A perennial gift

My peonies are a perpetual gift from my mother and grandmother. Mother planted some of her mother's peonies in her backyard when I was a girl. After Grandma died, my parents moved to her house. Before they moved, my dad and brother dug the peonies for me.

The Frugal Gardener in me loves divided plants. They are generally free and are wonderful reminders of the people who gave them to us.

We nearly lost our peonies, which would have been a catastrophe. Our roofer nearly killed them when he drove over them. After several years of trying to repair what he'd done to them, I moved them. They are now happy and covered with blossoms each spring.

When we were children, my brother, our cousins and I tried to remove the ants from the peonies. Disgusting bugs! Or so we thought. Somehow, the peonies didn't bloom without ants. Some of the websites I've seen say that peonies don't need the ants, but that's not true in my family's experience.



Apparently, peonies produce various ant attractants. The ants eat a waxy coating, helping the blooms to open. The Heartland Peony Society and GardenWeb's Peony Forum have all kinds of information about the flowers.



If a person wants to use peonies as a cut flower, the ants can be removed by dunking them in water. Personally, I prefer to enjoy the flowers in their natural state, remembering the heritage they represent.