter and I went shopping on Friday evening. A violent storm hit while we were away.
Hundreds of my flowers were beaten down by the rain and wind.
Instead of cutting flowers for my vases on Saturday morning, I was cutting them to clean up.
By Saturday evening, only a few iris were left. There were a few Columbine stems.
The only flowers worth their weight were those double peonies.
The very one that I complained about staking last spring.
Bowed, but held in the storm.
They filled one vase the iris another and that was enough.
Sometimes it takes just the right flower.
Not the large number, just a few.
Like friends.
Worth their weight in gold when you need them.
My apologies to my new friend the Duchess de Nemours Peony.
FLOWER
It’s peony(Paeonia) time here in North Carolina.
I love all types. Â Singles, semi-doubles and doubles.
The doubles are trouble though.
They have such heavy blooms that they have to be staked. Â Otherwise they dip down to the ground, especially after a rain.
I keep a supply of green stakes with open-ringed tops for this purpose.
Peonies like full sun and well-drained acidic soil. Â They do not like to be divided.
If you must, divide them in  the fall.  Plant shallow.  Side dress with compost.
FLOWER
We had a hard rain yesterday evening.
My houseplants get booted outside for storms.
Now that the sun is back, they must be dragged back in before scorching.
The main job now is in the garden. Â Everything got really wet and heavy.
So I put on my rubber clogs to assess the needs of the day.
CUT the flopped over bearded iris stems and the shriveled old blooms off.
PULL the ten thousand weeds. (9, 000 are sweet peas.)
STAKE the tall stalks and stems of iris and peonies.
I shall not complain about the rain.
FLOWER
floweralley 