Life Cycle of a Peony Flower

I bought my peonies 2 years ago at Adelman Peony Garden just north of Salem.  I fell in love with the Coral Sunset when I saw several in a bouquet on display in their showroom.  The bouquet had several of the Coral Sunset blooms in every shade.  That's one thing I LOVE about a peony plant, it can have so many different shades of blooms on just one plant all at the same time.  The flowers start out such an intense coral and fade to the palest ivory.  And it takes place in just a span of a couple weeks.

My Coral Sunset peony has produced just one flower each year it's been in my garden.  It's time to read up on it and figure out what it might be lacking and then get it what it needs because I WANT all of those lovely shades at one time.  My other peony, Adonis, has about 13 blooms this year.  I didn't count last year but it was probably a similar number.  Being that I paid $32 for Coral Sunset, I figure that it's been $16 per flower!

This year I photographed my flower almost everyday during it's short life so I could record that process of fading out.  It is also interesting how the flower opens up on a sunny day and will be closed the next day if it's cloudy. 

Click on the photo for an enlarged view.  

It is so hard for me to choose a favorite but I think that the color on the 16th is probably the one I like best.  Photographically I really like the sunny photo taken about 2 PM on the 18th. 

This photo of Julia Rose from my Mother's Day visit to Adelman Peony Garden shows many shades on one bush.  Lovely! 

Julia Rose

Thanks for stopping by.  Do you have a favorite stage of the Coral Sunset pictured above?  Feel free to leave a comment, I do enjoy reading them. 

P.S. There were over 25 blossoms on the passionflower today!