Wednesday, April 11, 2018
11/ Another Susie's Son
Susie may have been this property's first flower gardener. When we moved here I found among the weeds a couple of leaves that looked like a peony. I dug it up and planted it in the perennial bed I'd started. The following year it produced loads of huge white blooms with a red flash inside. I invited her son Bob, then in his 80's, to see it. His tears blessed the flowers of his childhood.
Peony "Festiva Maxima"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I can smell it through the photo. Wonderful that Bob got to see it.
ReplyDeleteYes, it has a gorgeous, powerful scent!
ReplyDeletePeonies are amazing... they're like the cockroaches of the flower world in terms of their survival "skills."
ReplyDeleteYou are a poet, Helen.
DeleteWhat a beautiful gift you gave Bob.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful story.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful flower. I take it there were some non-gardeners between you and the previous Susie?
ReplyDeleteThere were vegetable gardeners, probably going all the way back to when the house was built. It was originally a farm. But flowers were probably considered frivolous and impractical, not worth the effort required.
ReplyDeleteRight now Susie Keill's double daffodils are coming up. They've reproduced so enthusiastically that I dug up lots last year and gave them to Susie's great-grandson's wife. They've taken hold there nicely.
An absolutely lovely story. When spring comes to the Poconos (IF it comes at all this year), we see the ghosts of old farmsteads: the bulbs, the lilac bushes, growing in the woods so obviously planted in lines where no other human-made lines still exist. The flowers and the apple trees remain.
ReplyDelete