My Peony has a Bud!

Two years ago I dropped by a garden center on my way home from work, looking for some cheap annuals to put in two new window boxes I'd picked up on freecycle.  While I was there I bought a half-price peony bulb, on sale because it was so late in the season.

Now, in it's fourth season, this plant seems to have really found its stride, already a good 6" taller than last year and - finally! - a flower bud at the top.  I was so excited when I noticed it.  (Although, frankly, I have long since forgotten what the flowers on this one are supposed to look like.)  I love peonies, though - they were always the prettiest things in our yard when I was growing up.

To the left of the photo are some stargazer lilies that I planted at the same time, which have bloomed every year except last year, when they were really ravaged by aphids.  These are another special plant for me, as my first encounter with them was at a bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia on my honeymoon.  Then in 2008 when we remodeled our kitchen and the August heat was incredibly awful and I was incredibly pregnant and retaining unbelievable amounts of water (I peed for ten days straight after R was born - it was like watching a balloon deflate) I just kept thinking, "Well, if we didn't have to leave those windows open I wouldn't be able to smell the lilies."  I missed them a lot last year and I'm watching them really closely for aphids.