Peonies are one of my favorite flowers. Our garden has beautiful white and red peonies. The flower of the Peony plant has always fascinated me. And I have always been fascinated that ants love the buds of peonies.? Ants have a special relationship with the peony. The bud of the peony secretes a fluid that is very attractive to ants. In return for this tasty delight, ants protect peonies from other would be pests. Often times the flower is so large and heavy that the stem will bend so much that the flower touches the ground. The flowers are so intricate in the way the petals interweave with each other and yet they are very delicate at the same time. I am glad we have peonies in our garden. If it were up do me I would have a garden full of many different varieties of peonies. Fortunately, Alice is able to balance the varieties in our garden so it is not as one dimensional as my garden might be filled only with peonies.

Iris is one of Alice’s favorite flowers so we have several varities in our garden. This is one of my favorites because of the depth and beauty of the colors. They are at the same time delicate and majestic. And, as a bonus, they grow well without the care and attention that roses need. Isises have 3 petals called the “fall” that act as a landing pad for pollinators and often has lines that lead them to the pollen. Georgia O’Keefe paints really wonderful pictures of irises and is one of Alice’s favorite artists. I was not familiar with irises before I met Alice. I am pleased that she has introduced me to this flower.

Daisies always seemed rather ordinary to me until Alice added them to our garden. I love looking at the detail in flowers. This one was almost perfect in it’s color and the evenness of the petals. This one was captured right after a light rain. I have found that when the entire section of daisies are in bloom it is quite a stunning site. Even though they are plentiful—some even consider them to be akin to a weed—daisies are no longer just an ordinary flower to me.