Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Peonies as promised!

The majestic Peony flower has a past deeper and greater than I had ever considered.  Writings of the Peony date as far back as 1000 BC.  Traditionally known in the far east for it's medicinal purposes, it is known in the west mostly for it's ornamental purposes.  The Chinese have long coveted the Peony not only for it's beauty but for the healing powers held with in the roots, stems, flower petals and the bark of the woody varieties.  It is said that there were not many ailments that the Peony was not thought to cure~ tooth pain, child birth, jaundice, convulsions....... the list goes on depending on who was doing the healing and when.  Europeans used the Peony for healing and also protection from evil spirits in the middle ages and if you look hard enough some culinary purposes were to be found as well.  
There are 2 species of peony that are native to the western United States, Peaonia californica being one of them.  I would love to come across one of these! They are beautiful too!  The Peonies we know and love today were brought to North America by European settlers and were then cultivated in pioneer gardens.  In 1904 the American Peony Society was born.  The mission of this society was to "clarify nomenclature".  There was at the time over 2,600 named peonies and a lot of inconsistency  in the cultivation and sale.  The University of Cornell studied the collection and compiled a list of 500 distinct and worthy varieties of ornamental herbaceous flowering peonies.  The Peony was once placed into the Ranunculaceae family with the Helleborus and the Anemone and now is the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniacea.  Today there are about 30 herbaceous species and 8 woody species that survived the test of time in our area.   
From their beautiful buds to their larger than your face flowers with a fragrance straight from heaven, it is no wonder that these incredible plants have been admired, studied, saved, cultivated, painted, trucked across the world and planted across the world for over 2,000 years.
All that said, I can't help but to look at the Peony and think about estate gardens.  I guess it's  because I have grown up in Virginia and I associate Peonies with home.  Every beautiful estate garden that I have seen has an abundance of Peonies.  
What a Peony brings to the garden is somewhat short lived but extremely worth the wait.   They poke their curly beginnings up through the soil in mid march and before you know it they are almost 2 feet tall with tight stately buds.  Waiting for those buds to open is one of the most anticipated events for me in the spring.  Year after year I find myself thinking "when are they going to finally open?" then I have to remind myself that they will begin to open the last weekend in May.  Memorial Day weekend you can be assured that in Virginia , the Peonies will open!  And as promised, every year of my life, they have graced me with their presence on Memorial day weekend.  Then before I know it they are finished!  Then begins the slow decent back into the ground to hibernate for winter.  It begins with the dead heading of the old blooms and continues on into the summer,  as the heat and humidity come they retreat, only to reappear bigger and better than the year before!
There were only a few specimens when I arrived at the Goodstone, so one of my first orders of business was to correct that!  This year was a great year on the farm for Peonies!
Not only are they magic in the garden but they last forever in a vase!  
There are many myths surrounding the Peony.  They say it's name came about after a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, named Paeon, was saved from the jealousy of his teacher by Zeus, who turned him into the Peony flower.  It is also said that the Peony houses the soul of nature. Artists have spent life times trying to capture their likeness and I have yet to see a fragrance match the one that nature created.
The magic that is created in nature continues to go unmatched, though helped along and cultivated by mankind.  It's not hard to understand why this flowering plant has been the center of attention for over 2000 years and continues to be adored to this day!
Thank you Peonies for returning as promised year after year for the past 2000 years!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Sunflowers

There is something about Sunflowers that I just can not resist!  I don't know if it's their height, strength, tolerance of drought or their sunny disposition but I just love them !  When I first arrived at the Goodstone and looked across the beautiful rolling green land bordered by old stone walls many things screamed out at me ! One was peonies (Which will be my next blog topic) and another was SUNFLOWERS!!!!  I started in January '08 so it was the middle of winter and thankfully it turned out to be a mild one!  By late February early March we were on our way to creating the sunflower patches !!!  
We began by weed eating the areas we wanted down to almost bare ground.  Next we took all the cardboard we had been saving from around the Inn and covered the soon to be garden spots with it.  Lastly we piled on about 6 inches of good composted mulch and let the beds sit until May!  We had great success with that technique, being as it was the middle of a hay field, the cardboard saved us from having to weed AT ALL last year.  Amazing!!!  The Sunflower seeds went in mid May and by July we had a stellar display of sunflowers ranging from 2 ft. to 12 ft. in all colors and styles.  
This year we did have to do some weeding and re mulching to retain our patches but the work is well rewarded.  The soil is amazing in those spots and our beds are established nicely.  Our seeds went in a little late this year, which is fine with me as it will just extend our season a bit.  With all the rain this spring and into the summer I am not worried a bit about this years crop!  I was wondering if last years crop would re seed and save me from having to purchase new seeds this year but I didn't want to risk it !  And I am glad I didn't.  We barley had any come up this spring in our field patches while a ton had sprouted in the veggie garden.  While trying to figure this out I realized that we left the sunflowers in the field beds all winter for the birds to eat and eat they did!!! They were really thorough!  
 
Above/Below:Creation of the Sunflower patches March 2008
Above/Below: Result of all that hard work !!!!  Heaven on earth!
Above: Last year's Sunflowers in reds and yellows!
Below: This year's Sunflower crop newly sprouted!
Above/Below: These little babies sprouted in record time!  Less than 2 weeks after sewing them I spotted the new mass of green sprouts showing after one good rain!
I can hardly wait until they are big and beautiful again!  It feels like it will take forever when in reality I know they are going to come and go rather fast!  I love to be around flowers that are bigger than me! Maybe that's the real reason I love Sunflowers so much!  I often watch my little dog Diggs run throughout the gardens and think "Man, it would be so cool to be smaller than an Echinacea, I'd love to be able to stand inside a clump of Peonies or lay in the middle of a big soft catmint!"  Lucky Diggs!  Sunflowers enable me to feel like that in their presence!  Thank You Sunflowers for that precious gift!!!! Among many others! 
Above: Sunflower seedlings direct sewn in late May 2009
 photographed June 9 2009
Below: Volunteer Sunflower in the veggie garden, sprouted in early may photographed June 10 2009
The other thing that has always amazed me is how much stronger plants are when they volunteer!  Maybe it's the head start they had but I think it's more than that!  I'll have to compare the final product when they are more comparable.... But I bet the volunteers win !
Above: Emily next to a volunteer sunflower in the Veggie garden!
Below: Up close to last year's crop!  The bee's were really happy about them too!
Nature is magic for sure!  It continuously blows me away that in less than six months the sunflower lives it's entire life cycle. From seeds to baby seedlings to strong mammoth flowers useful in so many ways and back to seeds ! 
 
And we are blessed to be able to witness it all!