The "Granny Piney"

Our house -- which dates back to at least 1870 -- is renowned for the peonies that bloom along the road, an old Indian trail that is now a well-trailed secondary road. The peonies have been here a long time, probably fifty years at least.

First the white ones bloom, then the pink ones and rose colored ones. I love the scent of them when I cut them and bring them into the house. This year they are particularly pretty. All we do for them is trim back the foliage when it starts to look bad in the heat of August and they are good for another year.

The niece of the last member of the settlers who owned this place told me about a "granny piney" that had been dug up and carried away, and was growing fairly well. For several years I didn't fret over its absence, then I began to notice every spring there was first one sprig of leaves and then another at the end of one of the rows, slightly out of line. Then more of a peony plant appeared but didn't bloom for several years. I blamed bad spring weather -- and the absence of its allotment of the big black ants that peonies need to bloom.

Then when it did bloom for the first time about four years ago -- just one half-hearted flower, I was impressed by the deep bright red but it took another year before I realized why someone would go to the trouble of carrying off the "granny piney." It blooms after all the others have come out, and holds the petals tight and high and very full, longer than other peonies do. And the scent is just as intoxicating. This year it had sixteen blooms. Worth waiting for!