Passion for Peonies

I love peonies. There is nothing like these huge, elegant flowers that bloom so faithfully year after year. Cultivated in China for more than 2000 years, where they are regarded as symbols of wealth, luck and happiness, peonies are among the longest-used flowers in ornamental culture.

They are named after Paeon, who was a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. Unfortunately for Paeon, his teacher became jealous of him. The only way Zeus could save the brilliant youth from Asclepius’s wrath was to turn him into a peony flower. In other Western folklore, mischievous nymphs were said to hide among the petals, while in the language of flowers, peonies take on the meaning of Shame or Bashfulness.

Here are some photos and poems from the height of peony season at the Montreal Botanical Garden. Peonies may be found throughout the garden, but especially in the Chinese and Japanese gardens as well as in the Flowery Brook area.



someone has cast
a peony flower
into the pond—
drifting uncertainly
this love of ours

peonies

in bloom
he leaves me
a poem
on the kitchen table

tall, lanky man—
come sit with me
by the peonies
and watch that mallard
woo his mate

pink peonies
delicately scented,
ruffled and pretty
I was once
a love struck teen

distracting me
from my contemplation
of pink peonies
that noisy

red-winged black bird

he doesn’t have
street smarts, they say
of the son
I drag to the garden
peony viewing

slowly
shedding
the weight of beauty
peony petals
on the lawn

just petals
on the grass
and dead yellow stamens
all that remains
of yesterday’s splendour

white petals
tinged with brown
beside them
tightly packed buds
ready to explode

I’ll whisper
as he sleeps
the sound
of white peony petals
falling