June is leaving us with the gift of several days of soaking showers and heavy fog to ease our dry landscapes. Surprisingly, our dry spring has been a good one for Peonies (“PEE-uh-knees”), but perhaps that’s because they are mostly domestic flowers that usually are watered by gardeners. The ones shown here are from our neighbors’ gardens.
Below, we seem to have an image of a Japanese form Peony, with its pollen-producing stamens waving like kelp, but it might be an Anemone Peony, which appears similar to our eyes:
There reportedly are about 30 species of Peonies, several of which are native to the United States, if not Maine. There apparently are at least six recognized Peony flower forms (the shape and content of the flowers): Single; Semi-Double; Double; Anemone; Bomb, and Japanese. Below, we apparently have a Double and/or Bomb Peony (find the ant):
As you may have guessed, we have trouble distinguishing Peonies, since we haven’t found one that wasn’t beautiful to us and we inherently resist being analytical about beauty. (Brooklin, Maine)