The Adulation of the Peonies
I had gotten it into my head that I wanted peonies. "They must be planted in October," my mother insisted. "It's the timing for a peony," she repeated firmly over the phone. I tried not to roll my eyes, but I had a very small patch of garden area in front of my house, and I thought I'd get her advice before diving in. I thought it would be simple — just buy a one-gallon pot or a two-gallon pot like any flower, and simply plant them in spring, but little did I understand that most gardeners and most garden centers only sell peonies by the root, not the flower itself, and you have to gently plant the root in the fall. And then tend to them, very carefully. I'm not an expert gardener, but I have experience with peonies through my grandmother. She had peonies planted all around her cottage in Wisconsin that had probably rooted and grown there for over fifty years. Every spring, they would bloom, and I remember that they were huge, luxurious blooms, white and...
