My yellow tree peony has decided to bloom after 9 years of nothing but foliage!  I bought it from a mail order catalogue about 10 years ago and until this week in that time I had one bloom!   It was almost left behind when I dug up plants to bring to our Chilliwack, BC garden but tree peonies are expensive to replace so I thought I had better bring it a long.  It spent the first summer in a big pot so I could winter it in the garage, it didn’t do much last year so this past spring I thought to heck with it I am planting it in the ground.  Now this is no easy feat because we live in a new development and I have seen a few homes being built around my neighbourhood and there is no soil in the backyards!  Its all builder’s fill and I mean big rocks and gravel with a skimming of about 8 inches of dirt.  In my previous garden I was  surprised if I ever found a rock when digging a hole but here you pretty much need dynamite to dig anything decent!  So when I plant I remove as many of rocks as I can then using a garden claw I mix in manure, compost and good soil.  This is why I am shocked the tree peony not only graced me a giant yellow bloom but there are 6 more coming!  This just goes to show no matter how hard we try there is no controlling Mother Nature and plants will do what they want when they want.  It was so stormy the other night I thought it would look neurotic if I tried to put an umbrella over the bloom so instead I cut it off and brought it into the house, it opened fully and is almost double the diameter of a tea cup.  Sorry, I can’t find the name tag I think its Kinaku or something like that, I will try to find out, enjoy the pictures of it opening up.

Pinkie’s Up!