Friday Favorites: Peonies

I am not sure why but peonies have always been one of my favorite flowers. I really really really wanted to have them in my wedding bouquet but that didn't work out for my June 15th wedding:) I have just always been drawn to them...I love they way they look, the way they smell, the way the weight of the flower makes the plant flop over, the only thing I don't love is that they only last a few {magnificent} weeks.

Ok so I might be fibbing a little when I say I not sure why I love peonies so much....I think I may know why. So here goes with a little family history.......

The Cronbaugh (my Dad's) side of my family is rather big. I am grandchild 13/19. My Grandpa Cronbaugh passed away when I was 7. I remember him as a funny grandpa who loved to golf and garden. I remember him singing me a silly song about a girl named Molly who lived on a farm. I also remember him being sick and in the hospital. But honestly I have very few real memories of him. I remember the day he died. I was in first grade and my Aunt Cindy (my dad's sister) was my teacher. My Aunt Teresa (my dad's other sister) was also a first grade teacher at my school. My Aunt Teresa came in crying and pulled my Aunt Cindy out of the room. Then they came in for me. I remember walking out of the school to my Dad's pick up truck and he opened the door and he was crying and he told me Grandpa is gone. I remember being sad....but I also remember his funeral being a really fun time with all my cousins...(most of my cousins are 10-15 years older than me.) I think Grandpa would have liked it that way!

After Grandpa passed away we would often go to the cemetery where he is buried. On Memorial Day we would take a bouquet of peonies. My mom always talked about how much he loved peonies. We had many peonies in the flower beds on our farm. Many of which my grandpa had planted there. When I was about 10 years old a windstorm blew over some fence where some peonies were planted. At that time my dad and my uncle decided to tear out the fence, but doing that would destroy the peonies. I worked for hours in a panic to save the peonies and replant them in my mom's garden and other flower beds....working hard to save my connection to my Grandpa. My mom kept telling me they might not make it. But they did and they are still mostly there!! This spring as I was wandering around my parents yard I noticed some peonies (some of the ones I worked so hard to rescue) poking out the ground where an flower bed used to be and my rescue mission work began again. Only this time I enlisted the help of my brother:) We dung up three sets of peonies...2 for me and 1 for him (love those numbers! I did half the work and got twice the flowers!!) And ta-da I now have peonies at my house!

I like to think now I have a little of my Grandpa living with me at my house!