I waited 5 years!

5 years ago, I bought a peony plant from a community plant sale somewhere.  The previous owner was an old lady who passed away.  Not sure why his family decided to dig this plant up.  In any case I thought it would be nice to get this plant which had some history with it.  I would like to imagine that this peony plant was loved and cared for by the lady and I wanted to adopt it into my home.  So I bought it, not knowing what the flower looked like.

I carefully selected a location in the backyard and planted the peony.  Watered it, fed it, looking at it, and talked to it.  There was plenty of leafs, but no sign of flower.  Same thing repeated year after year for 5 years!  Not a single flower.

Just as I started to give up on it, a couple of flower buds showed up this spring.  I was hopeful, but didn't want to raise the hope too high, because sometimes flower buds could dry up and just fall off.

Today, my peony bloomed!  The flower was just gorgeous, both colour and shape.  It was indeed a special moment for me and I couldn't contain my excitement.

CHEERS!  To my first peony flower.