I suppose I keep saying this – possibly every year – but what a strange year for weather. After months of heat and bone dry weather the rain came in the nick of time. The hot weather brought the peonies on extremely early. My first started to flower on May 11th, that is two if not three weeks earlier than normal. The flowers on both the roses and peonies have been wonderful. The peonies stood up well and even the singles lasted very well. I had about a six week season for the peonies this year. The bees loved it. It was difficult to take a photograph of a peony without a bee in the picture. Different peonies caught my attention this year: ‘Germaine Bigot’ with huge flowers – I measured over six and a half inches one day and it got bigger over the next few days, ‘Mme Jules Dessert’ looking really lovely and ‘Mme de Galhau’ with a nice shaped flower that stood up well. It was a real relief when the rain came even though it came in torrents! The peonies newly planted last autumn were in real need of it, and the ground that had turned to concrete has softened up enough to let me get back to weeding!