Peonies and Orchids - photographs by Denis Wilson

An excellent crowd of friends turned up to see my little exhibition of photographs of Peonies and Native Ground Orchids.






Jim gave a most entertaining introduction, where he strayed into some lesser known moments of my "background".
He made great play of my having "kissed the Pope's Ring".

Thanks for that disclosure, Jim!



I know these two groups of flowers are not well matched, but I love them both dearly. Peonies are exotic plants - originally from China, (these ones). I had several dozen cut flowers - all herbaceous Peonies, mostly the old fashioned "lactifloras". These are the traditonal Peonies which most people know and love. Several of them were really well developed, and the fresh flowers had wonderful fragrances.

The largest, deep pink Peony I had on display is, I believe "Sarah Bernhardt". Scroll down to 11 November for my photo of a bunch of these flowers, last year, on my Peony Diary on Anni's Blog. It has a lovely, but heavy "old rose" perfume. To me, smelling this flower always transforms me to my childhood, beside my Mother's dressing table, where she had a crystal talcum powder bowl, complete with a rose scented "Powder Puff".





Duchesse de Nemours was generally voted the nicest perfume, having a lighter perfume, with less "musk" scent, and perhaps a lighter, but slightly citrus aroma. It is also a lovely cupped flower, in pure white, with a green eye, hidden deep within the flower.







I urged everyone to take the opportunity to sniff the flowers, as that is one thing which photographs cannot capture.

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I spoke briefly about the lovely Native Ground Orchids which I had photographed this season. My personal favourite photograph is this little shot of a Flying Duck Orchid, complete with a "Flower Spider" hiding inside the flower, on her web. She is waiting for an insect to be attracted to the flower.
(Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

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Thanks to the CTC for the use of their facilities, and especially to BJ, without whose urging, this display would not have happened.