Peonies Dislike the Non-Stop Rain as Much as We Do

Rain. It’s coming down in buckets. It has been for days. Hard as that can be on us and our mood, it can wreak havoc in our gardens as well.

One of my very favorite flowers—the peony—is especially vulnerable to rain and wind. You have to love a plant whose shoots in the spring flare up a deep flame-tinged burgundy. As the leaves unfold like crenalated palm fronds, they metamorphose from a fiery orange to a wine-ribbed deep green. The show is only beginning. Buds pop out marble fashion and then erupt into huge, cabbage rose-like blooms with layer upon layer of silken spiked petals.

Then there are the ants. Peonies are an ant magnet and woe to you if you bring the spectacular flowers into the house without taking that into account. 

Sadly, with the first rain or wind, it’s all over. Petals fall like leaves in autumn, as short-lived a history as any flower I know.  Still, ya gotta love ‘em.  Few plants in the garden can claim that spectacular a career from start to finish.  And long after they are bloomed out, their elegant foliage stands as mute tribute to that growing season well lived.