ようこそ牡丹園 (image intensive)

Mid May is when the Sukagawa Peony Garden, the pride and joy of my town, bursts into full bloom with thousands of peonies after the long winter chill. Entry is free most of the year except around April and May, when you have to pay for the privilege of looking at almost 300 varieties of peonies and over 7000 individual blossoms in all shades of white, pink, red and purple.

Since I live next door to the place, it's not hard to just drop by and take a look, especially if I happen to have a spare 800yen in my purse. Yes, it's a little pricey, but if you're into that sort of thing it's well worth it, because the place is huge, and everywhere you turn there are peony bushes full of showy flowers that are quite impressive to look at.

That's the Peony Fairy, the mascot of the garden. She looks suspiciously Chinese, if you ask me. ^^







The Garden also boasts it's own Inari shrine, complete with guardian fox statues at the end of a line of red torii. So I don't have to go all the way to Kyoto to see something like that; we've got some right here!

For those with green fingers, the people who run the place also sell pots of nursery grown peonies cut from their own collection. I'm pretty crappy at gardening, especially on my tiny balcony which gets sun at the wrong time of day, so as much as I was tempted to buy a bush I had to pass.

Sukagawa calls itself a garden city, and to this end, the plant propagation industry here is huge, with a garden centre just beside the Peony Garden selling seedlings, saplings and shoots for budding gardeners (hah pun!) to enrich their own living spaces. Entering the hothouse area you get to see all kinds of flowers and foliage plants, including some I didn't know existed.





This is where I caved and bought this little cutie, which my dictionary defines as a lily of the valley.

I admit it, I have a weakness for cute things. But it did finally get me off my arse to plant those herbs and flowers I'd bean meaning to. While I was doing that, I discovered to my surprise that the daffodils I'd given up on since last year had actually begun to sprout. Well, I hope now that I've got the seasons on my side that something will come of all this industry. Fingers crossed!