Yard To Table

A Peony Match

• Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts

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The Peony flower has a long and storied history across time and geography. These show stopping beauties are a favorite flower for many, but play a special part of the love story of Trevor and Ellen! In this episode of Yard to Table they talk about the variety of peonies that are blooming across the gardens at Stonebrook right now, how they take care of them and why they mean so much. 

The poem in this episode is called "A Peony Match" from the book "The Things it Takes to Bring The World Together" by Jesse Spray Crafts. 

A great reference site for all things peony:  American Peony Society

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! 💙

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙

Trevor:

Ellen, well, hello, Ellen.

Ellen :

Well, hello there, Trevor

Trevor:

It's a very special day here at the table.

Ellen :

It is. Welcome everybody to another episode of yard to table. And why is it special?

Trevor:

It's an anniversary episode. No, no, not a 10 year anniversary of yard to table, but a 12 year anniversary for you and I.

Ellen :

That's right.

Trevor:

It is our wedding anniversary.

Ellen :

June, 1,

Trevor:

officially today,

Ellen :

it's pretty amazing. We've been together 14 years. Married for 12. Well, that is also correct. And why is that important to you? Our dear listeners?

Trevor:

Well, they like us, and I think they want to know all of the details of our life. Well, maybe not all of them, but at least some of them,

Ellen :

Ihope not all of them,

Trevor:

that'd be a lot.

Ellen :

That'd be a lot, but it's, it's our anniversary, and our love story has a lot of synergy with a flower that's blooming right now.

Trevor:

Ah, and that is the May apple.

Ellen :

No, it actually maybe ate a fruit at this point, though,

Trevor:

that's true. So it's not them very happy cutting we're cutting that one out entirely. It is your favorite season of all. Season.

Ellen :

It is,

Trevor:

it is Christmas, not quite yet. That is a favorite season

Ellen :

I do, I do love very much. Yes,

Trevor:

it's Peony season. It's Peony season. That's right, friends, yes. As the tulips fade and the mock peonies fade, we enter into Ellen's other favorite season, which is Peony season, which was very present at a wedding of a certain crafts and crafts wedding situation

Ellen :

12 years ago. Yes, well, peonies have always been very traditional for weddings. That's true. It's a spring flower, late spring flower. And obviously, as we head into June, which is wedding season, brides and floral artists choose peonies because they're a beautiful, gorgeous, show stopping end of spring flower as you see them everywhere in bridal bouquets, and we had them at our wedding, we had the gorgeous coral Peony that was in my bouquet. Of course, it was very hot that day, so they were literally blooming.

Trevor:

They were exploding

Ellen :

100 degrees.

Trevor:

Why do you...is you like the peony outside of just getting married to me, oh yes. I mean, I want to like about getting married to me, but

Ellen :

your shirt today is reminiscent

Trevor:

coral shirt. Unplanned. No one can see that, but that's fine. Is there more? What is it about the peony that you like so much? I don't think I've ever actually asked you. What is it about the shape, the color, the variety, what is it? Tell Tell me.

Ellen :

Well, there's so many varieties of peonies, of course. And I think the thing that I was most drawn to was the one that I saw the most often prior to living here, for sure, and prior to my research since. But it's the big round, just showstopper flower with its frilly centers and beautiful petals. The smell is so gorgeous. You also know that I'm very drawn to things that are round

Trevor:

and happy

Ellen :

and happy,

Trevor:

and a pumpkin, bumblebees, snowmen, snowmen, peonies.

Ellen :

Yes, I don't know. I have a thing. I don't know where it comes from, but obviously the peony starts out in this beautiful little marshmallow. We'll talk about that a little bit, and then it just continues to grow. But it's to grow. But it's this bulbous riot of color and joy. And you cannot look at a bouquet and not feel happy. It is just joy in a vase or a bush or a tree, whatever it is. It makes me happy.

Trevor:

It also works well for me later on, in case, I become just round and happy later on, it'll also be in good stead.

Ellen :

I love you now forever, honey.

Trevor:

On this our wedding anniversary. That's right, everybody out there is gonna be like, This is not the podcast that we signed up for. I thought this was a podcast about yards and gardens and love casts. Right now, this is a whole different piece of business. One of the things I think was so much fun about this yard, yes, that we are now inhabited yard of stone the yard of Stonebrook is,

Ellen :

let's get it back to topic.

Trevor:

Thank you. I appreciate that there was so many peonies here, and it's almost a sign. It was, it wasn't almost a sign. It was a sign.

Ellen :

It was

Trevor:

Il segno,

Ellen :

as as our story goes, you saw Stonebrook, and we're like, Yes, and I saw Stonebrook, and I said, No, we live here. Still a true story. Our life continues. But one of the things that once I really realized so much of what was here rose and rose. Of Peony beds, mature Peony beds. And we saw the property in

Trevor:

March, February, early March, originally, early March.

Ellen :

Obviously, nothing blooming snow on the ground, correct. But I walked along those hedgerows, and I think there was a, there might have been an article about those in like cottages and gardens, correct.

Trevor:

There was a Connecticut cottage and gardens article that was done about stone Brook a couple years prior, or a year or so prior,

Ellen :

right? So we got a glimpse of what, obviously, the gardens could be, which was, but the rows and rows of peonies felt like Kismet fate.

Trevor:

I think the fun thing about a peony, especially these, which are these long growing, very mature peonies, like you said, is that a peony can grow for 100 years,

Ellen :

which is crazy nuts.

Trevor:

Those crowns can stay in the same bot, and they can flower reliably for 100 years, which is so cool. And maybe that's why it's a wedding flower. Was because you la it can last and last and last, like we have lasted and lasted and lasted and lasted

Ellen :

and will continue to I mean, the history of the peony also is so deep. There is so much. Obviously, it goes back. It was native to Asia, Europe and North America, but the deep roots, as it were, good puns, good puns. It goes back to Chinese culture, the peony flower. You see so much of this in symbolism. There's medicines that are made from peonies. There is anti inflammatory properties that the peonies have that's been used in Chinese medicine. There's also another way that they use it for medicine, that was for mood enhancement. And I mean, I just look at a peony and I feel better.

Trevor:

You don't actually need to take anything. I don't you just look. It's a visual mood enhancer. Yes, and you don't want to, I mean, like eating anything too much, you're gonna get sick. That's true. They use little bits and doses these, yes, specialty items that they make.

Ellen :

They bring joy from looking at them and obviously ingesting them. And you know, last year I had saved Peony flower petals. That's right, we saved all the petals last year so I can bombs and so I could make salt salts. And it was awesome smell. It's just so beautiful. So

Trevor:

I think that's the fun part about you think when it's done, it's done, but if dried properly, all of the petals can be saved and the fragrance lasts. The fragrance last and the color lasts. Yes, that's what I was so surprised about. Was still hot pink. Was they were very, very bright. They lost almost no color. And then when they went into the scrubs and other things that you made with them, all that color retained. It was amazing.

Ellen :

And the fragrance is just beyond we were walking to the storage barn to do the recording, and we have to walk through, I mean all literally on our property right now, all Peonies are starting to just pop and explode. And the smell, I wish I could impart that to all of you over the

Trevor:

we have not figured that out yet. Smell-o-vision has not Smell-a-listen!

Ellen :

smell-a-listen. But I mean, oh my gosh, the aroma of these, the big white, oh my goodness, they're just beautiful.

Trevor:

You Can't even really talk about it.

Ellen :

I get emotional.

Trevor:

It's really gorgeous outside. I love how you said we had to walk through

Ellen :

we did they draw you in.

Trevor:

There was no option. There were no choices.

Ellen :

It's ridiculous the amount of peonies that were here on the property. And of course, we knew nothing. We did a lot of research because we wanted to learn about what varieties we had on the property, we believe that at least some of these peonies were planted by Alice del Lamar, the original owner and builder of stone Brook, and have probably been supplemented by the various owners throughout the years of this history of this property. But most of the peonies on our property are herbaceous peonies, and we have two beds in the very back of the house along the pool deck that are the what we believe are the John Van Leeuwen peony, which is this long stemmed early bloomer, which has this gorgeous yellow frilly center. And the petals are a pale pink or white, and they just kind of cup that frilly center. They're gorgeous. We have two rows along the garden path that lead to the storage barn that are the same flower. And we also have some of these double white peonies that are just gorgeous. But then we have two upper tiers of the garden that are full rows of peonies, and I they're a mix of white which I think may be Festiva maxima peony. They have flecks of red in the center and the little red in the stem. And then we have these beautiful, I'm pretty sure, both light and deep, Sarah Bernhardt, which are those gorgeous double peonies, which are in that fuchsia and that pale pink. And they just ombre. I know I get so excited the ombre of the pink in the light pink is just it's every shade of light pink that you could possibly imagine. It blows my mind.

Trevor:

And that's not the only kind. We also have some tree we don't have a lot, but we have some tree peonies. Those are like a total surprises, by the way, because for some reason, they didn't really bloom when we first got here. Then all of a sudden. And this woody they called Woody's, if you don't know nobody, also known as the tree woodies, they just exploded. These are probably gin Jays. They're these bright yellow, red, flecked, I mean, saucer sized,

Ellen :

There like a Bread plate.

Trevor:

They're gigantic.

Ellen :

They're gigantic.

Trevor:

They're almost too big. It's almost too much,

Ellen :

well. And I think we think they're either jinjae or the souvenir D Maxim Cornu, which I just love saying,

Trevor:

souvenir di Maxim Cornu,

Ellen :

oh, there's an accent.

Trevor:

It is French.

Ellen :

That's actually perfect. That's very nice. But they're, they're just unusual because they have a little yellow, little peach this tinging around the frilly edges, they're gorgeous. And their stems are very heavy.

Trevor:

Oh my gosh, these things are it's like a ball and chain. They're so they need to be supported so well, because they're so big and heavy, they just pop, topple over.

Ellen :

And I had read about planting them. Do you want to put them somewhere high, because the blooms tend to bend down because of the weight of them. Ours are sort of tucked away behind one of the boxwood x's. So it's like, they're our first bloomers. Every year they're the first ones to come out, except that first year, except that first year. We're like, we have no idea what this plant is. And now we have four of them that are just absolute show stoppers. And we have this beautiful vase that we bought from this incredible local Potter team called clay story in Connecticut that actually worked perfectly for the flowers this year, because you could cut very short stems. I could put four of them in this vase, and they just created this mound of color. And the vase supported the tops really well, because otherwise, I've seen people cut them pretty much right under the flower and put them in like a bowl of water, yeah, like a very shallow, shallow dish, exactly. They're very beautiful that way too.

Trevor:

It's funny, because there's all the colors that we have. Yes, I'm sure you know this, but maybe not everybody knows this. There actually is no blue peony. It does not exist. There is every other shade, creams and yellows and your favorite, corals, even purples. But there really isn't a blue peony.

Ellen :

Now, listeners, if you know of a blue peony, if we're wrong, I which I don't

Trevor:

think I'm I think we're, do you feel pretty confident looking because I was thinking about our stone Brook blue, yeah, in a way that we could sort of interconnect that with stone Brook blue. There is not a true blue peony,

Ellen :

no, not that I'm aware of. And the colors are so beautifully pale. There's like that gorgeous pastel II grouping of different colors, so they're super intense, yes, and you know, you've got the reds and the corals and the whites. It's they're the hot, beautiful. I'm drawn to the more bold colors. As you know,

Trevor:

Are you? Yes, I am very 12 years together. I'm just finding out that you like bold, big colors. If you could have a nine foot picture of a painting of a peony up close, Peony anywhere you would, yes, it looks great.

Ellen :

I had this wonderful wood cut print that I just got of a peony too, right? That I have to get framed because I do. I know my addiction is pictures of flowers.

Trevor:

It runs very, very deep.

Ellen :

I love it so much.

Trevor:

And I think one of the fun things we've mentioned in our inaugural podcast for this season that we're working on our scullery, and we're building a whole area for you to cut and to store and to build and flower fridge and all is that not quite ready yet.

Ellen :

Now, unfortunately, quite ready yet. I know we're so

Trevor:

just we're not. I think it's gonna we're just gonna miss it, but we might, yeah, I never can tell. Never can tell.

Ellen :

Yeah, we're not gonna. It won't help us this year, but year, but Care and Keeping of peonies, and how you can extend your Peony season is something that we have done a lot of research and continue to do. I mean, peonies, and have done, Peonies are hardy for the most part. I mean, they come back. They're a perennial, which is and with their longevity, that's an incredibly beautiful addition to your garden. That is. I mean, there's maintenance. That's the piece that they're easy to catch for certain areas. Catch a fungus. We have been very vigilant, particularly this year, around applying copper fungicide before they bloom, before they even come up from the ground. When you start to see this, those little tips starting to come up with soil. Little tips you want to start applying every two weeks, copper fungicide after it rains, or after it rains,

Trevor:

because once it's gone, it's gone from the rain. That's right, I will say that we have struggled a lot over our years here trying to control botry blight, trying to control powdery mildew, powdery mildew, black spot. It's been a journey, and I will knock on wood. I know it feels that we've maybe turned a corner?

Ellen :

away, I don't know. At least this season,

Trevor:

we've also had a lot of work where we haven't added a lot of mulch. I think it's a really important season here. We put a lot of unknown mulch into our. Beds, and they don't like all the peonies beds outside of the fact they don't like the mulch, truly, we don't know where it came from, that's right. So it could have been full of a bunch of garbage. We could have done it to ourselves, yes, but they don't like a lot of mulch. They like dirt and just plain open space, clean. Clean gives a lot of ability to move around a little bit more and have air air circulation is for all kinds of fungus, is always super important to that kind of airplay and air flow. So you don't want anything too densely packed. But it can get tricky, because those crowns blooming year after year and growing year after year, you can get a very dense group of foliage.

Ellen :

The density is beautiful, but also because they are so dense, and the stocks are so long and the flowers so heavy, staking is critically important, super important. And we've gone through some staking.

Trevor:

No, we and we do stake, and I'm not a huge

Ellen :

different trial and error methods we've had. I'm not a huge

Trevor:

fan of our stakes, no, personally, I just don't think they have enough robustness to them.

Ellen :

You know, whose does, who? Oh, the grand arm of all things garden. Ms, Martha Stewart,

Trevor:

yeah, those, Martha Stewart, those.

Ellen :

She posts those pictures,

Trevor:

those steaks. Oh, I'm not talking about the cow kind. She has these double curly Q amazing stakes that have two literal flip arounds, one in the mid and one in the top. They've got to be at their top four feet tall. Five

Ellen :

She gives away no secrets. Not custom done.

Trevor:

They're custom done. And then they create this perfect triangular pattern.

Ellen :

It's like a hexagon almost corrects, because they, you stake them every I don't know foot really, I think it's, it's maybe

Trevor:

six triangles make a hexagon.

Ellen :

That's right.

Trevor:

So triangular patterns,

Ellen :

I wasn't doubting you in any way. I was saying it how I saw it, but they are marriage people, that's right. But there, and the way that she, because of those lovely little double loops, she gets that two prongs support, and then the wire gets, yeah, keep talking. Make it worse, criss crossed, and they provide such beautiful support. She's got a lot of peonies too, by the way,

Trevor:

yeah, we about no more shakes to Martha, but we have a lot of peonies also

Ellen :

we do, but those steaks are Honey. Are you gonna

Trevor:

I should do the forge. I should, I should make them. I need to make them because we can't find them anywhere. We can't they don't exist. Commercially

Ellen :

bespoke Stonebrook Peony steaks,

Trevor:

they're not hard to do, that's what I've heard. But they obviously, they take some effort and some forging and some hammering and some things like that. So that's all important stuff, but I think we could probably get into it

Ellen :

if you're not into making your own bespoke Peony stakes. There's a lot of options. Some people do rings. I think the staking is the best if you have a long row, especially because that criss cross method, which is not as good as Martha's, the one that we've got going. Who's and who's are, quite frankly, they provide the support that these big flowers really need.

Trevor:

They really need the structure. They need the support, right?

Ellen :

And you can split peonies in the fall. Dividing can happen in the fall, but if we really talk about how you get them from the beginning, you're right. It's soil is always key. Ensuring you have clean soil, organic soil. Obviously, everything we do here is organic, pesticide free. You start immediately with the copper fungicide. When you start to see those tips coming out of the soil. Also do it again. Reapply when it rains, but it's about every two weeks, and then they start to come up, and they're looking glorious, and you start to see those buds on there. Now for all of them, this is always a very hard decision that I have to make, which is removing buds. I have that problem with all flowers. We know that when

Trevor:

it's almost sacrilegious, it's a real violation,

Ellen :

like thinning radishes and carrots, it's like I just the wasting of the thing, let it grow. But with peonies, they are heavy flower. And the Jan van Lewins that are in our path and are in the back of the house, they are very strong stem that they have. And the main flower is so big and beautiful, but we'll get a lot of side buds, and they also can get pretty big. Now, if you start to snap those off as they grow, it actually puts more strength and energy into the main flower. It's your choice. I'm not pushing you. You make your decisions. But I've been trying, particularly with those flowers, to get those little buds off the side as they're growing again, it's up to you, no mulch. And then once you bloom, after that season's done, you cut those off. And then in the fall, we cut them all the way down. I

Trevor:

I have a question, yeah, is it Jan, or is it Jan? Oh, it's probably yawn. I would imagine it's yawn. I agree with everything you said prior to that, by the way, gotta be Dutch, right?

Ellen :

Curious. Has to be to be a young John Van Lewin, yeah, you're gonna do a Dutch accent.

Trevor:

No, I'm not

Ellen :

okay. Thank you. But I Is it just because you can't.

Trevor:

Wow, that's a real throwdown.

Ellen :

12 years. There it is.

Trevor:

Friends, wow, yeah. Well, next episode, I will do an entirely Dutch accent. I apologize from every top to the bottom. Apologize to everyone. Will be amazing.

Ellen :

I apologize to everyone. But here's the other fun but here's the other fun part about peonies, which, again, we just, I just started experimenting with last year, and why I'm very excited for a flower fridge, but you can do this with any refrigerator, really, that you can keep them for up to three months, if you can cut during the marshmallow stage.

Trevor:

Now, the critical part too early, and it's kind of like, Oh, wait. Is it right now? Is it? Is it next week? Is it now? Is it some of this, like we always say, requires experimentation

Ellen :

and constant watching, really, because you could not have a marshmallow in the morning, and then at night, it could turn into a marshmallow. Well, what is a marshmallow? Well, it's really when you start to see the color emerging in the bud. And it's probably depending on the variety, the size of a ping pong ball, maybe a little bit smaller, and it has a squishy quality to it, so it's really has the feeling of marshmallow texture.

Trevor:

And you definitely can see color. Yes, you have to see color.

Ellen :

If it's hard, right? And it that color has not emerged, then it's not a marshmallow. But if you do see that, then you cut the stem. I recommend kind of taking the leaves off. So stripping the leaves from the stem, you can wrap up those Some people use. I hate using plastic, because we're always trying to reduce our single use plastics. You could probably wrap up in floral paper, or you throw them in the fridge, just stack them on top of each other as they are. And some say you can keep them up to three months. All you do, if you want to use them, bring them out of the fridge, obviously, recut stems, hydrate them in water, bloom and they'll last for about a week.

Trevor:

Yeah, which is, there's few other plants that we have that you can say the same thing for totally. Can keep it effectively for months and months and months and months and that all of a sudden, then boop. It looks just like it was first,

Ellen :

and I can't wait once I have, we have the flower fridge, right? We have now we have no storage, no for anything. So I'm gonna try to do this with some and I'm gonna try to put them in the basement, in the cooling side, and maybe down in that little party fridge we have. I don't know, we'll see, but I'm interested to see what varieties last longer than others. And we have, since, we have so many different varieties, and then trying it at a month, trying it at two months, three months, to see how the bloom goes. But that's pretty incredible. I mean, we tried a little bit of that with tulips this year. They don't last as long in the storage part of it, but that's another flower that you can extend your season by doing some of these techniques. But peonies. I mean, have peonies through August, that'd be amazing.

Trevor:

And if you were able to grow an actual Marshmallow, yes, that would also be amazing. Our childhood very happy. That would be the whole that she never leaves.

Ellen :

Gardens take on a whole new level.

Trevor:

I think one other thing about that you often see when you do see the marshmallows, both real marshmallows and Peony marshmallows. There's also a lot of ants usually on them, and I find that whole discussion very interesting

Ellen :

Lots of scuttlebutt about the ants and the peonies.

Trevor:

There has been a long old standing myth ants were required for a peony to bloom.

Ellen :

I've heard that. I've seen it on the forums. I've read it.

Trevor:

Don't believe what you see on the internet

Ellen :

double check! I have to say, I enjoy Connecticut gardeners so much. This is the time of year where everything is a screenshot of something green. That's right with the caption. What is this? It's my favorite.

Trevor:

And do I need to get rid of these ants? Are these ants harming my peony? Right? Are these ants exactly what I need? Yep, but it is 100% not a bad thing to have ants on your peonies. They are not required. There is no need to have...

Ellen :

Why is it okay to have ants on your peonies?

Trevor:

It's a, it's a, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. It's called biological mutualism,

Ellen :

really. So what do the peonies do for the ants and the ants for the peonies?

Trevor:

Oh, I'm so glad that you asked me that question. Please tell us more Trevor, as an amateur entomologist, I am more than happy to answer these ant related questions. And you know, I love insects, so much they're your most favorite, especially spiders. It's essentially like any symbiotic relationship.

Ellen :

I have to say really quickly that I flicked the spider off a peony this morning with my fingers. I flicked it off. That was very brave of me.

Trevor:

A gentle flick?

Ellen :

It was a gentle flick, but still a was not a crush.

Trevor:

No, that's very true

Ellen :

that they do good things.

Trevor:

They do wonderful things.

Ellen :

I just don't want them near me. Sorry, I digress.

Trevor:

I am proud of you on this our wedding day to actually have physically allowed a spider to touch your body in any part. Thank you. Yes, proud of myself. It was a big it's a big day for a lot of reasons. Yes, go ahead. No, essentially, it's just the ants will help to keep aphids and other harmful insects off of the peony while it's starting to bloom. And then the ants also benefit from some of the sugar that comes out of the bloom, and they feed off of that nectar that that comes off of the bloom. So you often see sort of like a sticky, sugary substance that comes 100% along with it. But yes, it is biological mutualism.

Ellen :

This is the good stuff. Mess with it. We use pesticides. The ants don't come the right? We ruin our soils. We all have wells here in Weston,

Trevor:

yeah, and I think that's but that is sort of as you think about insects and pests that naturally occur on most plants. It's usually not a positive or we tend to think of it that. We tend to think of it not as a positive.

Ellen :

And we need to do a little more research.

Trevor:

There's there's cucumber beetles, there's the list goes on and on of insects that are trying to eat the very thing that you're trying to grow. But in this case, the ants are incredibly beneficial. If you don't have ants on your peonies. Peonies gonna be fine. Everything's gonna open. No problem at all.

Ellen :

But you don't need them for them to bloom.

Trevor:

That's what I said. Yeah, they're gonna open just fine.

Ellen :

We're stating an opinion.

Trevor:

No, we're stating a fact, stating a fact. This is fact, yard to yard to fact, fact to table to yard, back to yard. Table happening. Your peonies will open whether or not you have ants. If you have ants in your kitchen, your peonies will still open. These are totally exclusive of each other. Yeah, that feels weird, but they do get a the ants get that high energy food source, and the plant doesn't have as much damage. It's a good thing.

Ellen :

It is a good thing. And I know this is a flower too, that people are always so excited about and nervous at the same time. But really, and we're talking about a lot of care items, but it really is an easy grower, and it may take a little while. And I think that's where we I think we're so used to everything being fast. Yes, tree peonies, we didn't plant them, but we didn't know what they were. They didn't bloom, but it took a while. So they may have been planted more recently on but or they were not had a rough time getting what they needed, but they will show eventually. And they're glorious.

Trevor:

Yeah, they're all pretty amazing. Yeah, you know, there's another reason why we like peonies... Oh, I know in this family, in this household,

Ellen :

It was another one of those cool things. Listen, I think we all can relate. When you fall in love, there are things that you are so excited to learn about each other, things that you have in common. Like, I like water. I like water too.

Trevor:

Oh, my God, you love air. Oh, air is my favorite.

Ellen :

And we had a lot of those moments. We had a lot of fun things though, that were real true.

Trevor:

Kismet

Ellen :

Yes,

Trevor:

Kismet connection points. We were very surprised about

Ellen :

And this one was around, well, it was around, actually, first like your great grandmother's birthday.

Trevor:

That's right, my great grandmother, Jesse spray crafts, has my birthday. Do you guys share a birthday, which was pretty cool and bizarre. My dad had mentioned that when we all first met and somehow got on the topics of birthdays, and he said, Oh, my grandmother had the same March 21

Ellen :

which was really, which was a lot of fun. Was really, really cool. And then,

Trevor:

and I, sort of, I started thinking about this book that my I started thinking about this book that my great grandmother had written. She wrote a lot of poems in her life, yeah, and her son, my grandfather, James, illustrated that book, and they had it published by a little little press in in Ohio. And a lot of these were sort of like life stories of the time when she was growing up in the in the farm in Ohio, farm in Ohio, and it's very big holler, but there's a lot of subjects in here, and there's some on Thanksgiving, and there's some on harvest. And it was interesting connection points. But there was one called a peony match, which was a fantastic little poem, which actually was read at our wedding. Yes, Ellen, would you read that poem for everyone? Because it's a good one.

Ellen :

I would love to it's one of my favorites, Peony match by Jesse spray crafts, the gardens in tune for a wedding in June. Of peonies planted last fall, white bride and red bridegroom, all butted. He's tall and handsome, and she small but luxuriant in pedal down satin of white edged with Rose, she will be in most beautiful sight with her shower bouquet of white moths with jeweled eyes and a diamond or two. It. All depends on the day the cat bird will sing. He's singing right now. If his nestlings don't hatch before then, if they do duty first, it can easily be by the Wren, a little ash tree, a new member, he, who plans in the garden to grow, will officiate. Then he'll shadow the pair, unless he's called elsewhere, I know. And the iris in purple, the iris in gold, the bleeding heart weeping with pink lemon lilies galore and a wasp and bee score will be the procession. I think

Trevor:

that's such a good one.

Ellen :

What I love... I'm looking at this beautiful illustration that your grandfather made. And we have all of these flowers. We really do in our garden.

Trevor:

I haven't heard it in a while.

Ellen :

The Bleeding Heart is the one that we need to add as I look at this, but it's

Trevor:

we've got the irises in both purple and blue and gold.

Ellen :

Lilies. Got those, it's and those are in the cold frame. So I love that, because they're the older flowers that we don't touch that are have been here for, literally, since Alice, yeah, and it's just such a beautiful image of this Red and White Peony getting married in the garden. And we got married in a garden.

Trevor:

We did.

Ellen :

It's a great memory.

Trevor:

We've spent so much time here, building this new garden, working on our yards and creating this amazing space. But hearing that, you realize that we've actually been cultivating this delicious life of ours since the beginning, and it's all been kind of leading us to this place

Ellen :

I know, as I was saying it, I realized we did get married in a garden, literally, the kitchen garden for the chef who cooked our wedding banquet. Yeah. Was all around us, yeah. And this is so the essence of who we are as a couple, 12 years later,

Trevor:

that's right,

Ellen :

and what we continue to do. And we're so grateful for you listening and letting us share this, because this has been really fun, because the other thing about the peony, my love is that it symbolizes also a 12th anniversary.

Trevor:

That's right, I forgot about that.

Ellen :

So Happy anniversary.

Trevor:

Happy anniversary.

Ellen :

I love doing this with you.

Trevor:

Me too.

Ellen :

Thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.

Trevor:

Yard to table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse.

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Ellen Scherer Crafts

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Trevor Crafts

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