Page 20 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021 SAUGUS GARDENS IN THE PANDEMIC Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener P atriotic plantings are popping up around town as Memorial Day approaches. Despite the reduction of parades and gatherings these past few years, the tradition of decorating graves and monuments with flowers is still being observed, and small gardens are being planted at the base of flagpoles. The flower we most associate with Memorial Day is the poppy (Papaver spp.), but there are actually many poppy species. The red flowers that grow in Flanders Field, Belgium, over the graves of World War I soldiers, and the inspiration for the poem by Canadian soldier poet John McCrae that is so often recited on this holiday, refer to a European annual often called the corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas). An American teacher from Georgia, Moina Belle Michael, was so moved by McCrae’s poem that she not only wrote her own responding poem but made it her life mission to make the poppy a symbol of remembrance for this country and others. Actual corn poppies are sometimes considered weeds, but Shirley poppies are ornamental variants available in a variety of colors. We are more likely to think of the large and showy perennial oriental poppy (Papaver orientale), which thrives in gardens in our climate. This species often has geranium red petals, but can also be found with pink, peach, white and other color variations. The shorter lived Iceland poppy (Papaver nudicaule) blooms in delicious pastels of cream, yellow, salmon, orange and pink as well as red and white. We may also have seen garden variations of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), which is sometimes known as the breadseed poppy. It is legally grown for pharmaceutical purposes, while the seeds of milder varieties are often used in baked goods. These are usually short-lived in our climate, but ornamental varieties come in red, lilac, pink and white, and the flowers may be single or multi-petalled. The flowers we grow in our gardens come from many continents. Plants from the large continent of Asia often grow especially well because the climate and soils in some parts of it are similar to North America. A BLOSSOM UP CLOSE: the Chinese tree peony in Allen Humphries’ Cliftondale garden. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Allen Humphries) A CHINESE TREE PEONY: Pink flowers bloom in Allen Humphries’ Cliftondale garden. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Allen Humphries) A HOLIDAY FLORAL DISPLAY: A patriotic pot of petunias and pinwheels commemorates Memorial Day. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) ICELAND POPPY: An assortment of colors of this flower (Papaver nudicaule) bloom in a Lynnhurst garden. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University was especially successful at exploring for and collecting hardy Asian species and working with Chinese universities to introduce many new species to other parts of the world. Peonies are among the most beloved of perennials from Asia, both there and here. Herbaceous peonies which bloom in June are the most familiar, but tree peonies deserve to be better known. Despite “tree” being part of the name, these peonies are not of tree-like size. They typically will grow to only about 5' tall, but like trees the woody stems remain visible year round and the new growth will come from these stems, unlike herbaceous peonies (Paeonia lactiflora), whose new growth emerges from the ground each spring.. Tree peonies have a delightful fragrance and bloom several weeks to a month before herbaceous peonies in our area. In China, tree peonies are known as Moutan and have been cultivated for centuries. Tree peony flower colors include many shades of pink, red, yellow, purple and white. In addition to its value as an ornamental plant, parts of the root are used for medicinal purposes. They are a popular subject in Chinese and Japanese paintings. Allen Humphries has an unusual Chinese tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) in his Cliftondale neighborhood garden. Allen says, “It was my paMEMORIAL DAY CENTERPIECE: An unfurling petunia resembles a star. ternal grandfather’s. I don’t know where he got it. He lived in Lynn and died long before I was born. My father Edward J. Humphries transplanted it to Saugus after he moved here in January 1941. Last year I had ‘lost’ about 1/3 of it but it still has the magnificent large blossoms.” There are a few gardens in Saugus that have other varieties of tree peony, but I have not seen any others quite like this one. The pinkish lilac, fluffy double blossoms on Allen’s (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) plant are very sweetly fragrant. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking.
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