Peonies in flower

An unexpected pleasure of our house in Quebec has been enjoying the northern ornamentals established in our garden here — especially those which don’t grow in the Southeastern U.S. (in the case of lilacs) and the peonies (some of which do OK, but don’t flourish like they do here). .

“Inheriting” a garden established by previous gardeners, we have an abundance of both.  Neither of us would have been likely to plant them ourselves, but we definitely enjoy them now.  The scent of lilacs getting out of my car in the parking area has been amazing over the last few weeks.  

And, happily, for nature-oriented gardeners, many of the peonies are visited by pollen-collecting bees and the lilacs seem to have had flower visitors, too.

The peonies outside the living room window are glorious now, having opened up fully over the past few days, after a week or two of pleasing bud expansion.