I’ve waxed lyrical here before about my love of peonies. Given all the rain lately we’re in for a show this year. Coral Charm is my very favourite because it goes through so many incarnations, from vivid coral to faded peach to a bisque white with the faintest hint of its original coral. “What is my experience of the flower if it is not colour?” wrote the artist, Georgia O’Keeffe. When I think of peonies there’s so much more that captures my attention than colour –– texture, shape, grandeur –– but it really is that coral that quickens my heart, and the creamy white (the shade of a Victorian nightgown) that softens it. Blink and it’s already turning from coral to peach. Blink again and it’s cream. And then gone.