A Very Special Peony

These are very special peonies, with a very strong will. Every year the flowers grow bigger and bigger, and the plant grows taller and taller. 

Here she is with her blossoms just opening a few days ago, right before the rain came. She's happily growing along with the hydrangeas that are just starting to bud.

She's special because I didn't plant her. She just popped up from the earth one spring and was a delightful surprise.

We were happy to see her because we knew she had been tossed and turned during the yard excavation but found her way despite it all. Amazingly, she happened to pop up in a new, nearly established flower bed.

This is the bed several years ago. I've circled her first spring showing in bright pink. At the time, we were still building our picket fence, hadn't installed sprinklers, or put in the front flower beds. And the drains had yet to be buried underground. Whew, I'm tired just thinking of all the work we had ahead of us!

The peony came from somewhere in the overgrown front yard. This is what the property looked like when we first purchased it years ago. The yard was excavated when we 'dug out the house' and put in appropriate drainage (due to issues with water in the basement).

You can see a card table and chair on the front lawn I set up one day as I contemplated our 'to do' list! I wish I kept that list as I can assure you that it was missing about one million or so tasks we hadn't even imagined.

Here is the yard after excavation (and a few seasons of growth). The house is now above ground but unfortunately, the old flower beds and some trees were lost (although several were ill due to rot).

This is the view looking out from the house.

Because we took all the earth excavated from this part of the yard and used it to extend and level out the back yard, the peony was serendipitously transplanted.

So as you can imagine, we are quite proud of her!