How My Flower Garden Grows

Just in case you're wondering, Peonies top my list of fav flowers.  Its a good thing they're pretty 'cause around here (Virginia) they present a few challenges both in the garden and as cut flowers in a vase.  But I'm trying a few experiments this year and so far things look promising, so if you too love and grow {or want to grow} peonies, here's what I'm doing ... but first, I have to share these pics ...

I wish you could smell the heavenly scent of these blooms from my garden ...

{Close-up photo of a peony from my garden}

{Another close-up photo of a peony from my garden}

I love how these photos suggest flower as opposed to say flower.

And just in case you'd like to see a photo that screams flower, here's how I used a peony photo taken several years ago (read the how to's here) ...

{A photo of a garden peony, enlarged x 9, and a DIY frame for the very large wall art}

So back to those challenges of Peonies in your garden ...
I grew up in Ohio in a growing zone where peonies didn't bloom until mid to late May, after all the heavy April showers {April showers grow May flowers don't ya' know}.  But here in Virginia my peonies can bloom any time during the month of April, and those huge many petal blossoms capture rain water, and become so heavy that the blossoms end up on the ground.  There are some years that you only get to experience the beautiful blooms for a couple of days before their delicate blossoms are down on the ground.

So you say, cut them, and bring them into the house!  I. would. love. to.  But in a word, ANTS.  Ants love those sweet blossoms and the sticky syrupy sap they produce just prior to blooming.  And ants have friends who party with them.  None of these garden pests are welcome visitors inside my home.

Now this isn't intended to be a glamour shot of the most beautiful bouquet of flowers eva', but photographic evidence of an experiment underway; here's a bouquet of cut peonies from my garden sitting on my breakfast table, so far, fingers crossed, sans ants and others.

{Simple bouquet of garden peonies}

First of all, the bowl the "vase" is sitting in contains water.  This was David's idea ... in case there was a clever insect that waited hours after catching a ride into our house before he ventured out of the blossom and attempted to walk about, well, he'd have to swim across the moat we created in that bowl.  While this is an interesting way to monitor the experiment {so far there have been zero drownings in the bowl} it was not the break-through notion.

What allowed me to bring those flowers in here to start with was dunking them - flower end down, into cold water, to the full depth of the stem.  Keeping them there for at least a minute.  Shaking them, giving them a bit of a swirly, then giving them a once over to see if there was anything still on them.

I will tell you that "things" were removed by the dip, soak and swirl technique and could easily be seen in the water.  I changed the water several times.

The key to successfully dunking peonies seems to be timing; you want to cut and dunk your stems when the flowers are in bud not bloom stage. The technique for being able to determine if the cut bud is mature enough to bloom indoors without the support of the plant is feeling the bud ... you want a bud that feels like a marshmallow (soft and yields to slight pressure) and not a bud that is still very solid and firm.

{How to tell when Peony buds are ready to cut pre-bloom and "save" in a refrigerator until you are ready to "bloom" the bouquet indoors}

Also, buds that are in a "marshmallow" state often are attractive to all varieties of outdoor creatures because of the sweet sap, so there's a clue as to what to cut.  Since the bud is still closed the theory is no pests are inside; the cold water dunk, soak & swirl is to remove any pest on the exterior as well as any sap that might still attract pests into your home.

So here's how my first experimental batch opened up once inside ...

{Soft pink and white peony blooms}

Still lovely despite "processing".  Once cut and cleaned, you can put the peonies into a vase and wait for them to bloom, typically within a couple of days, or ... and this is the part of the experiment still underway ... you can place the cut & cleaned stems, loosely covered in plastic or newspaper, in the refrigerator and hold them (for up to many) weeks until you desire a vase of fresh flowers.


Gulp.  Yes, I'm trying this.  See ...

{Peony buds on the stem, wrapped and stored in a refrigerator, for use in a bouquet at a later date}

This is not my primary fridge and lives in our garage; it is used primarily for beverages, the freezer compartment, storing paint brushes and rollers that are currently being used {you don't do that?  don't know about the benefits of not having to clean brushes and rollers each and every use?  you might want to read this, just sayin'}, and now flowers.

IF this works and I don't see evidence of bugs in the fridge I'll let you know so that you might want to consider this approach too ... I'll do the testing for you, your welcome :)

I'll also show you this chilled bunch of buds when I bring them into the house and as they open ... you can be an eye witness to the experiment ... but here's how they look now ...

So how about you, what's your favorite garden flower?  And which flowers do you cut and keep in a vase for indoor enjoyment?  Any flower gardening tips you want to share?

And how about your fridge ... any flowers hanging out in there ... or other "non-traditional" fridge items?

That does it for my first "how my garden grows" post, hope you have a growing interest in the topic and will be back to see how those buds bloom indoors!  Thanks for visiting and let's all have a great week :)

P.S.

After making this post this morning I learned of a "surprise" flower bouquet link-up to provide support and encouragement for Leontien who is courageously battling cancer.  So I'm linking here,

and you may want to also if you have a flower post to add to the bouquet.

Best wishes and Take good care Leontien.

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