Peonies and Ants

I was always told that peonies would not open properly without ants. If you watch the ants busy munching on the waxy coating of a peony you can see why this would make sense. They work their way around the seams and you can almost see the bloom loosen as they work. I have read that peonies will open without ants. I suppose they would. Maybe the ants just make the job a little easier.

I have a very old variety of peonies. I don’t know how old. Peonies live for about 100 years is what I read. My peonies are probably close to that old and show no signs of giving up yet. My mom discovered them one year planted along side the driveway to our house. We had lived there for a few years and didn’t know they were hiding there waiting to surprise us. Dad would dutifully cut the grass each year. He didn’t know the flowers were trying to grow out of the ground and bloom. They got cut along with the grass. One year he must have gotten lazy and put off cutting the grass until it got very tall. That was the year we discovered the peonies.

Mom weeded around them and put up a wire fence to keep dad from running over them with the tractor. Every year after that we had a big bunch of beautiful white peonies. They were the first showy flowers of the year. Blooming right after the humble yet just as charming daffodils. Unlike the daffodils they smelled delightful.

I would bury my face into the huge blooms and want to breathe in that smell for hours or until an ant crawled up my nose. Those ants were ruthless. Eventually we grew up and my parents moved from the house. Mom dug up the peonies and they ended up in my garden for safekeeping. I’ve been taking care of them ever since.

Every year I watch as the purple red sprouts come out of the ground. They grow tall and turn green. The leaves get big and the small buds turn into little green balls. Then the ants come. I love to watch the ants crawling around methodically removing the sweet coating from the buds. Loosening the tight covering that keeps the blossoms inside. In a few days they will open and I will sit and smell the blossoms while trying to keep the ants out of my nose. It’s just what I do. Every year in May, just after my daughter’s birthday. Some of the first pictures I have of her were taken beside the peonies. In the pictures my tired eyes were full of excitement and just a touch of fear. That was ten years ago and I think I still have that look.

[Warning: This is where I get all sentimental and mushy]

Do you suppose those ants are natures way of telling me that I am the ant? All my work and hours of care are being put to good use. I am somehow sustained by the sweetness of the love I have for my children.  Even when my job seems so much larger than myself. Are they letting me know, one day, all my work will make it a little easier for my babies to become the beautiful people they were meant to be? I don’t know. I think it works for me. Until the point I have to crawl into someone’s nose. I think I’ll pass on that.