Peonies, Peonies and more Peonies

Gardening is in my blood! I come from a long line of gardeners who love to spend hours cultivating a lush garden. My Mother who is eighty eight still spends her mornings working in her garden and it is just beautiful. She claims that she is slowing down because now she can only spend 2-3 hours working in her garden before she is tired instead of 4-5 hours.
It is hard to explain to a non gardener how you can spend endless hours getting lost in your garden and losing all sense of time. And the exhilaration you feel working the soil and planting. Or the joy and satisfaction you experience after a long winter and you see all the work you did in the fall bursting into bloom with the first harbingers of spring, the crocuses, tulips and daffodils. As much as I love the spring bulbs, I am just crazy about perennials especially Peonies. But like a mother with her children I tell all my plants that they are my favorite.
When I started planting Peonies, I was only going to plant a few, three to be exact, in front of a picket fence.(famous words of mine) Nothing too much, just a subtle splash of pink in front of the fence. The result was so beautiful that I couldn't stop from planting more and more and more. I now have sixteen Peonies in assorted colors that are just so wonderful and lush that I can't choose a favorite. More will be planted in the fall for sure!!
Peonies are so easy to grow, they thrive in good, well drained soil, in a sunny location. Oh, they like to stay put, so find a good location and don't move and they will produce years and years of beautiful fragrant blooms. I find it fascinating that these large bushes die completely back in the winter and all the growth and flowers are produced in such a short few months, in another week all the blooms will be spent. No more beautiful blooms, all I can do is look on line at all my favorite growers of Peonies web sties and dream of what I will buy to plant in the fall.
Fortunately I have a garden full of different perennials to admire through the summer and fall.
I know, I know, I am obsessed with my garden. And it causes me to make some hard choices, like tomorrow morning do I go to a great hot yoga class at 7:30am or do I start early in my garden? Decisions, Decisions, what I am to do!!!