The winning ticket

Paeonia and bud

After years and years of care, success at last God

willing. One precious bud to look forward to. In four

years in a garden bed where it's four brethren

succumbed to heat stroke, this little darling gladdened my

heart with one solitary flower. Three more years it struggled

there before I fully awoke to it's plight and had enough

courage to transplant it. It's new home was a largish plastic

pot which could easily be housed in my new shadehoouse

during our dessicating summer. Three more years and

gleanings of wisdom from Dennis Norgate, an octenagerian

wholesale nurseryman with acres of superb perennials,

and I was home and hosed. Lashings of dolomite, potash and

blood and bone and after a few short months the results are

self evident. Our climate is singularly unsuitable for paeonie

and bulb cultivation. Summers too dry and hot, winters not

nearly cold enough.

An optimist never gives up and this time I've hit pay dirt!