Peonies

I have always had Peony bushes in my garden. As a child I considered them messy and full of ants. They were my Mother’s favorite. Every year she put a few blossoms in a jelly jar glass on the kitchen table and the majority she put in a coffee can and took to the cemetery for her Mother’s grave. They seemed always to bloom on Memorial Day.

Delivering the peonies was a quiet ritual that Mom had learned from her Mother. Both women had lost their mothers at a very young age. I remember the peonies, along with the parade and the cookouts, as signals of summertime.

A few summers ago my Mother passed, just a week after Memorial Day. She had enjoyed watching the spring blossom through her bedroom window. She especially enjoyed the peonies.

Peonies still mean Memorial Day to me, and the coming of summer. I’m too far away to take them to my Mother’s grave, but my sisters do. I pick a few and put them on my kitchen table.

About Peonies...

Peonies have been enjoyed for their beauty and for medicinal purposes for over two thousand years. The root has been used as an analgesic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, diuretic, expectorant, and tonic. By the seventh century in China peonies were so popular in royal gardens that they were a sign of royalty and wealth. Peonies were so valuable that they were purported to have been part of dowry settlements. Artists use peonies to depict the essence of beauty. Today the peony is considered by many the King of Flowers, and a national symbol of China.

Japanese horticulturalists began working with peonies in the eighth century and modified the blossom to a simpler form. Just as in China, Japanese artists incorporated peony flowers as a regular part of their artwork.

European plant breeders in the 1800’s and early 1900’s used both the Chinese and Japanese forms to create new forms of peonies and the nomenclature became confusing, with old tree peonies being presented as new European introductions.

American settlers brought peonies with them as a symbol of fortune and prosperity and spread them throughout the frontier. Along with the indigenous peony species, these plants became very popular in pioneer gardens, an omen of romance and compassion and a sign of a happy marriage. Peonies are now the state flower of Indiana, the 12^th Anniversary flower, and a very popular Wedding flower.