Transporting Peonies

If you are one of those blessed enough to have excess peonies blooming in your back yard right now, be thankful. 🙂 Let me share this little tip with you for when you have a chance to bless others with them.

I have a peony plant, well actually 2 of them now. The success of the first one to bloom has been nearly zero. I did get this beautiful solitary bloom last spring about half way through my chemo treatments. I counted it a gift!

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My one, lonely bloom I got last year.

This year the plant, once more, produced buds but they didn’t bloom. I had even transplanted it to different spot. I had treated it with a fungicide that was supposed to help the problem. Still no blooms. Even the 2nd plant purchased that was supposed to be specifically for zone 9 didn’t do anything. I’ll give that one a few years to get established before I give up on that one.

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Loaded Plant

I was in Utah recently visiting family. At my uncle and aunt’s house, a beautiful bouquet of pale pink peonies greeted us from their spot on the dining room table when we first arrived.

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She made the “mistake” of saying they had so many they didn’t hardly no what to do with them, or something similar and I offered to take a few of her hands. 🙂 Last year I had ordered some blooms online for my mom. They had come nearly disappointingly (at first) as closed buds, no moisture, stems sealed with wax, in a box. After I clipped the waxed ends of and put them in water, they did quite well!

 

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The three buds shown here are great for transporting.

 

So when I offered to take some off of my aunt’s hands, I decided to try the same thing. I forgot to take pictures of the process, partly because it was late-thirty til we clipped the buds just before going to bed, and we had to leave at 3:45 the next morning for the airport. I chose mostly closed buds but some were partially opened. I clipped them as along stemmed as possible, dipped the stems in wax from candles that had been burning. I put them into a rubbermaid-type container, similar to a cupcake pan. I laid them in there and put a few clothes inside to protect it in case it got banged around (checked luggage). When I got home the next evening, they had fared the trip home pretty well. I wonder what TSA thought when they opened my suitcase. I know they did because the card they put inside checked luggage was there.

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I had some fun with them when they were all opened up, a few days after getting home.

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The only downside that I can think of is that they don’t stay good long enough. Sigh. The are like a lot of other flowers in that regard.

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I am so grateful for those who share their beautiful blooms with me! 🙂

This, That and the Other

Yeah, so my friend Carolyn tells me I’m not blogging enough to suit her. happy I’ve written a lot of posts in my head. None have made it onto paper or the computer. It seems like there would be a lot to say, and yet there is so much of it for which there are few words. Be it the sudden and unexpected deaths of friends of friends, the few weeks that another family had to absorb the fact of an aggressive brain tumor in their wife and mother before she was gone, or the election and the implications of that, to just living with the consequences of a fallen world. 

There are bright spots too, a weekend of sharing with friends, a delightful weekend camping with my church family, the births of two beautiful babies to families in my church, a wiener roast around the fire with my family, the pleasant change of weather which is so different from the previous 6 months of summer, and I know I’m forgetting some things. 

So here are a few pictures for you to enjoy despite the very brief post. 

Sunrise on St. Simons Island

A dream vacation home, eh?

 

I was at the Shrimp and Grits Festival on Jekyll Island in September and came across a booth where they were selling orchids in old pots. “Beautiful”, I said, “but the shuttle makes it difficult to to take one back with me.” I also said, “I bought an orchid a few weeks ago and promptly killed it.” I heard a snort behind me. “Do you have any tips on taking care of orchids.” The proprietor said the most common problem was over-watering. The just don’t need much water. The instructions say to water when the moss feels dry. Well, goodness! The little pot is so small and moss DID feel dry!!!

Well, I bought another orchid from the same place. It was blooming beautifully and I thought I’d better take pictures while it was looking robust.

Yeah, and it’s a good thing I did, because within a few weeks the blooms all fell off.

But I think it will be okay, because the leaves still look fine. They did not turn yellow and fall off like the first one did.

They’re just super-sensitive to light changes and all that good stuff.

Oh, and while fall is the season for pumpkin and such like, we had corn in October. The 13th to be precise. Fresh. Local. Delicious. I’m so sorry you didn’t have some too.