And Now...the Peonies

One of the nice things about living in an area with one major university and one fairly major university is that there are things that would only be found in towns of a much larger size.  With the University of Michigan, we have a pretty natural history museum and art museum.  We also have a fairly well maintained arboretum and botanical gardens.  In the arboretum they have a really nice peonie garden.

I remembered that the peonies bloomed at roughly this time of year but then some people were saying that I may have missed my chance.  If I had been paying attention to my blog entry on this subject from last year, I would have headed over to the arboretum right before my trip and right after my trip instead of waiting another week.  Oh well.  At least the peonies were mostly still in bloom.

 I'm not about to identify the individual varieties of peonies as the Arboretum has hundreds of varieties of them and the differences are pretty subtle.  I do know that some of the plants are over 100 years old though and that's pretty impressive.  Many of the flowers were like the above one, pretty much bloomed out.

 There were a few that were still peeking out.

 But then some were on the downward slope of the life of a flower.  As you can see from the wilted petals and stuff.

 But the colors are pretty stunning.

 I've said this before, but one of the things I like about my new lens is that it has a pretty decent macro capability.  This is letting me get a much closer shot of things.

 The above flower sort of pulled out.

 I will say that it is truly amazing how much variety there is in one breed of flower.  I mean you consider these are all peonies but so many different types.

 And some pretty cool colors.

 I think I like the subtle pink ones the best.

 Although something could be said for the red ones.  I kind of liked the way the sun was hitting this one because it looks almost like it is on fire.

 And there is even a fair amount of variety in one flower.   You've got pinks, reds, yellows and what not in one flower.

 I really like the way they stand out against the green.

 This one almost looks like it could be a tentacle monster.

 The Arboretum also has a fair amount of roses but I think these were getting past their bloom dates.

 But still are pretty.

 One more rose.

 Another type of peonie.

 I think this is a white rose but I'm not sure.

 Another pink and white one.

 One more.

And I figured I would give you a picture of the whole garden, just to give you an idea of the scale.