Peonies

 

While running this morning, I noticed peonies in people's gardens. Could they have come early this year? Generally the Arb's big peony celebration is on Father's Day. They have the largest collection of peonies in North America. Some are quite rare. I assume only the Japanese must have more. The signs are in Japanese too so we must get visitors from there. Strong winds pushed the humidity away though making photography more difficult due to  our wind blown targets. I took my iPhone and Steve had the good camera but with such large targets, you really can't tell the difference. With some of the smaller flowers that we also photographed (see in a post of the future), you can.

My favorite flower in the Arb is the Mountain Laurel. Generally this does not grow in Michigan, only in the Appalachian Mountains (I was too late for its blooms on my bike ride through the Alleghenies last year) but they have a special micro climate in a glen off the river which is warmer and has acidic soil (rare in Michigan) that is good for the laurel. In the past, it blooms when the peonies do but I was disappointed to find we were too early. Not so for the rhododendrons. I took some wonderful photos of them too(see tomorrow). I will go back next week for the laurel hopefully on a cloudy, windless day to make things easier.

Before our hike, we ate at our favorite Japanese restaurant on campus. My salmon teriyaki bento box: