Another Woody Peony

A handy length of black velvet

MichaelStephenWills

By way of personal inventory, our home has two types of woody peonies in different hues. Last posting I gave you red, au natural. Today, you get yellow in a studio setting, back-dropped by black velvet. There is a story behind that long sheet of fabric. Back in the day, a nephew of mine named Chris and I used to hang out together in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Later, I offered to photograph James, his first born. In preparation, I purchased this six foot length of fabric. It served well for that job and, since then, has done double duty as a wintertime cage cover for the parakeet.

This week, I told Pam our yellow wooden peony was in bloom. A largish bush of full leaves that tend to cover the drooping blooms, Pam harvested six blooms to created an arrangement. These “babies” look great against the black velvet.

Yesterday I used the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USB lens and a tripod to capture the following two portraits of Pam’s Yellow Wooden Peony arrangement. In deference to the unanimous reader choice for crisp flower petals the following two versions differ in the crispness of the velvet backdrop.

My timing was fortuitous, last evening the petals started to drop. Pam reports 12 more blossoms are hidden in the bush, so we’ll have at least one more bouquet to enjoy.

Click either photograph for a larger version.
f 5.0 Black Velvet Backdrop
f 7.1 Black Velvet Backdrop
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

14 thoughts on “Another Woody Peony”

  1. I’ve never seen yellow peonies. They’re beautifu, if just a little startling to my eye, accustomed as it is to pinks, mauves, and whites. When I was a kid living in a peony-rich world, I spent hours watching the ants on them.

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  7. This type are also called “tree peonies,” I believe. And woody because they don’t die down to the ground in the winter like the herbaceous types. These yellow ones in your photos look wonderfully lush.

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    1. Yes, Audrey, there are two types of woody peonies and your summary of the difference between woody and herbaceous is on point. We have the smaller bush type woody peony. There is a tree type that grows much larger and higher.

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  9. Like several of your other readers, I’ve never seen a yellow peony. The ones I have are white, pink, and red. The red one generally puts all its energy into producing one beautiful blossom each spring. I guess mine are herbaceous (or am I confused), for they grow about 18-20 inches high and die down completely in the winter here in the piedmont of North Carolina.

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