TREE PEONY LOVE!

Four years ago my husband and sons KINDLY took me to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Gardens in Chinatown in Vancouver for Mother's Day.  It's really not their "thing" but knowing that I love it they did it all for me and that's where I found my new flower love!  TREE PEONIES!!

I was walking along this traditional Chinese Garden, did you know it was the first one built outside of China?, and I came upon a tree like structure that had, what looked to me, the biggest peony blooms I had ever seen-they were the size of my head!  When we left I asked one of the volunteers if it was a peony and she said yes and that was it for me-I was IN LOVE!

Me with my son Antonio Mother's day

I soon found out my LOVE was for good reason-The Chinese people consider the tree peony as a symbol of wealth, fortune, luck, prosperity and happiness-and really who couldn't use more of that!  and the place best known for them is Heze.  The history of tree peony cultivation in Heze is long and can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty (581A.D-618A.D.). During the Sui Dynasty lived a famous flower grower named Qi Lu Huan who first introduced the tree peony into this land, rooting it here permanently. From its introduction in the Sui Dynasty, the Heze tree peony rose in importance and popularity during in the Tang Dynasty (618A.D.-907A.D.) and flourished in the Qing Dynasty(1636A.D.-1912A.D.).  I would say this is one pretty special flower-I love it for it's great big bloom (not gonna lie here:))

I found my own tree peony at a local garden center 3 years ago and it's finally bloomed!!  I blogged about it in my YAY for Gardening Post and we've come a long way since then..

Here is the evolution of my babe....

Here she is as a "bud"

Getting bigger

I could put my whole face in that!

Beautiful sunny day and look at her!

Seriously who couldn't fall in love?

I know there is only one lonely bloom but next year there will be more until one day this entire arch way, which I used solely to frame this beautiful baby (too much?) will take over the entire space and I will be the envy of the neighbourhood.....and really isn't that part of the point?