Voluptuous and Overblown

Lilac prestonia 'Donald Wyman' and old-fashioned pink and white peonies

Peonies!

There was a time when ever farmstead around these parts had a long row of white, red, and pink peonies. They are incredible in their blooming power for a scant two weeks sometime just after the end of May. Until William Radler perfected his Knockout roses, these beauties reigned supreme in the hearts of the Wisconsin's June flower lovers, with iris as an afterthought or compensation for the requisite June deluge which denuded these beauties of their petals.

These long beds of these voluptuous beauties are gone, making way for wider driveways capable of handling the 8-hopper corn planter or 16-row disc. They have succumbed in close shorn mowing habits in country cemeteries, where their planting was commonplace because of their often cited 50-75 year life span.

Here in my tiny village, along side my pink house, I have planted a length of these blooms, their neighbors, lily of the valley, 'Annabelle' hydrangeas, and bridalwreath spirea, and I, whom still appreciate their beauty. They take a while to establish, but they have time and I have been waiting, somewhat patiently.

Perhaps it will not be much longer for them to make their entrance on the floriferous stage.