P&B’s Garden

Peonies and Ants

April 5, 2009 - Posted by Bonnie

peony-and-ants2

The first year that my peony (peeny if you are from the Midwest) came up I was very shocked to see all these ants all over the blooms. I asked my Mom what I could do about it and she told me to leave the ants alone because they help to open up the blooms. I was truly amazed at this but thought before I post about it I better do some research. Unfortunately I found that this is an old wives tale and the ants do not actually open the blooms, they just love the sweet secretion from the peony.

I myself, choose to believe what my Mom told me. It is much more magical but most importantly a treasured memory passed down to me from my Mom.

Photo by Brian

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Sun Plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 Comment

spookydragonfly says:

Mom knows best! I’ve often thought of acquiring a peony, but not sure if I’d appreciate the blooms as much covered in ants. I’ve seen them in the past with swarms of ants, though, the blooms are gorgeous!

... on April 6th, 2009