05.30 
Life is flying by at light speed these days. I am already feeling spring rolling into summer. What is with this crazy weather? My head is chaotic swirl of work and kid schedules. I am trying to eek out some time to just chill. The heady smell of these Lily Of The Valley, one of my favorite flowers, remind me now and then to just breathe and to take a moment to pause and appreciate.
xx
05.31 Lately I have been working on a new project of deconstructed organic debris. I have always found beauty in piles of compost, the fecund and fetid forest floor, negleted peonies and poppies left to fade and rot, this is my inspiration these days.
07.11 
When we first bought our old farmhouse in the woods in Upstate New York, I was somewhat disappointed to find that there were no old rose briars on the property. I made it my mission to plant some old species roses. After having grown up in a two hundred year old house in New England, I had grown accustom to overgrown wild old species roses. We had many varieties from single petal to double bloom in vibrant shades of pinks and whites. I love the way the perfume of a rose hangs heavy on a humid summer day. As luck would have it, there was an abandoned house just up the raod fom us where an eccentric old man named Edgar had lived. In his front yard were the most beautiful double bloom pink roses. They had grown into a wicked pile of bramble, canes, and thorns amidst the blackberry scrub. Very carefully we dug a few plants and trannsfered them to our place... and now after many years Edgar's roses have grown accustomed to thier new home.We have heard from locals that two women, visiting family at the nearby farmhouse in the late 1800's, brought the roses from England. This past weekend as I walked across the yard the thick spicy bloom of roses hung in the air.
heirloom roses, roses, summer, upstate new york in flora and fauna 06.20
With the last of the fleeting peonies.... come the first days of Summer...
Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved
to see a full gallery of peony images go to http://www.hungryghostfoodandtravel.com/photo-archive/peonies/
floraandfuana, peonies in flora and fauna, summer, upstate new york 06.3
Right about this time every year, our tree peonies bloom Upstate for one glorious week. Ours bloom a little later than most because of the cold weather and the high altitude of the Catskill Mountains. Because of these factors, we have a very short growing season in general. It takes all of our efforts to get up the gumption to plant a garden year after year knowing many things will never come to fruition before the first frost. Yet, we all do it. We do it because there is something sublimely magical and satisfying in tending a garden. There is definitely magic and beauty in plants. Luckily, my peonies tend to look after themselves, more or less. They don't mind the fickle weather Upstate nor the partial shade of our wooded home. I never had tree peonies growing up. It wasn't until I photographed some for a story, that I became completely and utterly in love with them. Historically, tree Peonies were first present in China and later brought to Japan during the eigth century. Both China and Japan have a long standing love for both herbaceous and tree peonies. Along with being prized for their beauty, the roots and seeds were and are sometimes used for their medicinal properties. It was not until the 1700's that the first Chinese tree peonies showed up in Europe. In the 1800's Japanese tree peonies made thier way to Europe, where the lighter single blooms gained popularity over the Chinese full double blooms. I have always loved herbaceous peonies having grown up with them as they tend to flourish on the East Coast. These are the more common bush peonies, pale pink, whites and deep reds, that you are most likely familiar with. For me, they always marked the end of school and the beginning of the long hot Western Mass. Summer. Tree peonies are different they grow on a hard woody stem as opposed to soft green ones and can with time become as much as five feet high. I feel very lucky to see them bloom knowing they have made it through another long cold Catskill Winter. Summer has truly arrived.
A trusted source for ordering tree peonies is Khlems Song Sparrow. Tree Peonies are planted in the Fall.
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved
to see afull gallery of peonies and similiar images go to ; http://www.hungryghostfoodandtravel.com/photo-archive/peonies/
