Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The first Tree Peonies of Spring

The first Tree Peonies have started.

As per usual, the very first to open was Destiny (a Paeonia rockii variant) - an old Australian variety seemingly brought to Australia by Chinese Gold-miners back in the mid 1800s.
The next day, the first of the Paeonia ostii flowers opened. Click to enlarge to see the details of the flower.
These things are so lovely I will not spoil their beauty with superfluous words. Click this image to enlarge, and see the glorious detail of the flower stamens, and the carpels in the "Eye of the Peony", and the dusting of pollen, which shows how fresh this flower is.

5 comments:

Mosura said...

Looking good - I don't have Peonies here but I had a few in Scotland which would come up each year with little help from me. Wonderful flowers!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Mosura.

The best Tree Peonies in Australia are in Tasmania.

These are woody shrubs, (similar in size to Hydrangeas).

Your Scottish ones would have been the herbaceous Peonies. Those varieties will start flowering here in 2 weeks time, and go right through to mid-November. Different varieties bloom at different times.
<
All lovely plants, but very different flowers from the Tree Peonies, but they are all related (distantly).

I have a problem at this time of year, trying to keep up with blogging about everything which is happening around me. Peonies, Orchids, insects, Festivals.

I need several more (separate) blogs, and three times as much time to do it all (and a faster connection speed).

Cheers
Denis

mick said...

The third photo of the "eye of the Peony" is so beautiful! The dusting of pollen is perfect!

Duncan said...

Yeah, I have to admit the cherry blossom and peonies are pretty good, even though they are exotics ;-)

Denis Wilson said...

Thanks Mick and Duncan
I know what you are getting at Duncan. A bit excessive, and showy, really. But up close they are actually very fine, and delicate, like tissue paper. Which sort of makes up for their showiness.
<
But at present our Waratahs are out-showing the Peonies.
<
But in general I still have a soft spot for the delicate and minute Aussie native flowers.
<
Fortunately, I do not have to choose between them, except for which photos to put on the blog. And then I can alternate.
Cheers
Denis