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Newsday/Features/Regions/Li G6 OME FLOWERS just aren’t poetic. Some flowers just are. And Now, Let Us HE LI Life For instance, to my way of thinking, thistles aren’t poetic. Ponder a Paean to Peonies STo begin with, thistle isn’t a very romantic word. Thistles are pretty enough but they’re too prickly. On the other hand, roses are prickly but they ooze poetry. This is due to their fragrance, grace and beauty. And rose is a lovely word. Andromeda isn’t poetic. Elephant ears are striking but they’re not the stuff of iambic pentameter either. And you can argue with me but the same goes for gladiolas. But peonies — hah, if you want poetry, my pick is peonies. I know this is all very subjective but as far as I’m concerned, they’re easily up there with roses. Who cares that peony doesn’t rhyme with very much? Peonies are gorgeous and sweetly majestic and as I see it, they absolutely epitomize poetry. Even the name has a certain cachet. There are a number of peony legends but the basic belief is that the flower’s botanical name, Paeonia, stems from Paeon, a physician of the gods. Paeon shows up in the Iliad Newsday Photo / Irene Virag healing wounds The late Henry Mitchell wrote lovingly of double-flowered peonies, such as these, likening them to dahlias transformed in heaven. with herbs that thicken the flow of blood. A nice probably had something to do with it. double, sometimes frilled or ruffled offshoot is that We planted them three years ago and flowers approach a diameter of another Greek this was the first season of real If you want poetry, my 12 inches. Irene healer, Asclepius, magnificence. They were white and Like I said, this is a good time to Virag was jealous of pink and red and exceedingly lush. pick is peonies. Who start pondering peonies and making Paeon and was They easily rivaled the roses. your choices. If you plant them next planning to do Peonies, of course, have been poetic month, there’s a chance you’ll even for a long time. They’re old-fashioned cares that peony have a few blooms next spring to him in. So Zeus saved Paeon by bring poetry to your garden. Pick a changing him into the flower that flowers. I never met a grandmother who didn’t like peonies. doesn’t rhyme with sunny spot — maybe this has bears his name. something to do with Apollo and his It’s a nice story, and you can take Peonies have ancient roots in China, where the plant has long been very much? Peonies shy nymph — and dig a hole about a this anyway you want but peonies are foot and a half deep and slightly fairly long-lived — 20 to 30 years is used for healing. The Chinese considered the tree peony the queen are gorgeous and wider. not uncommon and some have been Since peonies seem to live as long said to survive for as much as a of flowers, symbolizing love and reverence. Closer to home, Thomas as oak trees and they don’t like to be century. The Roman philosopher Pliny sweetly majestic and transplanted, make sure their new the Elder, who was also a naturalist, Jefferson, the gardener’s president, raised peonies. In his garden journal digs are roomy enough. Throw in wrote that the peony plant cured 20 as I see it, they some compost and a few handfuls of ailments, including jaundice, stomach of 1771, he mentioned the ‘‘piony’’ as one of the perennials growing at bone meal. One last thing — don’t pains and tracheal problems. It was absolutely epitomize bury the growth eyes, the pink buds even credited with preventing Monticello. And my hero, the late on the thick root, more than 2 inches nightmares. Henry Mitchell, really understood the poetry. deep. And there’s yet another myth, poetry of peonies — as well as most You’ll be delighted. I love the which sounds a little soap opera-ish. flowers. pointed rosy pink shoots that push up He wrote that old-fashioned double- double-flowered forms, and their showy The plot line here is that Apollo was flowers range from 2 to 8 inches in in the spring. Even before the flowers trying to dazzle a shy but beautiful flowered peonies were ‘‘like dahlias appear, they form stanzas in my nymph named Paeonia, when that have gone to heaven and been diameter. They have saucer, cup or bowl shapes, and the colors include mind. Aphrodite caught them together. transformed.’’ It’s hard to be sad when you see Paeonia blushed with embarrassment There are a lot of peonies to pick red, pink, white, yellow, coral and peach. There are even bicolored peonies. John Keats knew this. He and the color stayed on her face when from. There are more than 30 species rhapsodized about the peony as an the furious Aphrodite changed her in the genus Paeonia and at least cultivars and anemone-shaped or antidote to melancholy. ‘‘But when into a peony. I can just see Susan 3,000 registered cultivars, although Japanese- style peonies such as Bowl the melancholy fit shall fall / Sudden Lucci playing a jealous Aphrodite. only 1,300 are commercially of Beauty with carmine-pink petals from heaven, like a weeping This is a good time to talk about available. Most modern peonies are cupping a froth of creamy ivory-white cloud . Then glut the sorrow on a peonies because they can be planted hybrids of the pink and white petaloids. morning rose! Or on the wealth of in the coming weeks to bloom next beauties, Paeonia lactiflora, the Tree peonies, which are really globed peonies.” spring. And what blooms! In my Chinese peony, and P. officinalis, the shrubs with woody stems that don’t Like I said, some flowers are poetic die back in the winter, have the NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 20,garden, 2000 we had our best peony show common peony. and some flowers aren’t. Peonies are ever this season. Of course, maturity Modern peonies come in single- and biggest blooms of all — their mostly pure poetry. ●.
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