#56
6/03/2022

PEONY GARDEN

The Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum is one of the world’s premiere collections. The garden holds nearly 800 peonies and over 10,000 flowers at peak bloom.

Peony cultivation dates back to 1000BC in the gardens of China, where they were used for their medicinal properties and for flavoring food.

Confucius (551–479 BC) is quoted to have said: "I eat nothing without its sauce. I enjoy it very much, because of its flavor.”

Tree peonies were first brought to Europe in the early 1800s. At the time England was waging a war and importing massive amounts of Indian Opium into China in order to strong arm a trade deficit and reclaim British silver.

Another fun fact:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has over 300 pieces of art which include the peony flower, stretching back to the 12th century. Nearly all of it was created in the east.

Here in Michigan, Peonies bloom in late May/early June. A bloom will typically last for 5-7 days.

The name originates from the Greek word Paeon.

In Greek mythology, Paeon was the physician to the gods who angered his teacher Asclepius after he extracted a milky liquid from the root of a peony that cured Pluto. Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing. He threatened to kill Paeon out of jealousy because he was outsmarting his teacher. Zeus saved him by turning him into a beautiful flower, the peony.

Opium originates from a milky liquid extracted from the pod of another flower which blooms this time of year, the Poppy.

As a kid, I recall viewing images on the TV of U.S. troops standing in large fields of Afghan Poppies.

These images are mixed into my brain with the sleepy Dorthy scene from the Wizard of Oz which streamed constantly out of my sister Sabrina’s room. We would suck on pickles and sing along.

Today in the U.S. the opioid epidemic caused in major part by an over prescription of pain killers rages on. Much like the Wicked Witch of the West, American pharmaceutical corporations seem to prefer to “treat” their clients with a touch of poison.

That pisses me off.

Speaking of Piss…

The Peony Gardens in Nichols Arboretum are fertilized with human urine which is collected from the bladders of engineers.

This effort is part of the research conducted by University of Michigan environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton.

They have not only been testing advanced urine-treatment and circular fertilization methods, but also investigating people's attitudes about the use of urine-derived fertilizers.

“The whole idea is cycling within a community, so moving toward that we want to take urine from this community and apply it within this community," Wigginton said.

The project was awarded a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

I did not see any people peeing on peonies
when I visited the garden.

That would have been a cool photo opportunity.

According to the Nichols Arboretum instagram account, the gardens are at 60% of full bloom.

Aesthetically, I prefer the orb like
nature of a nearly bloomed flower.

Flowers are the sex organs of a plant. I recall reading at a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition in Paris how she was annoyed by how often her paintings were compared to vaginas.

On Saturday, the gardens are celebrating 100 years of growing. I can not attend :(

I encourage you to go and cross streams with the best of them...

See you next week :)

-niki

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