I love peonies! I never know how to say this word. I love those flowers. They are only available here in Southern California from mid May to early June. I have also heard you cannot grow them where we live. This makes having them in our house very special.
I purchased my peonies from Trader Joe’s. They are $6.99 for 5 stems. This is an incredible deal. I once called a florist and asked how much she would charge me a stem… $12!!! Um, did not happen.
The flowers start off in a little bunched up ball. They look like nothing special. But then they burst forth. Large colorful pink balls of life. Besides hydrangeas and sunflowers, they have the biggest heads I have seen on a flower. They are incredible!
Did you splurge on any flowers this year? Can you grow peonies where you live?
You probably should not answer this, because you might see a blonde running through you yard with her fists full of flowers.
It’s the little things: a beautiful bloom.
P.S. If you made it to the bottom of this page, thank you! Here is a sneak peek of our walls in progress (We asked to leave the nails in. We have a ton of paintings to rehang. It was easier this way.) without art and our finished baseboards. We still need to paint the bathroom vanity and door moldings in this picture. Also, you can kind of see the green bathroom mirror.
More to come!
Have a great Thursday!
It was my father-in-law who introduced me to peonies. He lives in south central Nebraska and they are prolific there. His could win state fair competitions, I am sure. They come on full bloom around Memorial Day so their family tradition is to fill big industrial buckets with cuttings and decorate family graves (a tradition I did not grow up with but have come to cherish). Everywhere we have moved (Nebraska, Washington and now Texas) we beg him to bring us cuttings to transplant. From there, we have given neighbors cuttings from ours so there is a little bit of “Rex” all over. Irises and mums too. He is coming for a visit next week and of course we have made our “needs” known. 🙂
So excited to see your house reveal! Really!
I love that! What an amazing tradition. I also love them being placed on the gravestones. I do not think I have ever seen that. Because we do not grow them here.
You are so lucky! Are you going to plant more this month? Is this the month to do it?
I am smiling thinking of the joy one single man and plant has spread throughout the states!
Really cool!
Have a great evening!
Jenni
This past May, our previous neighbors in Spokane emailed us pictures of the blooming irises transplanted from his yard, to our yard to their yard. 🙂
When they come next weekend, they will bring us peonies to transplant, however, it is NOT a good time to do so as we are just getting ready to go into the hottest time of the year here. However, since beggars can’t be choosers and this is when they are coming, we will give it a good try (and it doesn’t hurt being married to one of the government’s national agronomists…lol). I didn’t see many peonies here this spring but a local nursery website suggests they grow here. We’ll see.
Question about collecting art. How do you go about choosing frames for your art?
That is so interesting.
I am awful. Horrible. With flowers. I cannot keep my plants alive. Your husband would be appalled! ; )
You are so lucky to have a wonderful father-in-law and a husband who knows what the peony needs. My sweet Mother-in-law came to visit last year and pruned all of our rose bushes. I am scared to have her see their status when she comes in a few weeks!
Um, when I pick a frame, I usually always choose gold. Sometimes silver. Maybe dark wood. But pretty much always gold. The reason I do this, is because my kind aunt gave me two ginormous beautiful paintings when I was seventeen. They were framed in gold. They were the only paintings in my house for years. So, when I went to frame other pieces, I just picked gold.
I normally just frame at Michael’s. I wait for a great sale. 60% plus an extra 10 or 15% is my favorite.
If it is a watercolor or a flat piece, I just wait for a ready made frame to hit 50% off. It is cheaper this way.
Another good tip. If it is oversize or you do not want to custom frame, they will frame your piece in a ready made frame for very little money on top of the price of the frame. This is a great option!
Hmmm… Maybe I should do a post to show what I mean!
I hope that helps!
Have a great night!
Jenni
Thank you, Jenni. That was helpful. I wondered if you kept with gold as I have seen in your posts or if you mixed it up. I think a post on such thought processes is a great idea!
Brynne
Thanks Brynne! I am working on it now. Of course, I have a backlog of posts to get up. So, it could be weeks for me to get my bum in gear and publish it!
Jenni