...your plants make it through the winter...
...they push up shoots in Spring...
...they slowly, slowly, slowly develop leaves and buds...
...which gradually fatten promisingly...
...reaching their stems ever upwards up towards the sky...
...ready to deliver the most glorious early summer blooms, when...
...some unkind passerby rips their heads off. Like so:
When I left home this morning, the above stem looked rather more like this:
Why, just why do people do this? What is that destructive thing in people's heads that makes them casually spoil the things that they hapen to set eye on as they pass other people's homes?
This minor, thoughtless damage has made me realise how much I enjoy my peonies and how I wait for them to flower each year. I feel very protective of them. So here is a very quiet appeal to the General Public in my part of London:
Please leave my peonies alone to flower. I appreciate that my front door could do with a new lick of paint but it doesn't mean that I do not care about either my house or my flowers.
I know that you will say that if I cared for these plants, that I would not have planted them in the front of my house. The sad truth is that they spent the best part of 5 years, not flowering in my back garden, so I transplanted them (in desparation) to the front of my house where it is sunnier. Okay, so it took another couple of years but they have now got the idea of how to flower, so I like to think that they are much happier (if it wasn't for the fact that you persistently damage them).
I appreciate that it's very difficult to resist the temptation to lop off most of their heads as you walk past (as you have done without fail for the past 2 - 3 years) but trust me, if you were just to leave them alone, let them do their thing - not only they will reward you with the most gorgeous, deep pink blooms (brightening each and every time you walk past my home for the next few weeks), they will wave me off to work and still be there to greet me at the end of each long work day.
It's the small things in life that make a difference to one's day, y'know?
For anyone else who does not live anywhere near me - this may be the most intact that you will ever see my 'front of house' peonies:
It's the small things in life that make a difference to one's day, y'know?
For anyone else who does not live anywhere near me - this may be the most intact that you will ever see my 'front of house' peonies:
I just hope that this many buds will still be there tomorrow morning...sigh.
5 comments:
Motion activated snarling dog machine?
Personally all of my memories of peonies involve ants which makes me not so fond of them. As long as they are outside and a few yards away, I like them though. :)
I love peonies, and am sad you have a peonie thief stalking you!! Though, if you have squirrels in your part of the woods, you may include them in your list of suspects... they can be very destructive! When we lived in richmond, we had a balcony on which we put our plants. The local hooligan, er, I mean squirrel, would come regularly to rip off the top of the plants. No good reason, not to eat, but just to entertain his hooligan squirrel friends and cause destruction for his own enjoyment. Evil.
Agh! That is so annoying.Like the bunch of kids who keep ripping branches off the newly planted trees in the roads around my house. Grrrrr.
I also agree with missmalice about the evilness of squirrels.. but won't go into it here.
Little shits - human or squirrel!
Now I know who to come to for help with my garden.
one could hope the offender is simply an admirer with no self control or respect for other people's property rights, i suppose? surely that's better than a vandal?
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