Antsy About Ants on Your Peonies? Have No Fear

“The Ant King Palace opens its carmine door: Peony in bloom.” ~Yosa Buson (1716-1784)* It doesn’t take a scholar of 18th-century Japanese haiku to know that Peonies and ants often go together. Some of us encountered ants crawling on the rounded buds of Peonies when we were little, when bugs were “cool.” (In fact, this plant-critter connection was so fascinating to one precocious youngster that she became an entomologist.**) More of us, alas, approach the subject having experienced struggles removing the insects from our kitchen countertops. The idea of ants inhabiting one of the showiest of all garden flowers may,…

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Month July 2022

Surprised by Shade

When summer reaches its zenith, visitors to the gardens at White Flower Farm may enjoy one of the many shady recesses on the property in which to escape the sun and continue their exploration of plants great and small. The…

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