Poppies and Peonies

This beautiful red peony, just yesterday - hiding its core.

Bursting forth in all its glory. It looks pink from the front, but the back is the deep magenta red.

 I think this peony is call veitchii, but I am not sure.  It has bronze foliage as it emerges in Spring and then turns green. Only one or two flowers appear, but it is only about 3 years old in my garden.

Eye catching orange poppies.

 They only last a few days, but what a display!  These poppies bloom well before the other Oriental poppies and do not clump up.  It's a good thing, because few flowers can compete with the colour, but they look glorious among all the green. They don't have the basal blotch of the Oriental Poppies. After flowering the leaves die down and the stems pull out easily, just like tulip stems.  It's suggested to plant them among late flowering plants like rudbeckia to hide the hole left when they die back. But you do not control these poppies.  They appear where they will, your job is just to try to keep them in check!  They resist being moved, the tap root is very long, and only the young plants can be moved successfully. The first year the plant does not flower.

Doesn't this look like a Monet painting?

I tried to take a picture of my fish in the pond, but the reflections of the iris on the surface caused that striation. But I kind of like the effect. You can just see some gold fish and koi (added by Kaity and Geoff) the blue is the reflection of the sky and you can make our a small lily pad leaf.