Peony under attack - c&c please

Snowgirl

Apparently, in order for peonies to bloom, an infestation of ants is required. The critters eat the coating off the buds which allows the flower to blossom forth. Who knew? A friend of mine told me her grandmother told her about this phenomenon - and we all know not to argue with grandmother's right?

Dogdots

I can't see the picture

Snowgirl

Dogdots wrote:

I can't see the picture

Don't know what to tell you - it's there, honestly.

Can yo see this one?

Dee

Nope, no photo turning up in your message, just text.

Before I knew it was bad I used to pour this white powder that kills ants on the peony as they opened. I didn't know the ants were helper bugs. My peonies would have brown spots and loads of holes in them if I didn't put the powder on.

Ooops, photo just turned up,

thapamd

I can see the image too now. Beautiful greens with that splash of pink...great comp!

Dogdots

I see it now

Beautiful photo -- and yes they need ants...lots of ants for the flowers to open up. We had a bunch of them around the house we bought and I took them all out. Took 4 years for them all to finally disappear. Kinda miss them now, but not the ants and the mess that comes with them.

schmoo

Hi Ceci, I had no idea that this was part of the natural process! Fascinating.

Just a note that I moved your thread to Other Cool Shots where you'll find lots of other bug and flower people.