When I first became really interested in gardening, my favorite garden writer (whose book was very popular at the time, but I can't think of its or her name right now) poo-poo'd the little cult that had been apparently building up about tree peonies, saying they did not bloom as well as the usual peonies; were pickier and demanded more mollycoddling; took up more space than she cared to devote to them....

Anyway, she had me convinced for the first phrase or two, and then I began to feel she was protesting too much. I darkly suspected her of wishing that she had planted some herself.

Actually, tree peonies do take up a fair amount of space each when fully mature; and they do bloom for a rather short time; and they do have sensitive stems that sometimes die back and require pruning if fungus is not to form in a damp climate.

As an act of rebellion and a stab at future greatness for my garden, I stuck a few in here and there anyway. Except for the last one that I planted, they were all bare root, many of them purchased on sale after being kept indoors before spring and allowed to sprout early by ignorant or indifferent plant shops. My first ones spent over a month being put out each reasonably warm morning into the stairwell to our cellar, which protected them from cold drafts but allowed some sunlight to reach them, and being wheeled back inside each night on an old, discarded wire TV rack. They looked really pathetic, and I didn't even know if they would actually be able to overwinter in our growth zone, because they were apparently shipped from Japan. Stories of them being grown for one year in their country of origin for their one or two enormous, outrageously gorgeous flowers, and then being discarded also were not encouraging. The dire prediction that most would fail at the graft and die after a few years was also disconcerting.

Yesterday morning I went behind our house, through the early morning damp, to look at my tree peonies--my husband had reported to me the night before that they were all in bloom. There they were: each bloom drooping and soaked by the previous night's rain. I went around to each plant, gently shaking the water droplets off of each blossom and examining the colors of each. The one under the large maple is dark pink, with darker streaks inside. The one in the tiny clearing is light pink, and full of blooms--at least six of them, on a 2 foot plant. The one at the edge of the Norway maple is dark rose; and the one near the gazebo is white. Two others, around to the side of the house, await visits in the next few days.

I turned to go back to the front of the house, and suddenly saw all of the tree peonies in bloom in my back garden at once. They made my shaded yard, which had lost its roses years ago, look like something magical and mysterious.

The garden writer was wrong.

Tree peonies do get large, eventually; but by then, the young trees of a garden have grown, and the large, bright flowers which thrive only in sun will not longer grow there.

If you don't plant your tree peonies in your young garden, they will not be ready for you when your garden matures.