The Life Cycle of Our Peonies in 2012
Bob Jensen at Trinity University
Peony --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peony
The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. Asclepius became jealous of his pupil; Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower.[3]
The family name "Paeoniaceae" was first used by Friedrich K.L. Rudolphi in 1830, following a suggestion by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling that same year. The family had been given other names a few years earlier. The composition of the family has varied, but it has always consisted of Paeonia and one or more genera that are now placed in Ranunculales. It has been widely believed that Paeonia is closest to Glaucidium, and this idea has been followed in some recent works. Molecular phylogenetic studies, however, have demonstrated conclusively that Glaucidium belongs in Ranunculaceae, but that Paeonia belongs in the unrelated order Saxifragales.[7]
Classification
Peonies can be classified by both plant growth habit and flower type. Plant growth types are Herbaceous (Bush), Tree, and Intersectional (Itoh).
Each flower type becomes more complex in its arrangement of petals. The flower types include Single (e.g., Athena, Dad, Krinkled White, Scarlet O’Hara, Sea Shell), Japanese (Nippon Beauty, Madame Butterfly), Anemone, Semi-Double (Paula Fay, Coral Charm, Miss America, Buckeye Belle), Double (Ann Cousins, Gardenia, Kansas, Paul M. Wild, Tourangelle) and Bomb-Double (Red Charm, Raspberry Sundae, Mons Jules Elie). Herbaceous peonies die back in winter and regrow in spring, while tree peonies lose their leaves in winter, but leave woody stems.
Intersectional (Itoh) peonies are hybrid crosses between tree and herbaceous types. They have the large flowers of a tree peony, but die back to the ground each year like herbaceous peonies.
Sometimes I wonder if Peonies are a mistake of nature. The perennial blossoms are beautiful and too big for their stems in wind and rain. I do put wire racks under each bush. That helps a lot but wind and rain can still make the blossoms bend low and shred apart. But while they are early in bloom peonies are magnificent. They only bloom for a couple of weeks each year and then look like globs of poop on the bush or on the ground.
Ants love the sweet nectar of a peony blossom
And then swift-aging beauty turns to ugly
In the fall I will cut these peony bushes to the ground and the roots will lie
dormant under a blanket of snow
Erika makes certain I covered her roses in heavy burlap
And here we sit in April waiting for the next season of our flower gardens
And now you know why I don't present a time-lapse picture of human faces in a mirror
But in a way there's an analogy here
We're born sort of ugly and die sort of ugly if we live to be old
But in between there's beauty rising, peaking, and shrinking
It's not so much how we look in the mirror at any point in our lives
But how we deal with God's plan for us in all seasons
An Irish Blessing for You ---
http://www.andiesisle.com/ThisBlessingIsForYou.html
What Goes on in a Garden? --- http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0
The Beauty of Pollination --- http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0
TED Talk: Time Lapse Photography
(Louie Schwartzberg) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&vq=medium
Blogs of White
Mountain Hikers (many great photographs) ---
http://www.blogger.com/profile/02242409292439585691
Our cottage's history ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/CottageHistory/Hotel/Brochure/Brochure1900.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
On May 14,
2006 I retired from
Trinity University after a long and
wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was
generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My
wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Bob
Jensen's Blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations
Our
address is 190 Sunset Hill Road, Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
Our cottage was known as the Brayton Cottage in the early 1900s
Sunset Hill is a ridge overlooking with
New Hampshire's White Mountains to the East
and Vermont's
Green Mountains to the West
Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/